Marching Band Debut

Mags was very excited about her first official marching band experience.  They marched in the Homecoming parade.  Not too bad for 8th graders and their first time marching.  After they marched around the block, she put her instrument away and jumped on the cross country float.  Max walked with the tae kwon do folks and broke some boards.

I was merely paparazzi.

Brown Belt!

Max earned his brown belt in tae kwon do last week.  He was very proud (as he should be).  I am continually impressed by his memory in tkd.  I always ask him to help me with the forms because he remembers them all!  Our instructor, Mr. Gibson, said some very nice things to Max (as he always does) when he was tying on his new belt.  He told Max that he was very impressed with his seriousness and focus, and that Max would be successful in whatever he wanted to try with those skills.  Mr. Gibson also told Max it would be cool if he waited for Maggie and I to catch up, and we all tested for our temporary black belts together.  I kinda think it would be cool for Max to be the first in the family to be a black belt!! 

New and Blue!

Mark took M and M to Cedar Rapids to test for their blue belts over the weekend while I was at the Iowa City Yoga Conference. They did well and were awarded their blue belts last night! So grateful for this school and our teacher. I am continually impressed by Mr. Gibson. (Official way of addressing your teacher...even if you were in high school when he was born!) He always has such good things to say to them at the belt ceremony...and by good, I don't mean he just tells them how great they are. He tells them things like how important it is to learn to accept constructive criticism; that no one is perfect; he applauds their hard work. He really is an excellent teacher. We are lucky.

 

P.S.  Yes, M4's hair is in a ponytail.  Which opened up a whole new can of worms, but that is a story for another day.

Orange Belts!

M and M were promoted last night after testing for their orange belts last weekend. They were very excited. Now I need to test for my yellow belt. We are really having fun participating in TKD together. Now we just have to get Mark to do it, too!

TKD pics

Grandma and Grandpa visited this weekend, and Grandma took some pics of us at tae kwon do. I broke my second board, and she got some great shots of the kids sailing through the air!

M3 working on breaking with a flying side kick.

M4 working on the same.

My feet planted firmly on the ground at this point. Good timing, Mom!

It's fun to do it together. The kids are ahead of me, so they can teach me the forms and help me. It's nice to turn the tables that way.

New endeavor...

M4 asked about violin lessons somewhat out of the blue. So of course I wanted to take advantage of his interest! He has only had two lessons so far, but he looks kinda cute with a quarter size violin:
The tae kwon do is not new, but I don't know if I've posted any pictures? And this was a good flying side kick I caught. Both Ms have been taking for a while. They have their yellow belts now. I'm tempted to join them!