March 8, 2009

I had planned a yoga session around my friend's 3 year old son, but sadly, at the last moment, he fell asleep and wasn't able to join his Mom.

I was joined by my Little Sister Amber, and her sister Brooklyn, for our Cheetah Girlz Yoga Club.

Unfortunately, I barely had time to organize a more adult session, so I just decided to go with some of the silly games I planned for the 3 year old!

We did Secret Handshakes, something I learned from the ChildLight Yoga training--basically you break into teams and create silly handshakes, it can include anything and everything.  Amber choreographed a dance for us to, and she had fun with it.

Then we all sat in pike position on our mats and made Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, reaching up high to get the peanut butter and the jelly, then smeared it all over our bodies, then Forward Fold to our touch our toes.  Amber didn't like this at all, and even revolted, but when I went over to dump my enormous bowl of chocolate chips on her, she laughed and covered herself with her mat.

Then we did Lion Pose.  The girls didn't really want to roar, but once we all got going, they loved it.

From there we went into Happy Cat/Scardy Cat with lots of meowing, then stretched out our legs, one at a time, for more stretch in Table Top.  From here we went into the Rock, then to Down Dog.

Amber got up a shimmied under each of us, then Brooklyn did, then I did.  Lots of laughing.  We also did "Peeing Dog", where you basically lift your leg in Down Dog and hiss....

Back to the Rock, and I got Amber to lie on my back and stretch back.  Brooklyn did the same on Jenny's Rock.

We did a few Partner Trees, Partner Warriors, and Partner Stretches.

These were fun, and Brooklyn in particular liked it.

Jenny asked me what my toughest pose was and I demonstrated an Eagle, which everyone tried to do.  Then we sat down to try Cow's Head--the girls really liked the challenge.

We placed all the mats together and made a Sunflower with our outstretched legs and arms touching, then raised our arms up, brought them down to the middle, then lay back on the floor with feet still touching.

With the mats together, Amber lay across them all at one end and Brooklyn and I rolled her into a burrito!  She loved it.

We put salsa and cheese on her, then she unrolled herself.  Brooklyn's turn was next.  This was actually a lot of fun.

Finally, we played Yoga Freeze Tag--if you were tagged, you had to freeze into a yoga pose until someone unfroze you, then you were it!  It was so chaotic and crazy and fun.  Brooklyn in particular got into the pose part, Amber just sort of did a frozen dance pose...good enough!

For Savasana, we each took turns directing Lemon Squeeze--this is a great way to create tension and then suddenly release.  Each of us was a different citrus fruit and directed the others in tensing and then relaxing the body.

Jenny had to leave, but the girls stayed with me for awhile.  We rolled up the mats and had sword fights with them, then they choreographed a bunch of dances for me and performed until it was time to go.

All in all, not what I expected, but certainly a good workout, and I had fun!