GymFest

Waaaaay back in June, as the kids were wrapping up their season of gymnastics, Leah and Adam wanted to participate in GymFest.  They begged, actually.  It wasn't horribly pricey (as many things at their gym can be), so we signed them up, and headed over on a Saturday morning of fun.

Or so we thought.  But when we realized it was basically a gymnastics competition for beginners, complete with score-assigning judges and hundreds (hundred?) of spectators, it got real intimidating pretty quick.

Each of the 15 or so girls that had signed up (ranging in ages from 5 to 12) performed a routine on the floor, beam, vault, and bars.  Leah's favorite routine was the beam, and she did a great job of it!

For the boys it was the horse, rings, parallel bars, and high bar.  Adam, being the non-competitive (somewhat oblivious) monkey that he is, had no problem performing and "competing" against one other little boy.  At the awards ceremony, the two boys took turns swapping between first and second place for each event.  Adam took the overall 1st place prize, which was so fun!  He got a ribbon for each event, and even a trophy!

And Leah swapped around between with the 15 girls for 4th, 5th, and 6th place.  There were several girls in each spot for each event.  When she first got close enough to talk to me, she said in a somewhat panicked tone, "Mommy, this is not at all like I thought it would be."  She thought it would be more of an open gym event, where she could walk around to each event and show me- and just me- the routines she had taken so much time and practice to learn.  But with a few encouraging words and hugs, she got back into the competition, and did great!  She finished the whole event, and came home with a stack of ribbons and a smile on her face.

And I was SO proud of both of them that day!  I think the excitement of summer and the end of school overtook the blog around that same time, and it's always nice to post about things that we do that are fun, and successful and areas in which we excel.  But this event was even more important than any of that, because in our family, we don't quit!  And we can do hard things! And the day of GymFest Leah and Adam both showed that they were willing to do something hard, even when it would have been easier to give up.  And that is definitely something worth blogging about!