3rd Preliminary Gymnastics Competition

Grandma and I

This past weekend, I had my third preliminary gymnastics competition. This was the final competition before sectionals. If you get an all around score of 30.00 or higher, then you can compete at sectionals. This year, sectionals will be the weekend of Nov 5-6. I don't know yet which day or time I will be competing. My mom and my grandparents all came to watch me compete. It was my grandparents first time watching me do gymnastics.

At this meet there were 21 gyms that were participating. There were two judges giving scores for each event. Before we start competing an event, we are allowed to warm up some elements once or twice so you don't get hurt. My score improved a lot this meet as compared to my first preliminary competition. I had my highest all round score I have ever received as a level five gymnast.  I received first place on floor, with a score of 9.475.  On bars, I also got first place with a score of 9.300. On beam, I received second place with a score of 9.525.  My vault score was 8.500 and is an event that I definitely need to improve on. I have a heal problem and it hurts when I run and punch off the spring board so I haven't been practicing it very much. I took second place on all around with a score of 36.800 and my coaches were very proud of me after awards. I have qualified to Sectionals.

Stretching

Waiting to do my vault

 

Warming up handstand for vault with my coach

Vaulting

Arabesque on beam

On the high bar

Second place medal for All Around

Do you like to watch gymnastics?

What is your favorite event?

Gymnastics Competition

A few days ago,  I had a competition. This meet was the first preliminary meet. A gymnastics has to receive a certain score to move on to sectionals. There are 3 preliminary meets and in order to move on to sectionals a gymnastics must get an all around score of at least 30.0.  At the sectional meet, you have to receive a score of at least 32.0 to move on to the state meet.

I am a level five and this is my first year competing this level. The highest level you could become is Elite which is one level above level 10.  As a level 5, I have to learn many new skills on each of the four events, beam, floor, bars, and vault.  On the beam, I  do a leap jump and a cartwheel. On the floor,  I do a dive roll, a front hand spring, and two back hand springs in a row. On the bars, I jump from the low bar to the high bar.  On the vault I do a front hand spring over the vault.

The judges score depends on if you have pointed toes, if your knees are straight, if your dance is correct and if you are doing everything big .The judges score varies and the highest score you can get is a 10. One of my couches got a ten on vault and bars. He was a great gymnast.

In this competition the judges were very hard and gave low scores . There were about 60 kids competing! On floor, I got first place and my score was  a 9.125. On the vault I got second place and my score was 8.95. On bars, I got third place and my score was  8.875. On the beam, I did not get a medal, and my score was 8.575. Sometimes the difference between first and second place is very small. For example the first place vault score 8.975. That is only a 0.025 point difference! When you add up all the scores from each of the four events you get an all around score. I got third place all around, my score was 35.525. That score qualifies me to attend sectionals in November.


Here is an Animoto video of my competition.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Hiking at Malibu Creek Park

Rock climbing

Last week, we went hiking to Malibu Creek Park with my friend Eleanor, my grandma Tanya, my mom, and all of my siblings.  When we got to the park, we went hiking up the trail.  Off the trail, we climbed a big hill of rocks. On the top of the rocks we saw all of the beautiful mountains.

River bed

When we came down  the rocks, we kept following the path until we reached the Creek. In the winter time there is a huge, deep, and fast flowing creek.  Since it's summer,  almost all of the water dried up so we were able to walk on the river bed. The river bed had many slippery and shaky rocks so  it was hard to cross.



When we crossed what used to be the creek, we saw cattails. Cattails can grow up to 3 to 10 feet long.  Cattails are one of the most common  plants that grow at the edge of ponds. My Grandma knew a lot of things about Cattails.  She opened a Cattail and there were seeds inside it. My Grandma gave everybody a couple of seeds and told us to blow on them  so each seed would fly away and grow into a new Cattail. 

Cattail

Opened Cattail

As we continued to walk down the river bed, we saw an interesting bug. It was orange and had a blue bottom. We walked so much that everybody became very hungry.  Then we sat on a log and ate our lunches. After eating lunch, it was time to go back to our car. On the way back, we saw a hawk soaring high above us looking for food. We had an amazing day and came home very tired.

Interesting bug

Hawk

Have you ever gone hiking in the mountains? 

What did you see?

