Our Karate Kid

We finally took Ethan to his first Karate Tournament. It's so hard to go during the school year, because of soccer. I was so happy that we finally could take him to one. We told him on Tuesday that he would be going. He was so excited. He kept asking "how many days till I get a trophy." Gotta love the positive thinking! The whole family got up this morning to go and support him. It's the first time I really saw Ethan look nervous. Usually he could care less. He kept watching all the kids practicing their Kata's. About a half an hour after getting there, he saw some boys from his Dojo. He ran over to them and started talking. That seemed to relax him a little. The funny thing is that the majority of the boys are older. Like 5 years older. But he just fit in with them, like they were kids from his grade or something. That's a trait I wish all kids could maintain through adulthood!

Moving on....the first kids to compete were those with weapons. Those Kata's were cool to watch. After the weapons was Ethan's division. He was really nervous, but did well.

He paused during his Kata, and that hurt him a little. He didn't get anything wrong, but since the judges don't know all the Kata's they judge on fluidity, and not exactness. Kind of weird, but good to know. I was proud of him for doing his newest Kata, instead of doing the one he tested with to get his orange belt, even though he probably would have scored better with that! The people from his Dojo knew! He got fourth for his Kata, which he only got a metal for. I could tell he was hoping for one of the trophy's. He still had his sparring.

He did well, and won his first round. In the end, he had to sparr his friend from his own dojo. His friend took first and he took second. He was so happy to get a trophy!

All the kids were so happy for him, and wanted to hold and look at his trophy. Ethan wasn't letting it go for anything. Guess he is going to be asking us to take him to some more tournaments in the near future! After the tournament we took the kids to JuJu Berry, per Ethan's request! I won't be surprised if Ethan opens an ice cream store when he's older!

I'm so proud of Ethan. He works so hard at all he does. He has been doing so well in his music class. This week he started composing. When I say composing, I mean picking out notes on the piano, and writing the notes down on paper. He made a little book, on his own, of all his songs he made up. One of the songs he picked out on his own was the theme to Polar Express. He stapled all his composed songs together to look like a piano book. It's not Mozart by any means, but I LOVE that when he takes in an interest in things he really takes it to another level. He has such a creative mind! I love how Heavenly Father has blessed me with such amazing children who are all unique and possess different qualities. How boring it would be if they all came cookie cutter.

Dive Championship

So I have never really been nervous for one of the kids events, until this Friday. Actually, I have been nervous about this meet for a few weeks now. Ever since Aubrie came close to hitting her head last time, I've just wanted to get this over with. This past week she finally got her flip back, but when they got to the pool for warm up, her head came close every time. I just said a quick prayer that she could do her flip without injury.

The Championship Meet was much harder than the others. There was one team they hadn't competed against yet, who happened to have the most kids and especially in Aubrie's division. Several of them were gymnasts, and Aubrie could tell she was in trouble when the girls who were warming up were doing fulls with a twist. Needless to say, it was stiff competition.

Because all the teams were there, the meet lasted 2 and 1/2 hours. It happened to be one the hottest, muggiest days of the summer. The audience was hoping to get splashed!

Ethan did well, except he had one failed dive because he thought his coach told him to do a straight dive, but he was supposed to do a tuck. His other dive, and his flip were awesome. He ended up with second place. (No pictures turned out of Ethan and Aubrie)

All of Aubrie's dives were beautiful, and high scored. She also completed her flip and got good scores. Unfortunately the other girls were doing higher difficulty (Aubrie is still afraid of the back dive) so she ended up 5th. She still was the highest ranking girl on her team.

Boston did AWESOME. There is one boy who is AMAZING, and has the audience in awe with every dive. He has been taking gymnastics since he was two. Boston competed against him last time and got worked. He knew he would have to compete against him again, and would probably not get 1st place. Boston had a tuck dive, back dive, straight flip, and one and a half.

Each dive was flawless, but the other boys were higher difficulty. Boston's last dive was the one and a half. He never nailed it at practice. He got up there and looked like he was in a different world, he was so focused. His dive was FLAWLESS. Even the Audience gasped it was so beautiful.

When he came out of the water the whole crowd was cheering. I wish I had my camera to take a shot as he was coming up the ladder. He was beaming from ear to ear, and when he got out he did a little fist thrust! This is him when he got out of the pool.

He still knew there was no way for him to get first, but he was happy with his performance, and so were we. He was only points behind the other boy, which was huge. While they were tallying scores, all the coaches dove for the audience. They let the kids score and announce. They had fun doing that. Even Sophia got in on the announcing. I like how they made it so laid back and fun for them, especially since it took so long to do the scoring. Though I'm glad its over, I'm also glad they had the opportunity. It's been great!

After the meet, we stopped at In-and- Out for dinner. Before we got there, we went through the Chick-filet drive through for Aubrie. While waiting in line, we saw a family walk out dressed like cows. We remembered it was cow appreciation day, where you got a free entree if you dressed like a cow. Ben and Aubrie hurried and made these horns to try and get some free nuggets. The staff thought it was funny, and gave him free nuggets! Gotta love Ben for his philosophy of "it never hurts to ask, or try!"