Programs and Belts

It's been a busy week around here! Ruby had her Preschool Holiday Program on Wednesday and Lin had her first Tae Kwon Do belt test on Friday. Both the girls did great!

Here are Ruby and some of her classmates, showing the assembled audience how they say the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of every school day. So cute! They all did great until they came to the word "indivisible" and then they all fell apart.

It was a tough decision for Ruby, which pretty dress she should wear. These are big decisions for a 4-year-old!

The performance was great, and Ruby was very sweet to her beloved friend Avi, who was suffering from stage fright and spent the first several minutes of the program in tears. It was everything a preschool holiday program should be!

(My favorite part, by far, was when Ruby spent almost an entire song picking her nose and then trying to wipe her "find" on her dress! Hysterical! Yep, that's MY daughter!!)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Next up was Lin with her first Tae Kwon Do test. It started off a little rocky when we got halfway there and Lin realized she left her white belt sitting on the kitchen counter! Uh oh! So it was a mad rush to drop Dave and Lin off and then run back home to get the belt. Then at the start of the testing she was asked to recite the meaning of her belt and she couldn't do it. This being our first Tae Kwon Do, too, we didn't know she had to memorize it word-for-word, so we didn't practice it with her. Oops! But from there on out it she did great!

First up: push-ups and sit-ups. Look at that tough girl! On her knuckles, even! One of the black-belts said that if there had been an award for push-ups Lin would have won it!

Here they are going through their forms.

Next up, sparring.

The most awesome part of the night: board-breaking! Lin broke both her boards (one punching, one kicking) on the first try! Way to go!!

And here she is getting her yellow belt!

Lin and her Tae Kwon Do Master. He intimidates the heck out of me, but he's got a great heart and the students all love him.

The best part of this evening was the board-breaking. It was awesome! What a rush -- I cheered for every student.  And Lin was recognized in front of the whole class as one of the best breakers! All the black-belt judges got to choose who was the best at each different part of the test and one of the judges picked Lin as the best breaker!

I'm so proud of my girls!