Future Olympians

Harry and Penny finished their first year of gymnastics instruction this year, so of course this is a blog worthy topic. If I'm being honest, half of the reason I signed them up was to work on their gross motor skills, balance and coordination and such, and the other half was so that I could visit with a friend every week and go out to lunch after class (her twins were in the same class.) So really it's a win/win. But a lose for Jamie because gymnastics is $$$$. Poor Jamie.

The kids took classes at the St. Louis Gym Center, which is in downtown Webster Groves on the other side of the railroad tracks (I'm sure you would be able to find it, no GPS needed, based on this amazingly detailed description.) They had class once a week for 45 minutes from two great teachers, Miss Nancy and Miss Stephanie, who I am 100% sure I called Miss Catherine every week and only just realized her name was Stephanie yesterday when she sent the kids a birthday card postcard. Oops.

The kids would start off in the big gym, doing big gymmy-type things, like running, hula hooping, parachutes, and of course the giant trampoline and foam pit. Then they would go to the little gym, where they would be taught a circuit and then do the circuit over and over and over and over again. Very repetitive, but repetitive in a good way.

Big gym:

Little gym (all but one of these were staged, obviously):

Their class:

H was one of two boys in the class, the other boy wasn't there that day. Surprisingly, he never seemed to mind. 

And their teachers:

Miss Stephanie (Catherine) and Miss Nancy- they were the best!

I am super sad that gymnastics is over for the year, not only for my weekly lunch date, but because the kids really loved it and learned a LOT. I will be sending them to day camp at the gym a few times this summer to keep it going, and I definitely plan on enrolling them again in the fall. I've made it clear on the blog and in real life that I don't really see myself being a soccer mom, or a baseball mom, or a 'sit in the heat and drive all over the damn place and listen to your kids be screamed at by strangers' sport mom, but I think I could be a gymnastics mom. I really hope H and P stay interested in gymnastics, until they start doing back handsprings on a balance beam or something and I grow a gray hair every time envisioning them breaking their necks. Then the interest can end.