Tuesday, May 31, 2016

School's Out for Summer!

The fundraiser for Kara's t-ball team was selling tickets to a Rockies game and letting teams walk around the field before the game.  Kara had never been to a real baseball game, but she was excited!  It was Dad's first time down on field level at Coors Field (and Kara's, obviously).  It was a fun experience, and the Rockies even won (beating the NY Mets 4-3)!

Kara wrapped up her first year of real school at the end of the month.  She's excited to be a first grader next year!  She's got a busy summer planned with several camps lined up.

Emily is a pretty mild-mannered 3-year old.  She has the occasional melt-down, but her worst days are nothing compared to Kara when she was about the same age.  Emily is continuing to develop her voice and is getting better at communicating what she wants, which isn't always easy with a big sister like Kara who is very opinionated herself.  One of her favorite things to do is to sing the alphabet song to us.  She still has a little trouble with the middle (L-M-N-O come out ellam minnow), but she's getting better.  She can pretty easily count to 20 and can identify all the numbers up to 10 (though she sometimes gets 6's and 9's confused).  All in all, she's a pretty awesome kid.

Early May, we got out and started up our garden for the summer.  We planted a couple different kind of tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and pumpkins.  We'll see what comes up!

Link to pictures

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Kara's Comic

Kara (completely unprompted by Mom and Dad) decided to start writing her own comic.  The first three issues of Jack Skeleton are below (with translations for those who have trouble reading the writing of a kindergartner):
Comic 1
Jack Skeleton
Jack’s New Friend

Jack’s New Friend

One day when Jack was at school… “Hi”

He saw a new monster! “Awoooo!”

And the new monster was scared!

When it was recess time…

The new monster just watched!

Then when Jack was playing… “wee”

He saw the swings…

And when he was on he saw…

The new monster!

Then he said, “Would you like to be my friend?”


And the new monster said, “Yes!” And so they did!

Comic 2
Jack Skeleton
Jack’s Problems

Jack’s Problems

One day at school… “Hi, hi.”

Jack fell! “Whoa!”

Then he got up… “Oof!”

And told his friend

And she said… “Watch where you are going.”

So he did…

But bonked his head! “Ow!”

Then he rubbed his head…

And told the teacher

He said…

You must be clumsy, Jack.


Jack said… I guess I am and he went to play!

Comic 3
Jack Skeleton
Jack Gets Angry!

Jack Gets A-N-G-R-Y-!

One day at school… “Hi!”

Jack said something mean to ghost. “I hate you!”

And ghost said…

“Hate is not a nice word!”

But Jack wasn’t listening!

So ghost told!

And the teacher had a chat with Jack!


And Jack said he was sorry to ghost. And so they went to play!

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Kara's Brown Belt Test

Kara tested for her Brown belt recently.  She's come along way since her Yellow Belt Test.  Her forms have really improved, and she's kicking with a lot more power.  Her kick for breaking the board (Part 6) was particularly impressive.  This belt test included some sparring with the other kids.  She did pretty well the first round, but didn't do great the second round.  But she had fun!

Enjoy!
















Part 1 - Exercises

Part 2 - Practicing Kicks


Part 3 - Demonstrating Forms


Part 4- Sparring Part 1 (Kara is in the blue)


Part 5 - Sparring Part 2 (Kara is in the blue on the left)


Part 6 - Breaking the board


Part 7 - Answering Questions


Part 8 - Presenting the belt