Ninja Zone - Gymnastics Upgrade!

 The only classes Owen has taken so far has been swimming and music time at church. Unfortunately we won't be able to get him into baseball until he's 6. I've asked him about gymnastics a few times because Willow's classes have usually had a boy or two in them. Her gym recently created Ninja Zone classes for boys. They had a video on their website and it looked like fun, so we signed Owen up. He was a bit hesitant any time it was brought up in conversation but I was sure he'd like it considering how much he enjoys jumping all over the couches, hanging from the bars/rings on the treehouse, and pushing up with his arms on the bathroom sink. He was getting pretty upset about it the day before and the morning of (but most things are a battle/argument these days....) so we had a 20 minute pep talk on the drive to the gym. I tried to reassure him with the fun circuits the teachers already had set up and we talked to another boy and mom who were in class last week. Despite my best efforts, we were literally peeling him out of my arms for class. He took a good 15 minutes of being glued to the teacher's side in the bouncy house before he warmed up, then finally he was all smiles and skip/bouncing between the obstacles in the circuit. He came out of class with a huge smile on his face saying his favorite parts were climbing the wall with the rope and dropping down into the blue cubes. I'm thinking he'll happily go in to class next week!

 Coach Marla said to walk with their hands behind their back and they did! What!!!

Owen on bars

Owen on beam

Owen on floor

Willow has aged up to the next class at the gym. They start off in the back half of the gym and it's definitely more drill-like than play/practice circuits like her previous class. I think it'll be good for her. She definitely seemed to kick up her effort a notch being with the older girls too! I was impressed with all the things I saw her do for the first time that had never been tried in her previous class - straddle somersaults, walking on the beam backwards, bear crawl on the beam, on the trampoline she did a seat drop and kneel bounce before standing up, and pullups on the bar (I have nightmares about pullups from elementary school still!). It was so impressive!!

Willow on bars

Willow on beam

Willow cartwheels

Willow on trampoline

While Willow's in class, Owen gets to practice his writing =)

Maybe all of these gymnastics classes has given Willow the arm strength to be able to do the monkey bars. I swear she was keeping her ability to do this as a special secret. Neither Chris nor I knew she could until we went to the park with Hannah and Hunter yesterday! Surprise!! Here she is in action!