The Little Gym

The soccer thing fell through, Rockwall Soccer Tots has been unable to find a suitable location for summer session, so we enrolled Rachel in Little Gym for the summer. It is a fun filled gymnastics class for 3-4 year olds. We took her Monday evening to a trial session that is 60 minutes. For the 1st 7 minutes she walked slowly as other kids ran and danced, she kept staring at us through the window, I could tell she was embarrassed. But then, she just sprang into action and let her embarrassment go. She ran, danced, jumped, did "baby" cartwheels, played with balls and bubbles. Then she got to complete some beginner gymnastic moves. She liked doing cartwheels on the mats, playing on the spring board for jumping, and when it came time for the balance board she was a little tense, but walked across it with her teachers help. However, when it came time to the uneven high bars the story changed....she grabbed on the low bar and hung there swinging back and forth. The teacher always kept her hands loosely around her waist and showed Rachel how to slide her hands from one side to another, and how to turn around on the bar, Rachel was very tense, but a trooper. Then came the flip, the teacher took Rachel's feet and slowly and gently rolled her over the bar. So basically Rachel's tummy rolled around the bar and her feet went over her head and then back down again, the teacher never lets go. Now this is a sound proof room and adults watch from a glassed in foyer. We could hear Rachel scream through the heavy plexi-glass. As she came off the bar her face was red and stressed. We started laughing, she looked at us and we smiled and gave her a thumbs up. She gave the teacher a high 5 and ran off. She looked at the bars all evening in curiosity. She then decided to try it one more time, but just to hang and swing. Flips will have to wait. He session begins in June so pictures will have to come later. She had a lot of fun and is already asking to go back. Yeah! Rachel also got to have fun at Anna's Cinderella birthday party, she just loves her cousins, it is always hard when it is time to go home. We are looking forward to seeing them again in May for Andrew's birthday.

Camping at Lake Tawakoni

We took Rachel on her first overnight camping trip. She had a lot of fun. Turns out she has a knack for it like her daddy. We spent sometime fishing at the lake, Rachel's bobber got action a lot and as we began reeling in her first catch....it was a turtle. I have never seen anyone catch a turtle before. She really enjoyed her pink fishing pole and we will have to go again soon. We chased bubbles, and played with water guns and we also roasted marshmallows which she thought was fun until she put one in her mouth and freaked out. It was not hot because mommy tested it first, so either the gooey part or the warm part in mouth made her scream out. Roasting fun....eating, not so much.

But Easter's Over.....

Is it summer yet? The weather is getting warmer, the rain is getting harder, and the allergies are in full bloom. Spring is tormenting the Johnson house. Easter was great! The Weaver Fam came out for an overnight stay so the kids got to play hard, hunt eggs, get dressed up and get their pictures taken. We had a good time. Rachel had an Easter party at preschool, I think all the candy has put her in a coma of disobedience though. For 2 days straight she got in trouble for not being obedient to her teachers. We also learned she growled at one of them. I could not help but laugh at that one. But today we are back on routine and she had a great day at school. Rachel will be "star student" next week so we will have some fun putting together an "all about me" board for her classroom. At school each kid was given a palm branch and learned about the true meaning of Easter. As the kids walked out of their classes each were waiving their palm branch and saying "Praise God" when Rachel came out she was quiet. I asked her "what is that?" she replied "a pom" and I said..."what do you do with it?" She thought for a minute and replied "you swat bee's with it!" We laughed at that one too.

Massive Project

Rachels Pappa (Andrea's dad) bought all his grandkids a gym set. So Matthew being the skilled craftsman that he is decided he could put it up all on his own. I must say...I am very impressed. He started at 1:30 on Saturday and worked for 4 hours. Then after church on Sunday he completed it in 5 hours. So all in all it took him 9 hours...not too bad considering on the box it advised it would take 8-10 hours for 2 people to assemble. Below is a photo story of how it went. Rachel absolutely loves it and won't come inside.

Preparing for Easter

Rachel and I went shopping this week to find her Easter dress. I let her pick it out all by herself and she did great! She also picked out a stylish pink sequin purse, it does not match the dress, but hey...she is a girl I could not say no.