Fun & Exercise at Gymcats

My sister was telling me about Gymcats at the Point (just North of Thanksgiving Point).  Her girls love going there during Open Gym so we went along.

Gymcats is a full-functioning gym instructing kids of all ages and levels.  However, they also offer Open Gym time where you can just stop by or drop off your kids (depending on their age) and let them play.  They have open gym for teenagers one night during the week and on Friday afternoons for a couple hours for kids over 6 years old for $8 a person.  We went during preschool open gym which is for kids 6 and under on Friday afternoons from 12:00 - 1:15 and costs $5 a child.  They have a very large open floor to play and do gymnastics on.  They also have quite a few balance beams of various heights, a small rock climbing wall off the foam blocks, lots of bars of various heights, and lots of the foam wedges and rolls to do all softs of gymnastic tricks.  There was one instructor from the gym in there who showed the kids a few things as well.

Tessa used to take gymnastics and loved it, but we dropped it to do dance.  I'm surprised at how much she has forgotten and her inhibitions since she stopped.  She refused to walk on the balance beam without holding my hands and she was scared to jump in the foam blocks.  She would only slide down the mat into the blocks.  Her favorite part was the trampoline.  I find it funny that I paid money for her to jump on the trampoline over half the time we were there when we have one in our own backyard?

Spencer loved playing in the foam blocks the most.  My sister, Janelle, was so kind to keep helping him get on the rope swing and swing himself into the blocks.  Then he would laughingly complain he was stuck in the blocks as he tried to swim his way out and do it again.  He finally got brave enough to jump off a foam pedastal into the blocks but never got the courage to jump off the board up high like Bailee kept doing.  I couldn't believe how Bailee would just climb up and jump off without the slightest reservation.  That girl is fearless!  I wish Spencer could learn from his younger girl cousin!  I also wish I had taken a picture of Bailee jumping off the "high dive" into the blocks so you could see how high it is and how brave she is!  Here's a picture of all the kids playing in the foam blocks.

The kids also spent some time playing on the low bars, that even Tessa could reach.  And they loved climbing up to the rings and holding on just long enough to jump off the foam tower.  Once again my awesome sister helped them with the rings while I chased after my little mover of a baby.  Here are some more pictures I took of the kids:

And one of Clara, who wasn't using any gymnastic apparatus, but was dang cute anyway.

My kids ended up having a lot of fun and got out a lot of energy while we were here.  I don't think they would have had as much fun without their cousins, so I'm glad we went with them.  Maybe we'll have to go a little more so my kids can become a little more brave.