Purple belt!

Pierce has been doing Tae Kwon Do for almost a year and a half. That's a year and a half with no off seasons, and no major breaks. Just year round kicking, blocking and being all Chuck Norris. 

I can tell he's starting to grow tired and bored with it, yet he just doesn't seem to want to quit it either. I will lay money on one thing though, I bet if he quits it, he will regret it within a couple months.

As of now though, we are still chugging along. 

Testing was scheduled the day we were to leave for vacation, so they agreed to let him test the day before. 

The boy he went up again, was quite a bit bigger!

 But once again, he held his own.

Since we were still vacationing during awards time, he didn't get to go through the usual hoopla getting his belt. But he did in fact pass, and he is now officially a purple belt!  (even though it looks totally blue in the picture)

If he sticks it through purple and tests again, he will make it to brown belt, which is a whole different league, and much tougher. We shall see!

One step closer to a black belt.

Pierce has been in Tae Kwon Do for 14 months now. A little over a year feels like a long time to be dedicated to one sport. There are no off seasons, you just keep on going, I guess indefinitely. Will Pierce want to keep this up forever? I'm not sure. But I'm proud of the fact that his little self has stuck to it thus far.

Last weekend was time to test again. 

 Just look at him standing there so serious. I love it!

 He nailed his form!

 And took on the bear hug with no problems.

 Of course they had to spar, and I've finally become comfortable with the whole idea of that, BUT check out the size of this boy! Uh, hullo?!  I about came out of my seat, and of course, Paul is all like "it's fine." Ugh. But his instructor must know more than me, because Pierce held his own just fine.

 And his biggest fan was there rooting him on all the way.

 And all of his hard work paid off, because he is officially a blue belt now.

 SO proud of our son!

Tournament time!!

Saturday I was feeling better, which was a good thing, because we had a busy day!

First up was a pancake breakfast at the fire house. 

 But the main event of the day? The event we've been planning on for weeks? Pierce's first big Tae Kwon Do tournament.

 In my 37 years of life, I've been to many sporting events, but never any type of martial arts tournament. My only reference I had going into this was the karate kid, so I was totally looking for Mr. Miyagi.

Funny thing is, it was a lot like the movie! Kids from different dojo's everywhere, and even some in all black uniforms, so I came to the grown up conclusion that they were the bad guys.

Pierce went and got settled with some of his other friends.

 And for the next hour, we basically just watched other kids perform.

 And even some adults (that was kinda weird to Paul and I)

 I tried to get a cute pic of Hope and I, but she said her stomach hurt and wanted no part of that.

 Within a few minutes, she fell asleep on me. Not that I really minded THAT.

 Finally Pierce's age group got the announcement it was time for them! You see him in there?

 That's just a portion of his group! Lots o' kids!

 They did a little warm up, and then it was ON.

 First up he had to perform his form for these judges. It's really intimidating!

 At his rank, each form usually consists of 24-27 moves. You  memorize the form, then eventually get the UMPH behind the moves.

 When he finished, each judge gave a score on how well they thought he did. (I was in the stands sweating it for him!!)

 After scores, they told him to go gear up, it was time to spar!

 Pierce is on the right, and he was READY TO RUMBLE.

 He fought three seperate times

 And won 2 out of the 3 matches.

 After each child in his group had performed they tallyed up the scores and then handed out medals.

 Pierce was awarded second place in both form and sparring. WOO HOO!!!!        
                                           
Paul and I are very proud of our little man!!!

And by the way, I'm not sure, but I think I may have heard the voice of Mr. Miyagi floating through the gym that day...."Daniel Son"

Green belt

Pierce is still in Tae Kwon Do, but I wasn't so sure for a while. Around the holiday's we kind of got out of the habit of going, so much so, that he missed a testing cycle. Normally they move up about every 6 weeks, but he's been an orange belt now for about 12 weeks. His dad and I had to have a talk with him, and let him know that if he didn't want to do this anymore, that's fine, but it was time to quit then. At first, he wanted to quit, he just seemed ready to move on. But being the 7 years old he is, and one who has a hard time make a firm decision, he later decided he would keep doing it. Shew!

We were still behind and he had to really push his self this time to get his green belt. And that he did. He dug deep and learned all of his form, and we were hitting practice almost every day. All his hard work payed off, and last night he moved to a green belt. 

He's even decided he wants to do the upcoming tournament in March. This will be the first time that he competes against other kids, actually sparring for points. 

Just like this here. 

 Paul and I were shocked at how aggressive our normally passive son was when it came time to fight. And I'm feeling a little like the Karate Kid's mom too. I mean a tournament and everything? Nobody better swipe his leg like they did to Daniel son though. (If you didn't grow up watching that movie, you don't know what I speak of)

Paul and I are so proud of Pierce. He's such a good boy, and it's awesome how hard he's worked to keep achieving these goals.

And I think it's safe to say, he's pretty proud too.

What a sweet melody to a mother's ears

I haven't updated in a while about Pierce's karate. We took a little break around the holiday's, but he is now back at it, and he is now sparring. 

When we got his gear it came with some important instructions...

 Take a close look at the smaller print here.

'Read all warnings and instructions before use.'
'Keep for future reference by all users for the life of the gear.'
*and by far my favorite one*
'Failure to follow directions may result in injury, disability, and death.'

 I mean really, those are the sweet words every mother wants to read when sending her younglin' off.

Heaven help me.

Soon he will be able to take you down with one finger.

Pierce did pass his last testing, and now is officially an orange belt. Woot! Well, sorta woot. I'm not very happy about the idea of him actually sparring, but what you gonna do? Keep them at home cradled in your bosom their whole lives? Hey, that's not a bad idea is it? :-) Also, the sparring gear is expensive!! I expect to see him sparring in a suit of gold.

I am proud of him though for his hard work at this sport. He really loves it.

Oh, and just because she's cute.

Happy Weekend.

We've had a great weekend!! You know as a stay at home mom, you would think the weekends would be no different than the week, but they are!! I still get all excited for the weekends, even though they are much different than my weekends used to be, they are still fun ;)

We have had lots of company lately, first Tracey came for a visit, then my parents, and we had another special visitor this weekend (more on that later) and Paul's parents will be here next week. I love visitors!!! :-)

What have we done this weekend??

Lots of this right here.

Having a pool where we live has been great!! We go almost daily. The kids absolutely LOVE it, and check out Pierce, he's really doing great swimming...


I still want to get him into swimming lessons, but I'm surprised how much he's taken off. By the end of the summer, I think he'll be a little champ!

We also had Pierce's awards at karate. Little man starts his new class on Monday, and he's ready!!!
Off with the old belt....
Getting his new one!!

You think he had a little sun lately?? ;) His certificate says "Little Dragons Graduate" But the big event of the weekend???

Aunt Jo-Jo came for a visit!! She hasn't been here since we moved, so we were very happy to have her!! Kids must have said her name 689 times this weekend, and lots of tears over her leaving :(
My favorite part of having her here (or whoever else visits) I don't have to split my time. I can just focus on that one person, it's nice. Funny, growing up we were not close at.all. We had 6 years between us, and different as can be. But once we had kids, we became close, it's good to have a sister!! :)
We even seem to do more silly things on the weekends, like blow up the air mattress and let the kids have at it!!


:-)Maybe because we're more relaxed on weekends, kids imagination even seem to work better ;)Yes, it's been a happy weekend, indeed!!