Etta's First Gymnastics Meet

Before Etta broke her ankle we paid for two gymnastics competitions and were lucky enough that she'd have three weeks to prepare for her first meet after the cast was removed.  Then she goes and sprains her good ankle last Friday.  So, she no longer has a good foot!  She's been off her foot all week long and will have to take next week off too.  But, since we had already paid for the Flip for a Cure meet hosted by our gym Go For It USA, we were going.  Etta's coach figured she could do the bar routine since she doesn't have a dismount, the vault on the air board instead of the spring board, and the beam minus her dismount.  This morning she told me she wanted to do her floor routine also.  I told her it was up to her coach.

 

The first event was vault and unfortunately it was really far away so I wasn't able to take pictures or get a video.  Luckily she was able to warm up with several practice vaults because it wasn't looking good.  But, she ended up getting a 8.7 and got 5th out of 10 girls.  Let me just preface, there were some older girls in that group.  I wouldn't be surprised if there were some 10 year olds.

Next was bars which I was able to get a video of.  She was originally given an 8.2 but her coach disputed the score and it was changed to 8.7.  She ended up getting 6th out of 10.

 

 

Next was beam.  Oh boy.  It started out great then she fell on her handstand and went downhill from there.  It was so bad I can't even put it on my blog.  She got a 7.6 and got last place.  No surprise.

 

Her last event was floor and her coach let her do it.  Good thing too because that was her best score of the night, a 9.05.  Her BFF got 9.1 which was the highest score.  Mackenzie got first and Etta got second!

 

I sure did learn a lot today.  I kept track of all 10 girls' scores so I could figure out what place everyone got plus it will be great for Etta to compare her future scores with.

5th place in vault.  Check out the much bigger girls she's against! 

 6th place in bars

 

2nd on floor for Etta and first for Mackenzie! 

7th place overall.  Not bad for a girl that is three weeks out of a cast and with a sprained ankle.  Now if only Etta could realize just how wonderful she did today. 

Etta and Mackenzie

 

Luckily Etta doesn't have another competition until February 24th.  This will give her foot time to heal and prepare for it.  Let's hope she does even better at that one.  Good job Etta!

Etta's 7th Birthday Party

Etta had her birthday party the Saturday before her real birthday.  It was strange celebrating her birthday before she actually turned 7 but it was to accommodate her first gymnastics competition scheduled for the Saturday after her birthday.  I didn't want to have a huge party at the house or any other location so we decided to have a few girls come for a sleep over. Of course there were several more people she wanted over to celebrate with her a few more over for the party only.  Lots of hyper little girls (plus one boy) running wild all evening!

 

The bounce house hasn't been out of the closet for a long time.  It got tons of use at the party.

We created a Monster High game, Pin the Earring on Operetta.

Chloe's turn

The girls' art teacher (Amazing Star Girl) came to face paint!  She used a picture of Operetta to customize Etta's face painting.

 Etta as Operetta.

 Chloe as Abbey Abominable.

Everyone finished! 

Blowing out her 7 candles. 

Big smiles for all the presents. 

More Monster High dolls. 

A color yourself Monster High purse.

 

It was a late night at our house that night.  I think all the girls fell asleep by midnight and were up at 7:30 the next morning.  We made a special pancake breakfast and started calling all the parents.  We were thankful for Martin Luther King Jr day the next day.  We needed the extra day for recovery.  But, it was worth it seeing all those smiles and hearing all the giggles.

Preparing for Etta's Birthday Party

Etta's 7th Birthday Party has been in the making for a long time.  That's if you include all the conversations I've had with myself over the topic.  Do I do another big party with all our friends?  Do I keep it small and let her invite a friend or two over for a sleep over?  Of course every time I brought it up Etta would mention she wants everyone she knows to be there and why not let them all sleep over too?  It's funny how kids can't think practically.  I suppose that's my job.

I've been avoiding Monster High since last year when Etta was exposed to it by her best friend from school.  Of course since her best friend had them...she needed them too.  Let's just clear the air, some of those Monster High dolls are freaky and ugly.  Why would I want to pay money for those?!?!

I told her she could have them, only if I wasn't the one buying them.  Turns out grandma and grandpa sent me money to buy the girls' Christmas presents and what did they end up getting with that money?  Monster High dolls.  The beginning of the end I tell ya.  It didn't help that I rented Ghouls Rule from Red Box one day.  After watching the movie with them I decided Monster High isn't so bad after all.

Back to Etta's birthday party, when I asked her what she wanted, she told me a Monster High party.  I made Monster High invitations, I ordered both the girls some costumes, and prepared myself for a party play a sleep over with several close friends.  Here are the girls trying out their costumes.



 

Here is Operetta.  For obvious reasons, this is Etta's favorite Monster High.

 Chloe as Abbey Bominable.  I can't find a wig anywhere, so she had to do with her own hair.

 Etta trying on Ghoulia Yelps, the smartest Zombie ever!  This one is pretty cool too.

We decided that Ghoulia's wig would do for now, Chloe is throwing ice at you!

Zelzah Shrine Circus

It has been too long since I last blog.  Mainly because Blogger hasn't allowed me to download pictures from our computer to a new post.  Obviously I have lots of pictures to download and therefore haven't been able to post anything new.

Two weeks ago we went to the Zelzah Shrine Circus at the Orleans.  It's been a year since going to the circus and we all looked forward to going again.  We weren't disappointed.  We had great seats and the girls were thoroughly entertained.  The started off with one guy inside a cage with seven tigers.  Quite exciting.

Who doesn't love elephants?  One of the elephants looked pretty old and didn't like doing some of the laying down and standing up on hind legs which was funny.  Especially when it shook it's head no to something all the other elephants were doing.

This was just strange, girls doing areal work.  The strange part was that they were strung up by their hair!

 This guy would catch porcelain vases on his head.  Crazy!

 

There were some motorcycles riding in a globe as well as jumpers.  It was exciting to watch.

 The circus ended with a man getting shot out of a canon.  That was the first time I've ever seen that!

 We let the girls get their faces painted at the end.  They had a great time!

 

Etta's floor routine

Now that Etta's cast off she needs to memorize this routine once again.  We had paid Etta's competition fee before she hurt her ankle so she has a competition January 26th.  Her coach said regardless she should be able to do her bar routine and we'll play everything else by ear.  She may have to scratch an event or two and not qualify for the overall title.  Boo hoo.