The Expanded Version

As promised, (sorta), here is the expanded version of our weekend.

It started early. Thursday evening, to be exact. It was my birthday! Yay! Well, kinda. Once you pass 21, it just doesn't mean as much. Here are some pics from my "party":

Do you see Alpha trying to blow out my birthday candles?? I think Beta was headed for one as well. We had 3 on my cake. No specific reason.....







Next, Saturday afternoon was Alpha's first gymnastics meet! It was a "fun meet" which meant everyone got a T-shirt and a trophy. There was no competition. Here she is smiling beforehand. She said she wasn't nervous, but she was very quiet.






Now if this won't terrify a mother, nothing will. Here stands your baby, alone, in front of everyone!








Here she is finishing her routine with a backbend. She can do these really well now.

(The red bars are the railing. We were upstairs and I zoomed in with my camera.)








Ta da! These are the regular gym participants. They all got to stand on the podium and raise their arms and say "ta da!"







Alpha said she really enjoyed it. She looked terrified during it, but loved it afterwards. We got to see 3 upper level gymnasts do floor routines after the regular girls. They were very good.

To finish out the day, we went to see "The Nutcracker" performed by the Classical Ballet Academy in Rogers. It was VERY good! Both girls actually sat on the edge of their seats and watched the entire 2 hour performance! I explained the story beforehand since there was no talking. Alpha loved reading the program with me. Beta was tired and sick, but even her attention was held the entire time! Only towards the last 15 or 20 minutes did she start sucking her thumb and climb into her daddy's lap.

All in all it was an absolutely wonderful family day! Both girls now want to be professional ballerinas when they grow up. We told Alpha that meant she'd need to switch from gymnastics back to ballet. She wasn't so sure about that. We'll figure that out later.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have a video of the routine up. Or a picture of our Christmas tree! (IF we ever find time to decorate it.)

Have a good week, everyone!