My Bar Princess {Gymnastic Meet edition}

My baby girl is a Level 2 AAU gymnast. 

It's hard for me to believe since this seems like yesterday or at the very least last month.

 Lo started gymnastics at 18m. I was very pregnant with MW through out. I remember watching her and dreaming of the day that she would 'hopefully' decide to pursue gymnastics and compete. However, that day seemed eons away. Evidently it was just a blink away.

Gymnastic days came and went until I started working there in 2013. From then on she was a gymnast--her choice. She has worked and worked and this past May 2015 made our level 2 team. She has grown so much. I am so proud of her. And it is an extra privilege I have to be one of her 3 coaches. It's just one of those full circle moments for me that I can't even put into words.

Her first meet had us both so excited, but I think I was more-so. I really didn't care how she did, I just wanted to see her do her thing and she did. I was one proud momma.

Here are some photos from her first meet at the end of January.
Some things to note:
*The gym set up was horrible and there was little seating and made it hard to see let alone take good photos.
*After we bought our DSLR way back in 2012, we talked how once the kids got into real sports we would need to invest in a long lens...guess what they are and we hadn't purchased one yet. After seeing these photos, Chad promptly got one. Love him.
*And now the need to learn the DSLR in manual is becoming apparent, so we are still practicing to get those really amazing shots...each meet Chad gets better. {I am on the floor and not much help HA!}
*Finally, I haven't edited these as of yet. But at the end of the day it is so nice to have these and see her progress, her shapes and the joy she has doing the sport she loves.


Just a few of her teammates. Her Level 2 team is huge. It's the beginning competition level so there is always tons of interest and as the years go on and they have to work harder to move up and progress they start dropping out for other sports---I always wonder how far Lo will make it?!

The started on bars and Lo was the first of her team to compete. The other coaches and I worried how she would do at a meet, since she sometimes can have some drama at practice, but we were surprised that she walked up there and CRUSHED IT. She is our little bar princess. Weighing in at 35# {soaking wet} and 3'8" she can go into beast mode princess and rock those bars. She took 3rd. If you could have seen my face as I stood there. I was like who are you and where is my daughter? She came to compete. It was over for me then. IF she quit right then I was happy. HA! 

Next up was beam. She had a nice routine. This judge was rough. That is the tough part about gymnastics--it is just so subjective. Sometimes it is hard to understand the scores, but as I tell all my girls, you are competing with yourself right now. Get out there do your best, have fun and make one improvement. That is all I am looking for. We aren't exactly training future Olympians here. 

The Handstand dismount.

Lo finished 7th place on beam.

Ah, me doing what I do best...seriously, love my job. So much.

Floor. I just think she is so freakin' cute. She did well, but added some extra stuff to her routine--which I take the blame for, and it cost her, but again she went out there and did her thing. Another 7th place finish.

There is also vault of course but it was really hidden and unable to really capture on film.

These are my favorite photos...the end of the meet!!! All the praise hands. We did it. As a team I was so impressed with these girls. They all did really well.

Greeting her entourage.

Stop it right now...She and her daddy. 

I mean I am not sure any man will ever live up to him in her eyes.

The awards ceremony.
To break this down each girl places and medals in AAU on all 4 events and then All-around. So they go home with 5 awards, each meet. Hello medal shelf. HA!

Bar Princess taking 3rd!!

It is broken down by level--obviously, and then by age division. While she is a level 2 she was only competing against other 6-8 yo level 2s. None of the older ones. And if there were more and 12/13 6-8 yo L2 then that would be broken into 2 "heats." Meaning they would rather medal out to 12 twice than to 24th place...that part annoys me, but there are pros and cons for everyone getting a medal mentality. I will just leave it at that. HA

She took 7th in everything else.

Then there is the team award. Gymnastics seems individual, but everyone is also busting their butts to bring in high scores so the TEAM does well. Team score is based off the entire teams top 3 scorers on EACH apparatus.

As a team we took 3rd! Not too shabby out of 7 teams.

A few candids. Auntie Meg thank you so much for showing up to the meets to help capture these moments!!

Caught admiring her medals.

The hair. 

Can I just tell you I am not a girly mom. I want to be into make-up, hair, fashion--and I do try, but it isn't my thing or passion. So bless her, trying to do cute hair was definitely a challenge. BUT thanks to youtube I am starting to get the hang of this stuff...slowly. Thankfully, Lo is being very patient as I learn.

And that's a wrap on her FIRST MEET!!!

Because let's face it it took me a month to post on her first meet let's just toss in the second one too.
This was our HOME meet. These poor babies didn't compete until 7p Saturday and the meet ended at 9p followed by awards. AH!! Let's be honest that is too late for me! HA!

I will just let the photos speak for themselves.

Oh, this is how MW does meets. I don't think he looked up once. HA! #gymnasticbrother

Me and my awesome coaching glory. ;)

She took 3rd on bars again!!! She really wanted 1st, but we will get there...

 Placed 5th on Beam, and 10th on Floor and Vault.

Once again well done. I couldn't be more proud of her. I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Rewind: April AND May

So let's rewind shall we to catch up on all I have neglected these few months.

Mid- April we had a family wedding in nowhere KS. But the hotel we stayed at was super nice {amenity wise}. And may I add that the kids view staying in any hotel as a major vacation. HA!

 Weddings are fun, but oh so boring to the kids; until the reception. Bring on the dancing and cake and they are happy. Actually we didn't get to stay long because they were running on empty and getting a tad cranky. Of course once we get back to the hotel room they are bouncing off the walls. MW was quite the comedian as we were all trying to go to sleep.

