Belt Test

As always, the Monday following a Karate Tournament is a Belt Test. Hannah did great and will get her new belt in two weeks at the Belt Ceremony! She's been thinking a lot the last couple of days about staying with Karate, and not doing dance. She's gotten so much better in Karate that we'd like to see her go on. Her instructor even told us this evening that she was the only one in all the girls in her sparring match to actually perform a belt color kick! Which is really good.

Hannah's Last Karate Tournament

Hannah participated in her last Karate Tournament today. After she completes her belt test on Monday, followed by the awarding of a new belt the following week, she will be done with Karate and wants to try dance.

It was a long afternoon. The tournament this time was mandatory, which made for more kids competing, and longer wait times. The gym wasn't as cool as it could have been, but there were a lot of people there. Hannah had her reliable cheering section of Gramma and Papa, and Gramie, in addition to us of course.

All the kids warming up, and stretching. First competition was her forms, which she did well at, but not perfect. Unlike last time she did not place. However, since the last tournament, she has learned an entirely new form. She did her best and that's what counts!

The next competition was sparring, where for the first time at a tournament, her Karate instructor was the judge of her competition. This is where Hannah kicked some major butt. All the other times of having competed in sparing, Hannah is usually out after the first match and is dismissed to go home. Not this time, she won her first match 3-0!! She did awesome with her color belt kicks, and scored a point with her back kick. She went on to spar 2 or 3 more times, just missing 4th place. She was pretty disappointed and needless to say glad this was her last tournament.All the kids were hot and sweaty,
and pretty tired towards the end of the afternoon. After Hannah was done with her events and she had her competition trophy, we all went to Applebee's to celebrate Hannah's accomplishments in Karate. We're so proud of Hannah and how far she's come in Karate, a little sad she isn't going on. But we know she'll do good in dance, she has rhythm and the body of a dancer!

Fun with Grandpa

It's not often that Hannah gets to see Grandpa, unless she's off track. Today Grandpa waited until the end of his route to come by for a visit and was able to go with us to pick up Hannah from school He then stuck around for a couple of hours and played with the girls. Which they both loved.

School Pictures

Hannah came home today with her school pictures.
Here is our cute 2nd grader.

An Afternoon of Fun and Fellowship

We were at a friends house this afternoon with a pool. Hannah had a great time playing with church friends and school friends and wore themselves out from being in the pool ALL afternoon and into the evening. Hannah is getting better and better in the pool. She actually plugs her nose and goes all the way under.

Helping out with Worship

During second service of church today, as I was sitting outside having finished lunch (we had lunch in between services today), I noticed the kids were out doing worship so I wandered down to snap a couple of pictures, and was happy to see that Hannah was up there helping out with the hand motions for the songs they were doing!

Afternoon Birthday Party

Our little social butterfly had a birthday party to attend to this afternoon. We've officially entered into the birthday season of the majority of her classmates, which means she has quite a few parties coming up.

The party was outdoors, which was kind of a bummer because it was extremely hot today, over 105. The kids kept cool though with the use of the above ground pool, and one of those rented water slides. And when they got tired of getting wet, there was a bounce house as well. The entire front yard of the birthday girls house was flooded and like a muddy swamp, the kids legs were covered in grass and dirt, but it sure didn't stop them!

High School Musical 2!!!

We're big fans of High School Musical, so it's no surprise that we've been counting down for months for tonight's big premiere of High School Musical 2. Hannah was invited over to Emma's house for a premiere watching party with a bunch of other little girls. They had pizza and lots of yummy snacks! When I picked Hannah up, she said she had a lot of fun, and Lori said Hannah started to fade about 9:00pm. It'd been a long week of school and a long day and she's usually pretty beat on Friday nights.

This and That

School has been back in session now for 6 weeks, which is hard to believe. And it's even harder to believe that she'll be off track in 5 weeks! Where does the time go? Hannah is enjoying school and her new teacher. She sounds like a fun teacher, that has it all together and runs a tight ship, which is a change from last year. The class has had a student teacher the last four weeks and have enjoyed having her, they said goodbye to her today.

The current Karate quarter comes to an end next week. The quarter will end with a mandatory tournament next Saturday. This could possibly be Hannah's last tournament as she is ready to step out of karate and move on to something else...dance! The following week will be a belt test, and if all goes well, Hannah will become a senior purple belt.

A couple of things coming up that Hannah is looking forward to are her cousins from Oregon coming down for a visit and when she goes off track - going back to preschool to read to Rachel's class. LOL.

Playdate with Emma

Emma came home from church with us today for a playdate. It's been a long time whereas it's worked out for the girls to get together.

They had a great afternoon!

Visiting Uncle Bart

This afternoon, we headed down to the San Diego area to spend the afternoon and evening with Uncle Bart. My Uncle Kirk and Aunt Candy were spending the weekend with Uncle Bart, so we visited with them as well. It's been quite a few years since we've seen them, and it was a nice visit.

At the last minute, I threw the girls swimsuits in the bag, which worked out well, because everyone was at the pool when we arrived. The girls had fun splashing and swimming about. For some reason, one of the things Hannah was interested in doing was going to a park. So after we went to dinner, Uncle Bart took us to a park down the street from where he lives. This park was AWESOME!!!!! The girls had sooo much fun! And there were really cool things to do - such as a wall for rockclimbing, a teeter totter, a cool sand castle building area, and this individual merry-go-round like thing. It was such an awesome park. I wish we had parks like that where we live. After the park, it was my request to go to the beach. We arrived at such a beautiful time in the evening where the sun was shinning on the water, and starting to decend. The water was extremely warm and Hannah had a blast splashing and kicking in the water (we don't go to the beach that often. LOL)It was a great afternoon and evening and we enjoyed the visit. I always enjoy the days when we can get away for a Day Trip somewhere, especially when it involves getting to see the ocean.

Fessing Up

I had a meeting with Hannah's teacher this morning. I am Room Mom once again this year and last week I sent her a note asking when would be a good time that we could meet and talk about what she'd like from me this school year, what holidays she'd like parties for, etc.

She also told me how smart and how very well Hannah is doing, academically. She also told me that Hannah could be quite a chatter (NO, Really??? LOL). And how a couple of times, the entire tables gotten in trouble, etc.

This evening, I casually said to Hannah, "So, I met with Ms Barrett this morning". That's all I had said before Hannah fessed up to something the teacher hadn't even told me about. LOL. To make a long story short, a week or two ago, the entire table got in trouble and they all lost a recess.

It was pretty funny that Hannah fessed up to something totally different than what I was going to confront her on. LOL.