7.6.18

Ellie's Gymnastics Showcase

Ellie finished her first year of gym and had her little "showcase" three weeks ago.  It was such a fun little event, and she was even awarded a medal and a trophy, which I wasn't expecting.  Such a nice surprise, and she was thrilled!

I'll never forget the very first day we walked into the gym.  She took one look at it and then turned around to me and said, "You know, mom, I'm going to need a BIGGER gym for when I get to LSU."  And that was exactly why I didn't tell her the name of her gym was The Little Gym.  But, no worries.  I didn't have to.  It was the second or third week that Mason was with us when we went, and he immediately broke out the "little" gym jokes.  She was not amused.  I wanted to hang him up by his toes.  I can definitely say that Ellie learned a lot at The Little Gym this year, and it was enough to let us know that she's pretty serious about this gymnastics thing.  So we'll see.  In the meantime . . .

Her showcase began with a group routine with all the girls in her class.  It was really cute. 

After the class routine, each of the girls did her individual routines.  The floor exercise was first.  Ellie knew it by heart and had already showed it to me at home.

Up next was the beam routine.  Ellie is pretty fearless on the beam.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

And then she finished up with her bars routine.  

Once the routines were finished, the girls were given the opportunity to do whatever they wanted to for us.  Ellie has been working hard on her split this year.

Goofball had a hard decision to make.  She couldn't decide if she wanted to do the bars or beam first.

It was no surprise to me when she chose the bars.  If you ask her what her favorite is, she'll most likely tell you the bars.  She has worked so hard to be able to flip over all by herself.  At first, she couldn't get her momentum in the right spot to go over.  Once she figured that out, she could flip, but she'd get stuck halfway.  Now she can do a complete flip (most of the time).

As much as she loves the bars, she really enjoys the beam, too.  She has worked hard learning how to jump up from the beam and then land back on it.  Currently she's working on doing a cartwheel off the beam.  Honestly, I don't even watch.  I know she's going to do it.  So it's just better if I don't watch.

And then Miss Madisyn invited them up to the podium and presented them with their awards. 

Mason had a baseball tournament the same day as her showcase so he wasn't able to be there with us.

We're taking a little break this summer, but she's already bugging me about finding her a "new" gym for the fall.  I wondered if, after the dance recital, she would decide she'd rather dance.  But it looks like we'll be back at the gym.