A new hobby for all!

"All" of us that is.  Well, not for Jeremiah and Merida, but the rest of us have taken up a new hobby.  Months ago we came across some videos of 'hooping'.  When I first heard of 'hooping' I didn't know what the person was referring to.  Was it basketball?  When I found out it was hula hooping I thought perhaps she was mistaken.  I mean, what adult hula hoops?  Ha, ha.  Well,  come to find out hula hooping has been taken to a new level.

For Moira's birthday she chose to buy some special supplies to make her own hoop. There was a lot left over, so the rest of us girls got to make a hoop as well.  We spent an evening helping each other tape up our hoops.  It was a lot of fun. It wasn't as easy as we thought it would be, trying to get the tape to go around the hoop evenly.  Since our hoops have been done, we have taken to practicing.  Some of us, ahem...me, need lots of practice :-)

One thing we did not expect was for the boys to want to join in.  Little boys, big hoops, not possible, right?  Wrong!  Jonah took to hooping like a fish does to water.  Unreal.  Jedidiah on the other hand....well, he had some practice ahead of him if he was going to get that  hoop to stay up.

Although there may be people who think that boys shouldn't be hula hooping, I will say that it has given my boys a physical outlet while stuck indoors, *and* I have been very impressed that it has given Jedidiah something to work on.  He's not our most coordinated child to say the least.  Hooping is giving him something to work on those skills in a fun way.  Though admittedly he can get exasperated quickly.  But when he finally gets a move down he is so excited and wants *everyone* to see him in action!

Of course there are squabbles.  I mean, 7 people hooping inside of a house.  Two people can be in the family room, at least 2 boys, and only 1 can be in the living room at any one time.  Little boys are not as patient, so there have been hoops in the face and such.  Thankfully we are looking at some nice weather rolling in around here for the next few days.  Then they can hoop outside.

I leave you with some pictures of Jed hooping, and hopefully if I can muster it an embedded video. This particular video gets us really inspired to work hard.  You can find many more on youtube!

 Swinging the hoop around his arm.  For most kids, this is easy-peasy.  For Jed it is definitely work.

 Above and below are pictures of a move that Jed is attempting to learn.  He has most of it mastered, and is very pleased with himself to the level he has attained.

 It took Jed a few days to master gooping around the waist.  He learned on a much bigger hoop. The other day we got these smaller hoops and it took him a few hours to figure it out, but he got it!

 A proud boy!

The taping on my hoop.  Our hoops are made of black PVC piping.  I wound the silver reflective tape one way and the 'gripper' tape in the opposite direction.  The gripper tape is supposed to help keep the hoop 'up'.  Though, in my case that doesn't seem to be the case :-)  Ha, ha!

Our inspirational video we turn to:

Enjoy!