Texas, Touchdowns, and Tumbling

Whew! Busy weekend. Hadley started off the weekend with a Friendship party at school and then a Daddy-Daughter dinner and a movie date (in place of the dance that has become so popular). They had Chick-Fil-A, saw Sing 2 in a movie theater, and went for Fro Yo afterwards. (We think that was our first movie theater experience in at least two years!) Sadly, we did not get photographic evidence, so you'll just have to take their word for it. Owen and I had a low-key Mother-Son dinner and movie at home.

The next morning we participated in a service project that I coordinated for our local Texas Exes chapter. I took the kids and we cleaned equipment, storage areas, pantries, and flowerbeds for the Ballard House, a local non-profit facility that houses patients and their families (for free!) when they have to travel 100+ miles for medical treatment in the area. Such a wonderful organization, we are always happy to do our small part for the community.

It was a pretty nice day, but a little overcast, so we went to the non-crowded park down the street to get some fresh air before heading home. Oh, and we also stopped for some wings at a Longhorns basketball game watch.

That evening, Owen had another flag football game. He's on the Colts this year, and the league is for 5th-7th graders. Through 4 games, they have a 4-0 record, and their wins have not been close, which is a nice change from last year. We still didn't know anyone on the team, but we lucked out with a good quarterback and a couple of tall kids.

Dad had to step in as coach, when the actual Coach went out of town in Week 2.

The league has a new app this year, so Hadley and I have been scoring the games, and the coach's wife live-streamed one of the games. That last part allowed me to trim out one of Owen's touchdown runs to share! He's having fun and enjoying it this year.

Finally, Hadley competed in her first gymnastics meet on Sunday morning! The meet was held at the gym where she practices, so it was very convenient and not too early a start to the day. Hadley was required to wear the team leotard and slick back her hair. If you know H's hair, then you know that's no small feat! She wanted a French braid, so she could roll backwards, and I managed a decent one with lots of hairspray to assist! It managed to stay tucked in place until the last event when the bobby pins gave up.

The gymnasts lined up by height. I didn't realize they do this to determine the apparatus and mat heights needed to help out the staff, but now you know. And we got pretty good seats.

I videoed all 4 of her events, but she only okayed the floor routine to be posted on the blog. All in all, I'd say she did fantastic for performing in her first meet 4.5 months after taking a 2-year hiatus for the pandemic! The bars are her least favorite apparatus (a lot of ab and upper body strength required) where she got a 7.75. She got 8.7 on beam and floor and 8.25 on vault.

We learned a lot and now we know what to expect, if she wants to do another one. She said she did, but maybe not for a couple of months, so that she can work on her ab strength and routines some more. Everyone left with a medal, and her team "won" first place out of two gyms in the session. (Not sure how that's determined, but yay!)