Yellow Belts!

Today we had our awards and advancement ceremony for the kids' TaeKwonDo class. Yay! They are ALL three yellow belts now! This is such a self-esteem booster for them. Joseph because he spent a year in TKD, previously, with NO advancement at all. Libby because it is really the first successful completion that she has had of anything and Caroline because it would really suck if your brother and sister advanced and you didn't.;)
First, each belt level did a demonstration of the skills they had learned.
Here are our White Belts doing their kicking drills.








After the group demonstration, the instructor picked a child out of the spectators to choose three white belts randomly to demonstrate the choke and grab release. Two of the three chosen were our girls.








After all of the belt levels did their demonstrations, the black belts broke a stack of concrete slabs.




Then it was time for awards!
Caroline receives her perfect attendance medal and her yellow belt.


Joseph's name is called (Look how excited he is!) and you can see Caroline in the background showing her stuff to Daddy. He also gets a perfect attendance medal and a yellow belt.




Libby's turn! Another Perfect Attendance Medal and a Yellow Belt!




Group shot!


And here are our new Yellow Belts

Camping the Girl Scout Way

The kids and I went camping Wednesday and Thursday with our Brownie Troop. It was supposed to only be one day, but we were all having so much fun that we stayed an extra night (well, that and there was the aversion to taking down all of the camp stuff 18 hours after we put it up.)The kids all had so much fun (even the brothers!)
My camera died a few hours after we got there, but I got a few of the kids in the river on the first day.

Pop-Up House

Joseph really really really likes pop-up cards and books. He is fascinated by the elaborate pop-up books at the bookstore. He frequently will make a pop-up card for someone when he is thinking about them. Today, he made a pop-up house.
This is what it looks like folded up.


This is the interior. Notice the pole for support. The yellow on the right are stairs to the roof.


This is the outside of the house....with a roll out sidewalk and a door that opens and closes.


Another shot of the interior. You can see the table with things on top of it and a wall of cabinets.


Not shown: The roof of the house with a lawnchair and a frisbee.

Belt Testing

The kids had belt testing on Friday night for their Tae Kwon Do class. This was a huge accomplishment for them. Joseph had a very frustrating year in TKD previously. He was in class twice a week for an entire year but never got a stripe for his belt, much less a new belt. It was very disheartening for him and we ultimately took him out of the class. At the time, he could verbally tell you what he should do but his moves weren't sharp enough or exaggerated enough for the instructor.
This instructor is very different.
Joseph started the semester immediately saying that he would do the class but he was NOT belt testing. I was a little anxious about him on Friday night, but he hadn't mentioned that he wouldn't do it in a couple of months. He did great! Just getting through the actual test without stressing so severely that he fell apart was big by itself, but he actually did well and stayed focused the entire time.
Libby, of course, has her task completion issue. ;) This is the first class that she has taken that she has actually completed without bribery, cajoling or threats. :D I think this is directly linked to her year at Scottish Rite.
The test started at 6 pm and went for a couple of hours, so that had me a little concerned also, but all three of them hung in there and were exhausted at the end.
We will find out next Sunday how they did. I hope that no matter how it turned out they all did similarly. :p

Girl Scouts and Interfaith Housing Coalition

The girls had a field trip today to Interfaith Housing Coalition to deliver about 30 birthday boxes (These are boxes that we put together in March in celebration of Girl Scouts birthday. The girls put in everything needed to have a party into a girl scout cookie case and then it is wrapped in birthday paper) and several cases of girl scout cookies.

San Antonio Trip

Here are the pictures from our San Antonio trip last week. Ken and the kids went to Sea World on Friday and the Alamo on Saturday while I worked at the homeschool conference. We had so much fun!

Libby is the perfect Lab Rat!

That is the word that I got today from her teacher at Scottish Rite....translation: She is doing fabulously! :D
I was so happy. We get very little feedback over the school year and what we did get came in the mail in the form of a marked checklist. On each of those, she got "average" scores. But, I developed a sneaking suspicion over the course of the year that those forms were to fulfill a requirement that schools have to monitor the kids that they release to Scottish Rite's program. Since Libby is not in school, the form came to our house. But, we didn't really need a rationalization to keep her in the program. ;)