Gymnastics Madness!

Ok, well, I hope you have tissues nearby, because this is hilarious... and may actually be funnier for those of us who saw it, but I still think it's pretty funny regardless!

Laney's daycare participates in the Gymnastics Express. It's this pretty neat opportunity- these people took an old school bus and converted it into a mobile gym. They drive around to different daycares, and the kids do trampolines, tumbling, rope climbing, etc. etc. right on the bus. Laney absolutely loves it, and the best way to get her to go to daycare on Wednesdays is because she knows it's "Gym Bus day!"

Twice a year, the gym bus people set up a "performance" where the kids all get to go to an actual gym and do some of their "routines" for the parents. Picture this: 40-50 kids, 2-4 years old rotating around the gym doing rope swings, somersaults, trampolines, parachutes and cartwheels! Yeah... it was that funny! And, well, a picture's worth a thousand words...

Somersaults on the incline... Laney has no problem with these!

Climbing the rope... which was hilarious, because obviously the guy is helping them. Well, some kids actually looked like they were pulling a little weight. Not so with Laney... notice her hands are below her head! She was pretty much along for the ride!

After every "event," they tried to get the kids to stop and put their hands up... not so much on the stopping, but the hands are up!

The cartwheel was hilarious... not so much a cartwheel as putting her hands on the ground and flailing around like a fish out of water... I'm pretty sure this is as high off the ground as her feet got!

The trampoline, however, she LOVED! Still not so coordinated (hey, she is my daughter), but lots of enthusiasm for this event... and she NAILED the jump up and sit down (I think they call those seat drops).

One thing that totally amazed us all was how well she sat, listened, and waited her turn (not things she's well known for doing on a normal basis). When the lady told her it was time to get off the trampoline, she just hopped off, sat on the side, and happily watched the next kid go. Utter amazement...

The parachute was probably the funniest event. She was not very enthusiastic about waving the parachute. Partway through, he started throwing balls onto it. So, since everyone else was waving much more vigorously than she was, the balls constantly rolled off on her side. So she ran off to chase them, threw them on, and then repeated the whole thing... pretty funny! But, hey, she knew the colors of every ball he asked them about!

And at the end they all got medals. Pretty adorable! We were amazed at how big and little she looked at the same time. Big because she was out there walking around, following directions, and oblivious to the fact that there were people watching. But she's so petite, and still younger than most of the kids, so she looked tiny next to them.

And, well, since you can't fully appreciate the feeling of the whole event in the pictures, I created a montage of video clips from each event. Quality isn't great (using my digital camera, and pretty far away), but you'll get the idea. And, then imagine it repeated around the gym with the rest of the 40-50 kids... kids were just wandering aimlessly around from event to event, other kids were even less coordinated than Elena (hard to imagine)... and the commentary from Josh was hysterical! :) Thus, the camera is pretty shaky sometimes, mostly from me laughing while filming! Enjoy...

Definitely going to do this next year... and might try to find a nicer camera so I can zoom in on all of the action!! ;)