I hope they are always friends.

Look out word a crime fighting duo is on the prowl!

Who sleeps like this?!

I found this app called little hoots. A fun way to capture my "kids say the darnedest things" series. 

What can I say he is my little buddy. I have really loved all the time we get alone while sister is at school this year. It is our bonding time. He is a tad crazy and loves me fiercely, but I wouldn't trade him for the world.

I love her face. She went through a phase of wearing her hair like this. I have no idea where she learned this style but she rocked it. But she is growing up way too fast.

An impromptu picnic with friends at the park.

My mom wanted to take the kids to HOME. We don't have cable, so I don't see commercials and never know what movies are out. I wasn't sure what this movie was about and if we would even like it; but it was good. No Big Hero 6 in my book, but close the message of friendship was fantastic. Two thumbs up from the kids.

Our church did an amazing "Thank You" night for their Kidzworld volunteers at All Star sports. It's has several rides and we as a church group got to have free run. The kids loved it. It was a beautiful night for KS and a great night to ride rides and hang with friends!

Me and the girls on the Tilt a Whirl! Our favorite!!

Lo and MW school of beauty is now open. Daddy was their first satisfied client. 

Ah, gymnastics. It takes over my life in the spring with meets nearly every weekend. This is one of our gym tees and I hate t-shirts unless they are fitted. I learned this little trick from pinterest last year to fix all Lo's over-sized school tees and tried it on mine. NAILED IT. Basically you just lay a fitted tee you like on top, mark it, and then sew down the line, cut off the excess material {make a headband for your daughter out of it}. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. Tips: use a triple stretch stitch AND sew a little wider than your marks so there is more give. The end.

This daughter of mine. I love her. She got this from reading Audrey Bunny by Angie Smith. Amazing book and lesson!! Clearly my baby girl latched on.

Gymnastic meet "coma." All weekend long meets =exhaustion. But I love my job and the impact the girls have on me and sometimes I have on them. It is a blessing.

One day, well, actually since we moved in I wanted a new look for my living room. I was over the "country bumpkin" look as my husband loving refers to it as. BUT, there were more important things to do, update and spend $$ on. However, after 8+ years of the same living room, I got a spark under me and just took it all down. I thought 1). I will never be "inspired" with all of this still on the walls and 2). I am getting pretty good at tweaking and re-decorating with no money and stuff I have around the house. So here we go...I wanted a window pane for a focal point, but didn't know where on earth I would find one for a reasonable price...so I got to thinking about my frame collection that I hoard keep and decided I would just make one. So I did.

I even notched those flat "dowel" rods to make the grid. NAILED IT. I then sprayed painted the glass with looking glass spray paint to make it a mirror. Cost ~$9 {$8 of which was the spray paint!!}

There is more to come, but I am proud of how it is coming along with very minimal money spent. I feel like I am coming into my own on the decorating front and finding my "style" if you will. Each room tends to hold a lot of similar patterns and colors/hues, so I guess that is a good thing.

One Friday Lo was out of school, so we took advantage of our zoo membership. We all love the giraffes! Again another beautiful day in KS. Perfect zoo weather.

This photo cracks me up...the Giraffe is photo bombing us. HA!

My two favorite guys reading together! MW chose reading a book over TV. You have no idea how HUGE this is. HUGE!!!

My little gymnastic buddy now along with his favorite gymnastic bear. HA!

Happy Mother's Day to me! Being a mom is just about the greatest thing I have ever done in my life. I love these two so much. It's been 6 years, and I am still in awe that Chad and I made them. They are such a part of us each in so many ways it is frightening. A huge thank you to my MIL for taking the kids over night so I could get the day "off" to just do whatever, whenever. I ended up crafting the afternoon away! It was bliss. Then the next morning Chad got up early and got me QT coffee and breakfast, it's my favorite--aside from Scooter's but apparently they can't be asked to be open by 730a!

Last Tues we took in a WSU Shocker baseball game. Chad was gifted the tix for teacher appreciation week and since it was my only day off all week we took full advantage. MW was only there for the popcorn. We weren't able to stay the whole time but had a great family night none the less.

Lo: Micah you are a red head. Protect your head!! Protect your head!! 

A moment of sibling love!!

Wow. Long post.
I found this note while cleaning up Lo's room. You know while she is at school and can't intervene as I toss out 100 papers she has scribbled on. This is the first thing I have seen that she sounded out words on her own!! This was something I wasn't sure she was capable of yet.  It says : "Do Not Touch my number without Leighton's permission." I had to ask. And then she proceeded to tell me that even if we did ask she would tell us "no." HA!

Friday night we had Pre-Team and Team tryouts. Leighton was so nervous. See aforementioned fear of new situations and change in previous post. After I bribed her with Braum's if she would stop crying, mostly so I could do my job, she tried out. It was basically just a regular practice, but we moved through all the events with specific skills in mind that we would check off. Based on what we saw the coached would decide where they would fit best. Lo was already on pre-team so the next step is team. I was unsure and still am if she is truly ready, but technically skill wise she is...big decisions. She was most excited about getting a medal last night! I am proud of her and she has been working hard. As an added bonus I may get to coach her next year...not sure if that is good or bad?!?! HA!

Finally, Saturday we went to Stearman's for a grad party. It is an air strip/hanger/burger joint. When we arrived there was an Army Helicoptor parked outside and then were loading up. So naturally we had to watch it take off. The kids thought it was super cool and loud.

And that concludes our REWIND. Super long, and if you made it to the end YAY!!! Maybe next month I will get it together better?! Yeah, don't hold your breath. HA!