Arden - Official Gymnast

Arden had her semi-annual gymnastics show the night of the big snow.  My phone does a HORRIBLE job of taking pictures, but here is one of Arden doing a hand stand on the balance beam:

 Pretty good, but every single one of my other pictures looks something like this:

Arden doing some kind of gymnasticy thing in a blurry blurry way.  Anyway, you will just have to trust me that she did a great job, since I don't really put videos on the blog since I am just going to print it out into a book, and videos don't print very well.  She gets so nervous before her shows, but always does wonderfully well.

After these shows, the gym asked if Arden could move up since she had learned everything there was to learn in the class she had been in.  The only problem is, the only place for Arden to "move up" to was the official gymnastics team.  I knew it was coming.  I had been dreading it a little, for two reasons (1) time and (2) money!  The gymnastics team practices 9 hours a week, which seemed like a lot for a 9 year old to handle.  Also, it is um, fairly costly compared to the regular class.  Arden was very comfortable in the class she was in, but it was true she was getting bored doing the same old tricks over and over.  We talked about it, and Arden was a little nervous to be on the team, especially since some of the team girls are "old" (i.e. teenagers!).  I told her that she didn't have to be on the team, and she could even try something new (Basketball? Swimming?  Tennis?) if she wanted.  But we soon found out that a couple of Arden's gymnastics friends were also moving up, and that made Arden feel much better.  She decided to take the plunge and she started with the team in January.  So far she is doing great, but we are still trying to figure out how to fit dinner/homework/friends around her new busier schedule.

We are so very proud of Arden and know she is going to do great!