Saturday, November 18, 2017

He is a Yellow Stripe!

He passed his first belt test and is now a yellow stripe. He is VERY happy about this and happy not to be a white stripe and moves up higher in rank at class.

He was VERY anxious about testing and missed up one hand movement (had his hand facing in the wrong direction) and had to re-do his form. They told him what he messed up, but he was a puddle (which it didn't help he had a fever the past couple days before that but didn't want to wait another 2 months to test) and pulled himself together and redid his form and did it completely correctly, as well as everything else they had to do and were tested on. He learned his next form already in the very next class, so he is looking forward to testing for his yellow belt in January.

We saw the yellow stripes testing, so he knows what to expect and hopefully this will be a much less anxious experience for him in the future.




On His Way to Becoming a Master



Both Kids are doing their Chonji form for White Belt, this is the 1st belt. The testing was WAYYYYYY more intensive than just this. We had no idea what they were going to have to all do, but they were prepared and both passed and earned their yellow stripe. They were promoted at the next class.


Friday, November 3, 2017

Pictures from 2nd Grade Teacher


Henry is in the back row for this one. Mom went in there to volunteer and read the book "Spookly the Square Pumpkin" to the kids and then lead them in a craft I had planned out. They had fun with this project and Henry was happy to have mom in there volunteering. I went in again on his birthday to read the book "Berenstain Bears: Too Much Birthday" to them as well. In less than 2 weeks, I will be in there on a weekly basis to teach them the Junior Achievement program.


At the first "Elementary School Celebration" of the year, Henry received an award for always leading by example. Each child in each grade (K-6) will get one from their teacher at a monthly elementary school celebration but it's always better if you get one in the earlier months. :)


Fire Safety Week - pictures top & below

Top picture, he is in the back row on the right in the Medford sweatshirt.

Bottom picture, same outfit, in the middle raising his hand.



And finally bus safety week, which happened to be during spirit week which was dress outdoors or cowboy. He dressed as an outdoor explorer and has on his explorer vest, explorer hat and dinosaur t-shirt. He was ready for an expedition. He is 4th from he left.

8th Birthday

 I put these pictures in chronological order so you can see a bit of the progression. The first three photos are taken at his friend birthday party. We had it at the Faribault Community Center and they had a pool party. Because I didn't want to have what boys going back and forth and trying to fit in cake and presents during short breaks I decided we would do cake and then presents before getting in the pool.
 A few of his friends we're not able to make it but these are the friends that were able to.
 The community center pool just got a couple of log rolling logs. They will beginning classes in it and potentially providing it as a club sport of sort. They had asked if because no one else was at the pool at that time which just happened to be a coincidence, our party would like to try out log rolling. My kids have done it at the county fair and think it is fun and this was definitely a memorable experience for the kids.

 The morning of his birthday he got his usual birthday pancakes which both kids get on the morning of their birthday. This time Dad did one big huge cake for him.


We did presents before eating and Cake because we had more time to wait for that to be done. He was very excited to get to new Nerf guns and to new Lego sets. It was not a coincidence that mom and dad and grandma and grandpa both gave Legos and Nerf. Mom knows what he likes. He also got an pineapple pool float which is now inflated and is taller than him. He likes to lay on it while he watches TV. And we did let him open up gifts from his sister early as well as a couple other gifts from us because the gifts from us included Under Armour sandals that he would wear to the pool and his fur lined Crocs that he probably would want to wear to the pool party as well. His other gift from us was a book. Sister gave him a game and a box of Charleston chews.
In the evening Grandma and Grandpa m. Came to visit him for his birthday and also to go to his sisters band concert. We had dinner of homemade mac and cheese, which was his request. grandma made him a cake with marshmallows and chocolate frosting which was also a request of his.

"Frog and Toad" Original Composition


This was from several week ago and I guess I saved it as a Draft, but now you can see it. :)