A Little Gymnast in the making....

As much as I would love to see our sweet little Mallory in a pink tutu and playing "ballerina" in a little dance class, I must admit that with her independent spirit, it seems that individualized activities are much more up her alley!  She thrives with make-believe on her own, and very rarely finds enjoyment in just "following along".  That is why swimming is a good choice for us right now.  She progresses at her own pace, and only has to follow what the coach tells her, and not with anyone else in the class.

I think she would really like gymnastics, as well.  Friends have invited to places like The Little Gym before, but never have been able to go, for one reason or another.  Finally, the week before school started, we were able to go meet our friends, the Cranstons at a great place in New Braunfels called J&R Gymnastics.  It is a real gymnastics studio- with uneven bars, balance beams, trampolines, and all sorts of other things!  Twice a week, they offer an "open play time", and young kiddos have their run of the place for a couple of hours.  There are of course, a few rules in place for safety, and all the kids (and PARENTS) do a pretty good job at obeying the guidelines so no one gets hurt.

For the first hour, I was so busy chasing Mallory around that I didn't get the chance to take any pictures! But the last 20 minutes, a "leader" gathers all the kids together by laying out a giant parachute and blowing bubbles.  This helps all the kids start to wind down, and understand that play time is over.  I was finally able to get out my camera.

The kids all tried to pop the bubbles.  Mallory is in the white shirt and pink shorts in the middle of the picture.

Mallory was fascinated by how many bubbles the pipe made at once!

She preferred popping the bubbles that had already landed.

Helping us spread out the parachute, so everyone could run underneath.

You can barely see in the background of this picture, but we are all underneath the parachute, making a "mushroom house".  The parents all sat on the edge of the parachute, and the kiddos were in the middle.

All the kids made as much noise as possible by banging on the floor.

When it was time to go, the leader brought over a monkey named "Bingo".  All the kids got to kiss him good-bye.  Here, he is kissing Jillian.

We had SUCH a great time, but unfortunately, the open play is only on Mondays and Fridays, when Mallory is in school.  We are super sad about that, but we'll see how swimming goes.... maybe gymnastics will be our next activity!