Mini Olympics

This morning when I took Gage to school, I stopped by his classroom to ask his teacher what their schedule was for the Mini Olympics so I could come take pictures. I don't know if I embarrass Gage when I do this or not, but I know his classmates are always excited to see me. At least 4 of them waved and said, "Hi Gage's Mom!" :-)

This was one tall climbing wall! Emma and I could see the top of it from 2 blocks away! There were spots for 5 kids to climb, but the center 3 were hard courses, so only 2 kids could climb at a time. I was worried Gage might not get to do it since they only had 10-15 minutes and they were lined up alphabetically, so he was 4th from the last kid in his class to get to climb. It stinks when your name comes near the end of the alphabet, and Gage always complains about it. I told him we could all change our last names to Larsen (my maiden name) and then he could come in the middle! :-)

Last year, as Kindergarteners, his class did not get to try the climbing wall. Gage told me he was going to make it to the top! I think he was pretty confident because he made it to the top of the wall at the Superslide. This one was much taller; however.

We got to watch nearly the whole class climb the wall before it was Gage's turn and I started to think there was no way Gage could make it to the top. One girl made it very close and then she got scared and started crying because she was too afraid to let go to let the rope lower her to the ground. There were a few kids who hardly got off the ground. Then, it was Gage's turn!

I must apologize for all the hollering I was doing. I couldn't help getting excited. I wish my camera had a mute button that I could hit while I'm taking video!

This was a neat new inflatable that I had never seen before! The air blowing out of the yellow cone kept the wiffle ball bouncing up and down in the air making it difficult for the kids to hit. Gage did hit the ball a few times, and one time swung so hard that he missed and nearly spun in circles almost falling to the ground! LOL! This inflatable definitely helped me in determining which kids were the stupid kids and which ones were the smart kids. I can't tell you how many kids I saw get smacked right across the head with this plastic bat as the kid batting followed through with their swing! Everyone was lined up behind the blue column you see just to Gage's left and of course they kept moving closer and closer to the one swinging the bat. The smart kids would see the bat swing right in front of their faces as they felt the breeze from the swing and their eyes got REAL BIG and they scooted farther back to keep from getting hit. The stupid kids would have the same thing happen, only move closer, and then get smacked right across the face! And let me tell you, these kids were swinging that plastic bat HARD! The lady manning the inflatable was more concerned about getting the ball placed on the jet of air than making the kids move back and I'm quite confident that there will be some kids visiting the school nurse before the day is over!

Here was another neat, new inflatable that I had never seen before. With this one they were to try to get their ball moved from one end of the line of cones to the other by passing the ball through the streams of air being blown through the cones.

Gage had a hard time with this one and didn't make it to the red cone before his time was up. He was just starting to figure it out when the lady made them move out so the next bunch of kids could take a turn.

And here is yet another inflatable that I had never seen before! This one was a difficult climb to the top of the rope ladder which spun around. The adults were holding the ladder steady on their first time through to help them get to the top.

Gage didn't quite make it to the top before he lost his balance. The gal at the top would ring a little bell when the kids would get grab ahold of the last yellow rung.

Each class was to get to spend an hour inside the gym doing the different inflatable stations. Emma was having a really hard time with "watching" all of the other kids having so much fun. There weren't any adults paying attention to her to feel sorry for her, so I finally told her to sneak in line. She found our neighbor girl, Hallie, in line for the jumping balloon and finally got to have a little fun with everyone else! :-)

After I had heard more whining from Emma than I could stand, I finally told her to just get in line for this ladder-climbing inflatable. It took forever, but she finally made it to the front of the line!

Emma was very good at this! She doesn't weigh a whole lot so she barely had any trouble keeping her balance because the thing barely moved! She climbed right to the top and grabbed the yellow rung and was thrilled when the lady rang the bell for her! I had no problems getting her to follow me out of the gym to walk home after that! She could hardly wipe that big smile off of her face!

Gage's class still has some outdoor activities that will be taking place this afternoon. We will try to get a few more pictures, and if I do, I will post them on my blog later. Due to the wind and potential for rain, they set all of the inflatables up in the gym, so the fun day would not be cancelled due to the weather.