Snow Day- 1st of 2015

A blizzard was forecasted and schools were canceled. 16-24" of snow was projected. We guessed on the totals:

Julie 19"

Becky 18"

Ally 24"

It's 8pm and it's still snowing but the official Boston total is 23" so far so I guess Ally wins.

Our day started at 430am when Cloey woke up and needed to go out so Becky and I both got up and one of us shoveled and the other walked the dog while Ally slept. Back to sleep for a bit until Ally woke up at 630 super excited about the snow.

The dog needed to go out again at 9am so Ally and I bundled up and took her out. The snow at that point was at least 12" and deeper than Cloey is tall. So I got her on the street where she could walk and all was good.

Then I shoveled the front sidewalk. Thru a huge snow bank taller than Ally! Ally was a huge help and shoveled too. Then she asked to go sledding. So we grabbed her disc sled and headed up to the park.

It was a bust. So we walked home swapped that sled for the other one and walked to our other park.

Ally said it was a good idea to walk hiding on to the railing.

Ally was loving it. She was so excited to be out in the snow. 

Up the hill

Sled down 

After a few runs and now much heavier winds and snow Ally wanted to see the view atop the hill.

Then we walked home. Soon Ally was inside and in dry clothes and snuggled up with her puppy and a movie.

Ally did all her weekly home work today and 20 minutes of reading. 

But she still had time for a play date with Stella. They played in Ally's room for a bit and then they asked to go outside. And for the first time ever we let them play outside without us. 

I figured there were two of them, the gate was closed and they are 8 now. They had a blast for an hour. Once they came in they had hot cocoa with marshmallows. Lots of marshmallows.

Becky took a few cute Cloey pictures.

Cloey loves tastes the snowflakes. Like Ally she enjoys the snow too. Becky and I kept our front walk cleared but our condo association agreed to hire some high school kids to shovel the rest and our cars. 

You can see how high the snow is on either side of the sidewalk.

Ally was asleep at 7:05pm tonight. She was super tired. Both Ally and Becky have a 2nd snow day tomorrow. I will go into work. Hopefully not much more snow falls tonight.

But it was a pretty good blizzard filled day.

2nd Place!!!

Today Ally competed in her very first gymnastics meet. And she placed 2nd in her age group – (there were 11 girls in her age group). She did AMAZING!!!!

The meet was 90 minutes away and the start time was 9:00 AM and it snowed here yesterday so we left early at 6:45 to make sure we would get there in time. We got to the town about 8:15 which gave us time to have Ally get changed into her leotard and warm up suit and put barrettes in her hair before the meet. Ally was excited!

Ally was competing at level 2 which is a USAG (United States Association of Gymnastics) classification of levels. Girls around the country do the same routines in competition. Her coaches told me ahead of time they expected her to do well on the floor and beam – and that she was more like level 3 on those events, but her bars and vault were lower and in gymnastics at this level you compete all in the same level.

Ally had been sick this week – she missed school 2 days and was sick for 4 – one day she had a 102 fever and she missed practice this week. So she was a bit nervous about the meet. We just told her to have fun. She had a private lesson with her coach Kate on Thursday to run thru the routines and that helped her confidence. She was calm and excited and very patient.

It was the first time the girls had worn their long sleeve (competition leotards). Ally was up first on the vault.

They perform the same vault twice. Ally scored a 8.5

Then was the bars. Ally was pretty nervous about this one, she doesn’t have one of the skills – the mill wheel (one leg straddling the bar) mastered yet. But she did great!

She landed her dismount and scored a 7.7!

Next up was beam. Ally and Hannah waited a long time – like 30 minutes for another team to get thru their beam routines. Ally had told me last night she was worried she would fall off the beam – and we talked about how she would need to just get back on.

She didn’t fall – she didn’t even really falter at all.

You can see her huge smile – she knew it went well and she scored a 9.15!!

Floor was the final event. Ally did great on this too – she got a little confused towards end but she stuck with it and scored a 8.80. Her coaches were thrilled with her score and her performance.

After the competition was the awards. Each girl was called up and given her scores and event ribbons in an envelope, and stood at the top of the podium for pictures. Then they announced the winners in each age group. Ally was in the 7-8 year olds and she tied for 2nd place! Her teammate placed 1st.  They were both super excited.

Coaches Jessi and Kate, Ally and her teammate Hannah.

2nd place on the floor and the beam, 5th place on the bars and “I did my best”.

We are super proud of Ally. She had fun – which is what we told her we wanted her to do. She did her best. And she is thrilled with the whole experience.

And the huge hug she gave me after the event was worth every minute.

Guatemala Girls January

This month we gathered at Gabi's house for a Saturday afternoon play date.

Some snack!

The moms had fun chatting in the living room while all 5 girls played in the family room. The boys, Gabi's brother Ben and Roxie's brother Charlie were playing video games in there but the girls were engrossed in Barbies for a long time.

And of course the group shot on the stairs!

Top row left to right: Gabi & Alice

Bottom row left to right: Roxie, Rosa & Alice

Such a fun time!