Free Range Family

I love my job, for sooooooooo many reasons! One of them is my Y family! The people that I work with aren't just coworkers, we are a community, we are our own family. Our children grow up together, we celebrate holidays and birthdays together, we support those who need it and praise those who have succeeded. I wouldn't want my little family to grow up anywhere else! :D Speaking of Y family members, one of Alan's best buddies had his fifth birthday this weekend. He just happened to have it at the Y (as do most staff kids, our birthday parties are so popular!) and he invited Alan. We all had such a wonderful time! The party was football themed and there were several of Alan's classmates there as well. Anna tagged along for the party, she did pretty good too, considering she was the youngest in the whole group! :) She hung out with Tucker's teenage sisters almost the whole time lol. Already such a diva… Thanks for inviting us Tucker! We had a wonderful...

We had our annual winter gymnastics showcase this week, among other crazy things. I also had my first ever fully run show, The Nutcracker, this Friday. Both performances (I should actually say ALL the performances, there were five gymnastics showcases total) went very well. I am so proud of all of my students for working so hard preparing for this performance. I know that it was difficult keeping focused at times, especially with Christmas coming up. But you all did wonderful! Great job! Now that I am done with all of my performances, it is time to actually prepare for Christmas! I am a bit panicked, I still have so much to prepare for! I have to finish getting my presents for Lon, wrap the kiddos' presents, send out Christmas cards and make sure we are all set for Santa. Gah!! I don't really have a lot of time to write this post, so I will be sharing all the lovely skills photos with y'all. Thanks for  always being so understanding! :P Tumble One 5:30 class ...

Oh boy, did I have a busy week! I had a total of five showcase performances, plus a Thriller performance for my Saturday hip hop class! How crazy! I cannot believe that next week is Halloween and everything that comes with it: Alan's preschool Halloween party, Healthy Halloween at my work and trick or treating! It is just insane! We need to finish up the last few things on the kiddos costumes! And get pumpkins! Gah, its all coming up so fast! Tumble 1 5:30 class My younger Tumble 1 class did wonderful! They performed two floor routines (a boys routine and a girls routine) and a beam routine for their friends and family. I also passed four out of eight of my kids to Tumble 2, literally half of the class! Even the ones who are staying in Tumble 1 still progressed so much in the 7 weeks of class. Good job kids, you all worked so hard! I am very proud of all of you. Hope to see you next class. Above is a photo of Miss Ariel and I doing a skills pose with the kids. Tumble 1 ...

And I thought that September was the month for birthday parties! Holy birthday parties this month though! Last weekend was two of Anna's friends' birthday parties and this weekend the kids have another birthday party for some siblings we know! That is technically four different birthday kids! Crazy! Ryleigh's Birthday Party Miss Anna was invited to her very first birthday party for a daycare friend where her big brother was not present. My big girl did such a good job too! The party was Thomas the train themed, I thought that was super cute and original! Look at that cake too! Her mother spent all night making it, and it is rainbow striped on the inside too! Wow! I was working the party, so I didn't get to take many photos of her. But here are some from Ryleigh's mama! The kids did an obstacle course, played hide and go seek together, and flew on the zip line! Miss Anna had a blast and was such a big girl! She wasn't even upset when Alan had to leave. Good...

So my wild child son could not come up with just ONE thing for his birthday. He has a love for gymnastics and all things tumbling (just like his mama) but he also is quite  obsessed with fond of Legos, just like his crazy  creative father. :P So he was torn between the two themes. We decided to have his "school friends" party at the YMCA Kids Gym. Then we would invite anyone who wanted to join in to the local Lego store, Bricks and MiniFigs. They could play and look at the Legos with Alan. He loved the idea! It ended up just being the kids, Lon and I at the Lego store, but Alan didn't care. He was instantly in hog heaven! :) Anna went over and played with the big bricks while Alan and Lon explored the Lego creations throughout the store. We currently have a Lego exhibit at our local art museum, entitled The Art of the Brick. One of the artist's creations was at Bricks and MiniFigs, a sculpture of the inside of an eye! It was so cool and entirely made out of b...