Happy Birthday to Us - March 9, 2008

Well, another year has come and gone. Micah turned 2 Sunday - yeah! I turned 41, ugh! We had a pretty good day around here. Since Dayton is still pretty well snowed in, things were very slow. We made it out to church along with about 6 other folks :) Then we went to the Olive Garden for lunch. Yippee!!!!!!!!!! I didn't have to cook or eat grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup (standard Sunday noon fare). Plus, I have left-overs for today. Micah was pretty oblivious to the fact that the day had any special meaning whatsoever. He did, however, totally enjoy eating his cake.

I thought long and hard about what kind of cake to make for him. I finally decided to do a giraffe. It is amazing how many giraffes can be found out and about when you have a 2 year old who is ga-ga over giraffes. Luckily, Michael's had a cake pan for me. Lucky, also, that Micah recognized the cake as a giraffe, and announced to the entire family (over and over again) that there was a giraffe sitting on the table in front of him. That top left picture is of him signing, "Giraffe!!!" The right picture is of the group effort to do the candles - Peter lit them, Sofia helped blow, and Molly held him back so he wouldn't jump into the flames. All in all, a successful venture. Last, but not least, was present time. We couldn't resist putting Micah INTO a bag - a present for Mommy!

The last picture I am posting has nothing to do with our birthdays other than the fact that I took it on our birthday. I just thought it was a cute one showing him up and walking around like a real, little person. No more little toddler :(

Arnold Challenge

Well, I haven't posted in 4 1/2 months! It's about time to get back to business.

This past weekend, Peter had his last gymnastics meet. It was held in Columbus, Ohio at the Convention Center. This was "the biggie" - the Arnold Challenge. This is a HUUUUGE event that was started by Arnold Schwarzenegger (ok, I probably mangled his last name) years ago. It has grown to encompass something like 37 different sports (weight lifting, body building, gymnastics, martial arts, competitive cheerleading, fencing, etc.), with 17,000 participants, and 150,000 spectators! Peter was so excited about this - I'm surprised he slept at all the night before. I finally managed to get videos of most of his routines. I have been trying all season, but the positioning has been terrible. I am in the process of trying to post these videos. Be patient, I'm doing my best!

For those of you who don't know about Peter - he is competing for Stars Gymnastics in Dayton, OH, Level 5. He did qualify for the state meet, but at this point, we don't know if the gym is going to be sending the boys to the state meet :( I have been looking at the websites for some of the other gyms that he has been competing against. Some of them have the kids in Peter's level practicing 10 - 12 hours a week! Peter goes 4 hours a week with an additional, optional, 2 hour "open gym" practice on Saturdays. He has been placing consistently in everything but the pommel horse. I think he's doing great when you look at the competition. Funny - people always talk about the parents pushing the kids. With him, it's the opposite! He is begging us to find a gym that will LET him practice 12 hours a weekwhen we move to California. Todd and I are having a hard time convincing him that this needs to be for fun . . . he needs to have a little bit of balance in his life!

I seem to be having a bit of luck posting these routines. Enjoy! (the ones highlighted in blue have been successfully done - it's taking about 45 minutes per video, grrrr)

Peter's Parallel Bars Routine
Peter's High Bar Routine
Peter's Floor Routine
Peter's Rings Routine