You gotta give a lil' push sometimes...

The girls have been asking about getting involved in some new activities. I think its fantastic and was so excited to see their enthusiasm. Specifically with Mackenzie - who is so shy. Kali usually can be swayed into trying anything once. During the last summer Olympics the girls were obsessed with the gymnastics. So it wasn't a huge surprise that they both asked if we could check that out.

I was immediately thrown back into my childhood when all of us girls went to California Cartwheel Center. It's mainly glimpses into memories that I have left, but I just remember we had so much fun, and we'd come home and practice in the front yard seeing who could do hand stands the longest. And then of course, there is the Nadia movie. A heavily abused, recorded from TV VHS of the Nadia Comaneci story. You know the Russian gymnast who was amazing. We all wanted to be her.

Anyway, we looked into it turns out CCC is still up and running and just as popular. So we signed them up for an intro class this past weekend. In getting them geared up I told them about the things I could remember. Hands down my favorite part was the giant trampoline next to the HUGE pool of foam. You could jump as high as you could and go flying into what felt like clouds. It was the neatest thing ever.

So Saturday we head on over, and I admittedly question to myself.. did they move? Downsize? Gosh it seems so small now. There is the "giant" trampoline and "giant" pool of foam as promised, but it sure doesn't seem as giant. Ahhh the joys of growing up I guess. Anyway, Kenzie's class was first, which admittedly wasn't optimal as she was getting the jitters and would have much preferred to watch Kali go first. By the time her class was called she had a death grip around my leg and was near tears. The teacher let me carry her in and sit with them while they started class. For the first 5 minutes she flat out refused and begged me to let her leave. My heart broke in so many ways. I never, ever want to do something to cause her to cry, ever! But at the same moment, I know in my gut this is something she will love, she just needed to give it a chance. So I just kept repeating it to her that she has to at least try. After the kids finished the first exercise the teacher asked them to come stand by her, I took this opportunity to kind of shove Kenzie in the mix and duck behind a wall. She could still see me but I wasn't in the area with her anymore. Man, if looks could kill - she was well aware of the maneuver I just pulled. So once I felt like she wasn't going to have a complete melt down, I went back into the room where Josh was, lined with windows so we could watch. It took all of 5 minutes before she was running around with the best of them, doing summer salts and... well, attempting cartwheels. It was the cutest thing ever.

We were thrilled to see her skipping to us after the class was over, followed by one of the teachers to come give her a high 5 and tell us how great she did. So Kenzie was beaming, the teacher was all excited and said "did you have fun?!" and Kenzie said "YEP!" and she said "OH GREAT! So you'll come back next weekend?!" ... "NOPE!" Oh for peet's sake Kenz.

So I think we are going to sign her up for another week and not give her the option LOL. Because Kali was about to pop out of her seat having to watch Mackenzie get to do it for an hour first, and the second the called her class she was barreling thru the door to go do it, and LOVED it. So I think Kenzie will regret backing out when we sit week after week watching Kali do it!

The first thing Kali said? "Can I get one of those pretty leotards like the other girls have?"... thats Kali for ya!!