Photos from the winter games

Bars dismount


Beam dismount


Cartwheel Lily


Final pose


Salute

Lily's Birthday

Lily's birthday surprise

It was Lily's 5th birthday on March 4th. When she woke up we surprised her with a couple of gifts. She got a Hannah Montana girlie kit with nail polish and glittery eye shadow and earring stickers, all the bling bling a girl could want. She also got a real 1/16th violin. Lily had been taking violin lessons Suzuki method but was very bored playing on a cardboard violin so we took some time off. John's hope is that the real violin making real music will increase her interest. So far that theory seems to be working as Lily plays her violin as soon as she gets up and she has mastered the rhythms that she was not getting with the cardboard version. Last night she was able to play while John accompanied her on the piano in a duet. Considering it was just the same note only different rhythms, it sounded pretty good. Now of course Luke is very interested in the violin as well and he is now playing the cardboard one when ever Lily plays the real one.
Lily will be having a birthday party next weekend out at the Sac River riding stables with some friends so her birthday really gets extended.

Lily did compete last Sunday in the Winter games and did very well. Daddy was able to shoot video of all four events and she ended up with two blue ribbons and two rainbow ribbons. She was very happy with her results and had a wonderful time with her gymnastic friends. We will be getting a disk with photos in the next couple of weeks. It will have all her action shots during the routines plus pictures of her team and a couple of poses of her alone.

The weather here has turned very warm and hopefully the kids and I will be outside enjoying some sunshine today.






Lily's birthday morning

Winter Games

Lily prepares for the Winter Games


Lily is inspired by Nastia after watching her performance


Lily meets Nastia up close and personal


The Springfield gymnastic team and Nastia

This past Friday night Lily got the chance of a lifetime, to meet Nastia Liukin, the all around gold medal gymnast from the Beijing Olympics. Springfield gymnastics hosted the Winter Games and was able to bring Nastia in for a performance. The girls from the Springfield gymnastics gym got to meet Nastia in a private room for autographs and pictures. Lily gave her one of the Chinese braids we have as a good luck charm. Saturday Nastia performed for the crowd. It was stunning. Lily was in awe. Afterwards she said she wanted to go home and put on her leotard so she could do the things Nastia did. Sunday afternoon Lily will be performing with the level one gymnasts. She is excited but a little scared. At this age, it is meant to be all about having fun.