End of Year Shows

E had 2 End of Year Shows, one for Kindergarten and one for Gymnastics. For her kindergarten show 2 of the 4 Kindergarten classes, went on stage and sang songs and recited some poems for the parents. Afterwards, the parents saw a slideshow of the kids throughout the year. It was fun seeing how much they have grown from the beginning of school to the end. Here are some photos of E..

As you can see by this photo, E is the probably the smallest one in the whole kindergarten class. She will just have to get used to being in the center front.

E's teacher, Mrs. W. E just loved her!

E's second end of year show was for Gymnastics. She is currently on our gyms 1st level pre-competition team. She has come a long way this year. Her class was small with only 4 girls and these girls became the best of friends. E also became quite the little gymnast this year gaining some very good skills. This summer she will be moving up to the next level of pre-competition team. She is excited and nervous at the same time, but I'm sure she will do fine. She no longer cries in class (she now says crying is for babies and she's a big girl now). Here are some photos of E demonstrating some of the skills that she has worked on during the year.

E right before the show.

Showing some of her bar skills that she learned this year. She's pretty strong so she does well on the bars because it requires lots of upper body strength.

Doing pullovers. She did 5 of these in a row.

One of E's strengths is her handstand. Here she is doing a handstand to a forward roll.

Backward Roll

Beginning of her little floor routine.

They have to climb the rope in class. She is now coming down with no feet.

Beam

What you don't see is E holding her handstand on the beam after the coach removed her hands.

Some vault skills. They really don't work on vaulting too much at this stage because they are so small. They just work on some of the skills needed like handstands and such.

E with her trophy and flowers at the end of the show. She was so proud of herself and so were we. Last year she didn't want to do some things (like dance) in front of the crowd but this year she didn't have a problem. She has grown so much!!

Last Day of School

Another school year has ended. Today is the last day of school for M. This year was a little more challenging for her academically. Not as easy as 1st grade and more was expected from the kids. We had some struggles with her study habits but in the end she ended up doing well. She is now officially a 3rd grader. Below are photos from her first day of school and from today.

First day of school, Sep 3, 2009

Last day of 2nd grade, June 11, 2010

E's last day of kindergarten was yesterday. She is now officially a 1st grader. She has changed so much over the past school year. Academically she is doing very well so I have no worries about her in 1st grade. She has matured so much too and is a very pleasant, kind little girl. Next year I will have both kids in school all day. It will be an adjustment not having someone home during the day but I think I'll manage :)

First day of Kindergarten, Sep 3, 2009

Last day of Kindergarten, June 10, 2010

March,April, and May Updates

I'm sure you can figure out by the photos below that the months of March, April and May were spent going to gymnastics meets. With each meet, M improved. She totally surprised me (and even her coaches) when she qualified at sectionals on April 24 for states. Prior to sectionals her highest overall score was 31.35. To qualify for states you need 33 or above. M scored 33.475 with her highest scores in Beam and floor. She competed at States on May 16 and scored over 33 again. She ended her season on a very high note for her and she was proud of her accomplishments. The photos below are from many of the meets during the last 3 months.

Her level 5 team won first place at this meet. A great accomplishment since the majority of the members of the team are 7-8 year olds.

M's floor routine at the Once UPon a Time meet.

Spring in the Mountain Meet.

Erin played her violin for her friends Birthday. This was the first time she had played in front of a group of people. She did awesome!!

Bar Routine, Tri-State Meet

Beam Routine at Sectionals. She scored an 8.625 her highest all season!

Sectional Meet.

Bar Routine at Sectionals.

The Level 5 team at States. All of the girls qualified for states that went to sectionals. They all did a great job!

M waiting to do her bar routine at States.

Bar Routine at States

Having some fun after the State Meet.

My only quilting activity during this time, was my 2 charity quilt donates to the Love Without Boundaries Auction held in April. Below are the 2 quilts that I donated for the auction.

February Update

Since I have not been very good at keeping this blog updated on a regular basis, maybe I'll do better if I do a monthly update. We shall see if I can keep that up :).

February has been a busy month. Both girls had birthdays this month. M turned 8 and E turned 6. Our schedule is so hectic that I couldn't even find a timeframe to have birthday parties until about April. Both girls agreed on getting a Wii for their birthday in exchange for a party. Yea! that took a lot of extra pressure off me to try to figure out some kind of party for them. We did a little celebration for E's birthday at a Chinese New Year event that we attended that was on her birthday. She was excited to have everyone sing Happy Birthday to her that evening.

Snow has also been a huge factor this month. We were hit hard at the beginning of the month with 20 inches of snow in one night. School was cancelled for 4 days that week. We still have lots of snow on the ground today. I'm so ready for Spring!!!



M has been busy with gymnastics this month. She had a meet on Jan 30 in Erie and a meet on Feb 19 in Columbus, OH. She was suppose to also have a meet on Feb 6 but that was cancelled due to our huge snowstorm the evening before. She is improving with every meet. She's not the best gymnast on the team but that doesn't seem to bother her. She is still motivated to go to all the practices and try to improve her scores.

M's level 5 team

M has also been busy dancing. Her Chinese dance school does lots of different performances all around town in addition to their annual recital. M did her duet dance on Feb 20 and also did her group and duet dance at another event on Feb 21. Her annual recitial is this Saturday. Between gymnastics and dance, she is one busy girl (and I'm one busy mom).

Duet dance, Picking Flowers

Happy New Year!

We ended 2009 with a bang! Spent the last 2 days with lots of activities. M had her first gymnastics meet on Dec 30. We ended spending almost 5 hours at the gym that day. M did a great job for her first meet. I was surprised at how far she has come because a couple of weeks ago I was worried that she wasn't ready to compete due to her lack of a few skills. Her best event was the beam. She nailed her cartwheel and also stayed on the beam for the whole routine. Poor E just spent the afternoon playing with her Ninento DS. She will have to get use to be the sibling that tags along to all of these events for now.

New Years Eve was spent downtown for M's Chinese dance class performance. Her school performed for the First Night Activities at the August Wilson Center. Rehearsals started at 1:15 with the show at 6:00. This made for a very long day for me (M had fun). E went with her dad to the Phipps Conservatory for a while so that she too didn't have to hang out for another 5 hours. All the girls in M's class did a great job on their dance "Happy Little Tibetan Girls". After her show we walked around the cultural district to enjoy some of the other First Night activities. We didn't stay until Midnight because the girls were winding down. I was actually asleep by midnight myself.

M's Chinese Dance Costume

The "Happy Little Tibetan Girls" during rehearsal