Dance and Gymnastics

I had been planning on starting Ellie in gymnastics once the school year started for a while. A few weeks ago, Joe decided to ask the boys what they would want to do this year...Michael and Adam both said they didn't want to do soccer or t-ball. Michael said that he would like to go gymnastics again. Adam thought maybe karate. I went and looked into gymnastics for Ellie and Michael. I found they had a tumbling class for Adam's age at the same time. It didn't take too much convincing to get them all signed up for their separate classes. The day they all lined up was Monday. Meanwhile, my friend Sylvia organized a dance class that someone in our stake would teach for Ellie and her friends on Monday morning. They learn ballet, tap and tumbling for 45 minutes. So...Monday is an exciting day for Ellie. Here she is with her friends Emi, Sidney and Teia, obviously she is not used to the leotard feel yet....

And then a few hours later, she gets to go to gymnastics...and guess what she gets to wear! She absolutely loves both classes.

Michael is in a fundamental class....look at this series of pictures that make up a somersault:

Adam is in tumbling. I thought it would be fun for him to take so that he could learn to do flips and handstands and tricks for the trampoline. The first week was rough. He thought he was significantly worse than the other kids (who probably have been taking gymnastics for years) and he was very upset about it. Yesterday, he was much happier saying that he had improved a lot and he loved it....well except for the stretching part...which hurt. I don't have any pics of him yet, I'll post some when I get them.

Nate gets to stay with me during gymnastics. There are lots of other little brothers that are waiting for their siblings to do gymnastics, and he loves to run around in the waiting area with them.