Day 71: Tumble Tastics trial, painting and plaster fun
Zoe slept in even later this morning. I'm liking this colder weather. We had nothing particular happening first thing today, so we just snuggled in bed for a bit before we got started.
Tumble Tastics were offering free trial classes this week, so I signed Zoe up for one today. She really enjoyed going to Gold Star Gymnastics in the US, and has asked me about finding a gym class over here every now and then.
Tumble Tastics is a much smaller affair than Gold Star, but at 300 metres from home on foot, it's awesomely convenient. Zoe scootered there this morning.
It seems to be physically part of what I'm guessing used to be the Church of Christ's church hall, so it's not big at all, but the room that Zoe had her class in still had plenty of equipment in it. There were 8 kids in her class, all about her size. I peeked around the door and watched.
Most of the class was instructor led and mainly mat work, but then part way through, the parents were invited in, and the teacher walked us all through a course around the room, using the various equipment, and the parents had to spot for their kids.
The one thing that cracked me up was when the kids were supposed to be tucking into a ball and rocking on their backs. Zoe instead did a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu break-fall and fell backwards slapping the mat instead. It was good to see that some of what she learned in those classes has kicked in reflexively.
She really enjoyed the rope swing and hanging upside down on the uneven bars.
The class ran for 50 minutes (I was only expecting it to last 30 minutes) and Zoe did really well straight off. I think we'll make this her 4th term extra-curricular activity.
We scootered home the longer way, because we were in no particular hurry. Zoe did some painting when we got home, and then we had lunch.
After lunch we goofed off for a little bit, and then we did quiet time. Zoe napped for about two and a half hours, and then we did some plaster play.
I'd picked up a fish ice cube tray from IKEA on the weekend for 99 cents (queue Thrift Shop), and I bought a bag of plaster of Paris a while back, but haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet. I bribed Zoe into doing quiet time by telling her we'd do something new with the ice cube tray I'd bought.
We mixed up a few paper cups with plaster of Paris in them and then I squirted some paint in. I'm not sure if the paint caused a reaction, or the plaster was already starting to set by the time the paint got mixed in, but it became quite viscous as soon as the paint was mixed in. We did three different colours and used tongue depressers to jam it into the tray. Zoe seemed to twig that it was the same stuff as the impressions of her baby feet, which I thought was a pretty clever connection to make.
After that, there was barely enough time to watch a tiny bit of TV before Sarah arrived to pick Zoe up. I told her that her plaster would be set by the time she got dropped off in the morning.
I procrastinated past the point of no return and didn't go for a run. Instead I decided to go out to Officeworks and print out some photos to stick in the photo frame I bought from IKEA on the weekend.