Owen got stung by a wasp.  It swelled up so fast, and Owen was just crying, "Owie my foot" over and over, that I thought he had sprained it.  Then we saw the tiny dot, and Erik pulled out a stinger.  Poor little guy limped around the rest of the day.

The Smoosh may have gotten smooshier.

The Olders sure do like the Youngest.

The lawn got its last mow of the season.  Taking all safety precautions necessary: boots and a bike helmet of course.

And the gymnastics bus came by again. 

The teacher we've taken gymnastics classes from for the last several years through Mapleton decided to change directions a bit.  She moved to a local gymnastics place and took over the mobile gymnastics bus with her son.  We set it up for the month of June.  So each Wednesday, the gymnastics bus parked in front of our house and we had classes with our neighbors!  There was such a huge response, that we had to split the group into 2 classes.  It was a lot of fun, and the boys enjoyed it lots.  They loved watching out the window each Wednesday for the bus to show up.  We love Teacher Deana, and she once again did a great job with the kids.

9 of the 14 kiddos.

I think I’ve blogged about gymnastics a few times.  It runs in sessions, 2 each year.  Sam has been doing it since he was two.  This session, Owen was old enough to go to his own class!!  I had wanted to do Owen’s class during Sam’s school, and then O could just hang out during Sam’s Wednesday class.  Timing didn’t quite work out for that, so I ended up signing the boys up for back to back classes.  We will not do that again.  It is full on exhausting for me (and being sick this entire session was pretty dang rough) and it pushed up right against lunch and naptime.  So after almost 2 hours, O was usually done and I think we only made it to the end of his class twice.  Which is ok, because the first time he got a stamp on his hand, he FREAKED out and spent the next hour scraping at his hand trying to rub it off.

Regardless, the boys still LOVED it.  Samuel’s class is nice because I just to sit back and watch.  Owen is usually great about hanging out with me, and the teacher is great about O checking out the equipment when he gets restless, even if it isn’t his class yet.  Then during O’s class, Sam always packed some toys and a snack.  There were two other boys with younger sibs, so the three of them always had fun in the back during the “baby” class.

This time around, Samuel finally got really good at things that require arm strength, not his best area before.  This was this first session he was able to swing on the parallel bars with straight arms.  It was also the first time he did a handstand with his arms straight, and the first time I saw him do this . . .

{Which will be a video when I finally get it off my phone.}

On the very first day of class, when the moms and kids all sat on the mats and started stretching and doing the other activities, Owen just laughed and laughed.  He loved it.  I think this was the first time he and I did something so involved together, just the two of us, and it was great.  Owen likes to jump.  And jump and jump and jump.  Everyone was pretty taken back by the heights this little guy would jump off of all on his own.  And even when there were things that weren’t really for jumping, he’d still jump off.  He’s just our crazy jumper!  Owen was also super good at the balance beams.  He would full on run down the wider one.

{Again, more video on my phone.  One day.}

So the spring session always ends with a program.  Owen was not so excited about that part.  He prefered to watch Sam and then show Dad his tricks afterwards.  And at the very end, he did go with all the other kids to line up, take a bow, and get their medals.  It was a really cute little performance, and I felt like such a proud mama.  Seriously, I know, I’m such a cheeseball.  It’s also always really fun to let Erik see what we are to up during the day without him.

We recently finished our fifth round of gymnastic classes.  But this was the first time there was a performance!  Samuel got his very own t-shirt (that he asks to wear every single day) and got to show off what he has learned with some of the other kids.  Samuel was beyond excited to show Daddy all his gymnastics tricks and bring cookies to share with his gymnastics friends.  And I was so beaming proud of my Samuel! 

Samuel was one of the oldest in the 18 months to 3 years old class.  By now, he had been around the block a few times and was pretty comfortable with the class and Teacher Deena.  She was great about asking Sam for help, having him demonstrate, and giving him things to do that were a bit trickier.  Sam might have let that get to his head a bit.

(Have you noticed Sam’s socks yet?  He NEEEEDED a red race car sock so he could go very fast at gymnastics like McQueen.)

In the fall session, we had several other friends in our class.  So this time Sam spent the first few weeks asking where Gavin and Jacob were.  We were so glad cutie pie Leah was still there, though!

At the end, everyone got a medal.  Sam thought it was oh so cool.  He came home and proudly hung it from the shelf in his room.

It was so super cute, and it was so super fun to watch my crazy little boy who is so super grown up!  We can’t wait until next fall when it starts up again!!