Wedding

This past weekend my siblings and I were all in a wedding. The wedding was at a restaurant located on a tall mountain. The ceremony was outside and had a beautiful view of the mountains and sunset. In the beginning, my sister and I where the entertainers. We played the piano while all the guests were arriving. When everybody had arrived, my little sister Hannah was the flower girl and walked in front of the bride throwing flowers. My little brother Michael was the ring boy, and carried the rings down the isle and gave it to the best man. My older sister Miriam and I were holding the bride's dress while she walked down the isle. The bride looked beautiful!

 


The beautiful bride

 

View from inside the restaurant



After the ceremony, we went inside the restaurant. In the restaurant when they opened the curtain we saw the beautiful view of the city and mountains. All the children sat together at the kids table and my mom and dad sat next to us at table one. We had to wait a long time until we got our food because the bride was taking photos. For dinner, all the children got chicken nuggets with french fries which were delicious.

The wedding had traditions from 4 different cultures, American, Russian, Uzbek and Jewish. One of the traditions was that everyone had to scream out Gorka which means bitter in Russian. When the audience said Gorka the bride and groom had to kiss in order to make everything sweet. At the wedding there was also lot of music, singing and dancing. We all had a lot of fun and went home very late.

What kind of special traditions have you seen at weddings?

Sleep Away Camp

My sister and I with one of our Counselors

This summer my sister and I went to a sleep away camp for two weeks. It was my sisters second time going to that camp and my first time. My sister liked the camp so much, that I decided to go too. I went to camp with my best friend from school, Ellie. My sister Miriam, and my friend Ellie, and I were all together in Bunk 1. There were a total of 8 girls and 3 counselors in our bunk. We slept on bunk beds and my sister and I were both on the bottom bunk. While in camp, I made a lot of new friends and one of my new best friend is Maya.  She is eleven years old and was in bunk four.  All the girls had a lot of fun together.





In our bunk

In our bunk

Girls Bunk 1

During camp, we had a schedule that we had to follow. Every morning, we had to wake up at 7:30am and get ready for breakfast. For breakfast we had cereal with either eggs, french toast or pancakes. Saturday mornings, we had the best breakfast because we had coffee cake. After breakfast, we had our morning activity. The activity that my sister and I picked was dancing. We learned so many beautiful dances. After our morning activity, we had lunch. After lunch was rest time. This was the time to write letters to our parents and rest. After rest time, we had a special project where we had a chance to try all the activities such as horseback riding, rock climbing, art, singing, and many others. For our afternoon activity, Miriam and I chose ropes course.  I made it all the way to the very top of the alpine tower.   After our afternoon activity, we had free time where we could go swimming or just spend time with friends. During this time, we got popsicle's every day.  After free time,  we went back to our bunks to shower and get ready for dancing and dinner. On Saturday after dinner, we had a talent show. For the talent show the whole camp has to come to the campfire, and a lot of people would perform in front of the camp. My sister and I played Sunrise Sunset. My sister played the piano and I played the violin. The second Saturday,  we did a dance with our dance group. We always had a full day of activites and were happily tired.



From the top of the library



One day, we went on a four mile hike to a library. We had to bring our flash lights and make sure we had on our tennis shoes. When everybody got to the library, we had to color a picture of our self and write something that we do well. When it got dark, we saw a beautiful sunset. Then it was time to go back down the hill using our flash lights.

Camp was so much fun!





Beautiful sunset



Have you gone to any camps this Summer?

Did you have fun?

Do you want to go again?

A Little Bit About Me And My Family

Me and my siblings

My name is Sarah and I am seven years old. I am going into third grade. I have one older sister, one younger sister,  one younger brother and a pet dog, Romeo. My younger siblings, Michael and Hannah are twins and they are five years old. My older sister Miriam, is nine years old and is going into fourth grade.  Miriam has her own blog  and taught me how to type on the computer. Miriam is an excellent older sister and tells me a lot about third grade. I will also be a good older sister to my little siblings. When school starts, we will all go to the same school. We have a big family and we do a lot of fun things together. In my post, I will write about some of our adventures.

My violin teacher is accompanying me on the piano

I have three hobbies, gymnastics, playing the piano, and playing the violin. I  will be competing level five in gymnastics in September. My favorite events are floor and bars and I train for twenty hours a week. I did a guest post on gymnastics on Miriam's blog.  I also play piano every day. My favorite composer is Bach. I will also have posts about different composers. After piano practice, I play the violin and I will try out for the junior orchestra. I will have a post on the violin as well.







I also love to read and my favorite author is Roald Dahl. Sometimes my sister and I read the same books. This summer we have been reading a lot of books about animals such as Black Beauty and King of the Wind. We both like animal books.

What are your hobbies?

What are your favorite books to read?