Claire's gymnastics

Last year Claire took a class at The Little Gym that was an hour long.  It was half gymnastics and half dance.  She really liked the class and when it ended last summer she kept asking us if she could take an all gymnastics class.  She did soccer in the fall, but she never forgot about gymnastics, so we told her that we would do it after the holidays.  So we finally got her signed up and luckily there is place really close to our house that has evening classes.  She has been to three classes so far and loves it.  I thought that she might be behind in the classes, but she is in an introductory class and the teacher said that she is a really good listener and doing well so far.  They start each class out with stretching.

 

 

In her second class the teacher had them hold themselves up on the bar.  She wasn't scared at all, but you could tell that she was really listening to the teacher.

 

Then they worked on the balance beam.  She seemed to really like this.

 

After the first week she really wanted a new gymnastics "outfit".  We finally found one on the internet that was in her size and not sold out.  She was so excited to wear it to class this week.

 

 

More stretching. 

 

Here she is on the trampoline.  You can't get too close to some of the activities, so I don't have pictures of everything.  Plus I had Grant with me this week which proved to be challenging.  He kept wanting to go out onto the mats. 

 

She has class on Monday nights, so she will ask a few times if it is time to go yet.  It will be fun to see her learn new things that she can show us.

YMCA Basketball



Andrew had a lull between fall and spring baseball, so for a change of pace we signed him up for basketball.  He has been asking about the possibility of playing, and he even went to a camp over the summer, but there didn't seem to be a good time to do it.  Danny was talking to some of the parents that we know from baseball and they said that they were doing basketball through the YMCA.  Danny was able to get him on the same team as some kids that he already knew which was great.  Andrew really likes it so far.  He is enjoying playing and learning about the game.  As a disclaimer, I found it hard to take action pictures inside of the school gym.  They were either dark or blurry, so this is the best of the lot.  I clearly need a lesson on how to shoot this type of event.  I went with Claire to this particular game and Danny stayed home with Grant.  Danny had warned me that the stands were right on the court and he was right.  They are right under the basket so if there are any stray balls, they will definitely hit you.  First they did warm ups.  Note that Andrew is #11.  He picked that so that he had the same number as Alex Smith, the sometimes quarterback for the 49ers. 

 

 

 

 

His team plays in shifts.  One group five plays for four minutes and then they switch. 

 

They line up like this after the shift change.

 

 

Then onto the action!  Andrew plays hard when he is out there.  He runs a lot and tries his best to get the ball.

 

 

 

Trying to block a shot.

 

 

He scored on this attempt!  He actually scored two baskets during this game. 

 

 

At the end of the game they cheer for the other team. 

 

Andrew was really hot and sweaty after the game.  He wishes that the games were longer.

 

Although I am thankful that he is learning a new sport and keeping busy I know that basketball is just the calm before the baseball storm.  It has been nice that there has been one, one hour practice and one half hour game per week.  Baseball  is more like 7 hours per week.  Hopefully Andrew will want to keep playing basketball.