Gymnastics and Track triumphs including Maris’ Big Win!!!

 Emma did gymnastics all of her kindergarten year and it was so fun!  She got stronger, more flexible and developed more balance.  Here she is doing a popsicle stand on the rings, handstand roll on the floor,

rolling on the bars, 

And doing this cool backhandspring training roll!

popsicle stand again, and laying on the trampoline giggling with her class. We don't have time for gymnastics anymore with all-day school, but I'm glad she got to enjoy it and build her strength while she could!

Also side note, I found this sweet picture Emma drew on our chalkboard.

Owen got PR's in the 100 and 200 at his last Elementary Track meet. Good job Owen!! He hates running but he humors me sometimes :)

Maris got to run in her first City Track Meet this year, and she was SO amazing!!! She decided (with my encouragement and advice) to run the 400 and the 100. The 400 because I knew she would do well (she had the fastest time in ALA 3rd or 4th grade, boys or girls!  And only a few 5th graders beat her time!) and the 100 because they do heats, semifinals and finals, and it's fun to hear your name called and get to go down for a semi!  I was pretty sure she would make the semis because she also had the fastest 100m girl time in 3rd grade at ALA.  At the meet it was late April but FREEZING- the theme of our Spring. 

The 400 meters was first, and Eric came from work to see Maris take.....1st place!!!!

But the pictures loaded backwards so we will talk about the 100m first. 

Here she is in her regular 100m heat.  She was even with another girl 1/3 of the way down the track.

pulling away,

And by the 50m mark she was clearly in the lead!  If you look closely, her tongue is sticking out slightly! :)  She won the heat easily.

Then it came time for the semifinals, and they didn't call her name!   But she had clearly won her heat. Her teacher and I were so confused.  so I went down to the starting line with her, and explained, and the starter called up to the booth and then said, yes she's on the list, I don't know why her name didn't get called!  

Oh brother.  Well it's a good thing we asked because she surprised us all by taking second in her heat of the semifinals!  Even though she was in lane 8!  Here she is, it was a close race, the leader eventually went head a little and Maris pulled off 2nd. I took a picture of the scoreboard, because I was comparing times from the 4 heats to see who would make the final.  And she got in!!! I called Eric and he RUSHED back, just making it in time for her Final race. 

There were so many fast girls!  We were just so proud of her for even making the Final, we were not expecting her to be such a good sprinter!

Here's 3 shots from the video I took.  1. at the gun 2. you can see her in lane 3, in like 7th or 8th place, and 3. even with lane 1 and closing in on lane 2 a little.

And then by the time they all came past us with 20 meters to go, she had passed lane 2 was solidly in 4th place!  And she just kept gaining on people, until she crossed the line almost even with 2nd and 3rd!  We thought for sure she ended up 4th, but then the times popped up and she took 2nd!! By 1/10th of a second!!  And another 1/10th ahead of 4th! That's my girl, I taught her right!! She pushed all the way through the line. :)

And here's the pictures of her stunning 400m victory.  Also taken from my video. The first 200m we watched her pass people one by one.  And then she just kept stretching out her lead!

Here she is crossing the finish line fully 40 meters ahead of the next runner.  And pulling the tape with her!  They had 3 heats but she blew everyone away with her time of 1:25.4, 8 seconds in front of 2nd place.  Only 4 3rd grade BOYS in the City beat her time!  Eric and I were almost crying with pride to see our little girl be the BEST. She was dead after (it was a 6 second PR!!) but still smiling, and within 2 minutes was bouncing around like normal. Cutie.

She is truly a natural. I don't want to push her into running, but when you are born with that kind of talent, you should really go with it and develop it!!

These are screenshots of the official results from the SF website.  So fun :)