Gymn*stic competition started today

The big day arrived.

Competition Gymnastic was starting.

Last Monday they had a mock meet just to get the kids a little experience of what it was like to compete

Katie spend a lot of time smiling and laughing during her routines as she was very nervous.

Monika handled it like a pro.

Monika this week had been giving Katie a lot of talks about what to expect.

I think it helped.  

Katie did great.

So did Monika other then falling off the beam. 

Last year at her first meet, she fell of the beam and got hurt.  After the first meet her beam routine got better each time, so perhaps she will follow this trend again.

 Monika likes when Erin does her hair for the meet

All ready to go.  I took the girls an hour before they needed to be there, hoping this would help Katie as it helped Monika last year.  I think it helped both of them.

 My dad with Katie and Monika before the meet.   My dad went to their meet tonight.  It meant a lot to me and the girls to have him there.  He was unable to attend any of Monika's meets last year and not sure if he will be able to attend anymore this year as it is hard for him.

 Arriving at the meet site

 They are ready to go in.

The meet was good.  Seeing that there is a large group this year, the kids will be split up.  We will never know until the day of the meet if Katie and Monika will be together or separate groups.  They ended up in separate groups, but we lucked out and they didn't do their routine at the same time, so we were able to watch them both due all of the routine.  My camera doesn't take good pictures, so I have none at the moment of them competing.  We have a friend of the gymnastic club that is taking pictures for us and can't wait to get them from her.  She took pictures of the girls doing the floor routine at the mock meet and they were beautiful.  Katie nerves make her smile more and laugh at times.  She was quite comical at the mock meet.  She was smiley at this meet, but managed to keep it together and do a good job.  Monika had a good meet also.  She fell of the beam (last year first meet she fell off and got hurt), she was able to get right back on and finish the routine.  Last year after felling off the beam at the first meet, she improved each time after that, so hopefully that will be the same.

After the meet and finally home.  What a late night as it didn't get done until close to 10 at night..on a school night.  Monika and Katie had great supporters there, they had family and godparents there cheering them on along with the awesome gymnastic club family.  Way to go.