soccer pictures

Here's warm ups. It's funny how excited Amory gets even though the game hasn't even started.








Hanging out on the bench



finally some action


Flirting with H on the bench. He likes the bench for socializing


But, he likes the bench to watch the game. Here he's cheering H on a saved goal.


The monkey runs



walking back to be a defender (loves defending)


Next game, loves the goalie slot. Of course he loves to fall down, so that helps.




I love this one because you can see him getting ready to throw it out of the goal and the coach is telling them to get back.


Flirting on the bench again. This time a different girl.

Another sport filled post

So, what's up these days?

We've recently become less busy. Why? Did the kids give up sports? No. Sadly, the place they did gymnastics is closed. They had the option to go clear across town, but I wasn't ok with that. They could have chosen parks and rec or just take a break. Both are taking a break right now. So Amory may never be a KU yell leader.

Amory started his soccer career this weekend though. He is playing indoor soccer for the first time. His practices are on Wednesdays just like karate so he's busy that night. At his game, he did well running, but then acted like he was going to die after he ran the ball in. He also played goalie. That is something he does well. He likes throwing himself on the ground.

Amory has decided to learn his kata so he can try for his blue belt. I think I know most of my kata to earn my purple. Time will tell how we do. Corey is hoping to get her orange belt. THAT is major. So far in class, I've had a 7th grader whine about not being able to do stuff and then a 4th grader flip me. Fun stuff.

Anyway, sign up for softball has come out. Hope that Corey's on the team she wants.

karate testing

Karate testing has begun. In the higher belts, they start with kata and one step testing a week before the regular testing. During regular testing you need to know strikes, blocks, kicks, and self defense. Friday night was kata and one steps. Kata is called form in tae kwon do. It's a series of moves in a specific order. One steps are little things like an acted out fight. One guy throws a punch and the other person has a set of moves to counter it. For the test I was doing there is only one kata and 3 one steps. (Corey has 6 one steps and 2 katas since she's a higher belt). Let me just say, Corey always says how hard testing is. In the past I told her "yeah, I know but you know the stuff. Blah blah blah." Well, it IS hard no matter how well you know it before you get there. For example, I did my kata WRONG the first time. I didn't even know I messed up. The girl that was doing the testing said, "I've seen you do it right. Try again." So I did and I passed, thankfully. You only get one do over by her rules. Then on to one steps WHICH I practiced over and over. Well, I almost lost it up there. My memory went blank! But, I fought through it and passed all those. Well, when we were done with these we could do merit badge stuff. For my belt there is Dojo etiquette, uniform, and fitness. Dojo etiquette is a breeze. Yes and no sir/ma'am, please/thank you, proper bowing, sitting, attention stance, that stuff. Uniform, easy - fold your uniform, tie your belt stuff like that. Fitness about killed me though. I'm so out of shape, but getting better. 25 push ups, 25 sit ups, 25 jumping jacks, 15 squat thrusts, 10 stretches. I decided to do pushups first because I wouldn't be able to do them without ALL my energy. Amazingly, I passed! I can still feel the situps though. But, know I know how Corey feels at testing. She passed her first kata. She doesn't think she got any of her one steps though. Hopefully she moves up a bit though. Of course, if I skip all the belts I want to skip, I'll probably be only inching forward a bit at a time. Amory has decided to not test. He said he doesn't know his kata and he doesn't know his one steps. Plus, he has basketball on Wednesday that he'd rather go to.

Basketball and Karate

Well, kindergarten basketball is going on now. THAT is a riot. The kids have so much fun and are really enjoying it. Amory is loving every second of the games. He says that practice is even better. He's a scoring and rebounding machine. He's not so good at defending though. His favorite thing is dribbling though. He's great at it.

We just got back from karate tournament. Both kids participated. Amory won a trophy for fastest kick. He got 1st place in his group. He loves getting the runner up medals. You should have seen him with his trophy though. That kid was pumping that trophy into the air over and over. I'll post a pic sometime. Corey did ok. She tries so hard, but only wants to do things her way. That's alright though, it's all about learning.

What are we up to now?

Well, both kids ARE doing karate. Amory had said he was going back for his jedi training, but then he started acting weird. Well, he's back with a vengeance. He's loving it and practicing it, but he still lacks the focus in class. I'm sure it will get there eventually though. Corey is loving it too. The new thing is that parents can take the class. Well, fortunately or unfortunately, I can't take the white belt class. But, I want to take class. So, I'm taking it on Friday with Corey. It's the advance class, and honestly, it kicks my butt. I'm out of shape plain and simple. Oh well, it's good for me and I'm having fun, it's a great bunch of kids. Yeah, I'm the only adult. On Wednesdays, one lady was doing it, but she didn't like being the only adult and changed her mind. I have been trying to get the other parents to try it out, but they aren't.

Both kids are back in gymnastics too. Amory wasn't sure about that either. He ended up being the only kid in his class last week. He had so much fun without waiting his turn. He didn't gain any social skills, but his motor skills did get worked. Corey seemed to have fun. Her friends from last year weren't in this class. She's signed up for intermediate class, but I think they combined it with beginner because there were some kids really struggling and some that were really good. She's right in the middle. Our gym joined up with another gym here in town. I never cared for the other place, but we'll see how it goes. So far, it's looking good. The main thing I don't like is the logo of the place. They used to be g-force jets and have a cool jet picture logo. Now they are Lawrence Gymnastics and Athletics East. It's just some random squiggle line that represents like a person jumping or something. Oh well, as long as the kids like it.

Amory will be starting basketball soon. This will be his first team sport. We'll see how he does. I'll definitely post pictures when that happens. Corey wanted to do it, but I just didn't sign her up. She quit softball, I was just worried about that. I'll try to get her in something else though.

Small update.

So, I haven't updated in over a month. Is it because we weren't doing anything? No, of course not. We did finish up the summer softball season. They had a lot of fun this year and improved so much. We just ended the summer session of karate. Corey moved up to purple belt/white stripe. A small step, but a step none-the-less. She also got patches for tonfa and fan. She had to write papers as the main thing for this, and then demonstrate how to use it. We left there and she was the only one to get patches for the weapons. I told her it was because her mom was mean and made her do the papers. She agreed, but said that it was a good thing I was so mean or she wouldn't have gotten them. I guess she at least knows WHY sometimes parents are mean.

Well, in the past month, Corey thought about doing football. I told her it was her choice, but that it's everyday except Monday. That would mean nothing else. She couldn't decide. Then we got info on a softball tryout for the fall. She decided this was something she wanted to do. Well, that ruled football out. I guess we found something she liked better. I'm kinda happy because football is such a huge commitment and what if she hated it. Anyway, the softball stuff is going well. It's funny, they were only practicing/tryouts for about an hour and I saw improvement already. This should be good.

Karate starts back in the first week of September. So does gymnastics. We'll be running again soon!

Karate tournament

Well, it was a good one. Corey participated in strongest punch, strongest kick, fast fist, fastest kick, and sparring. I think she got ripped off in sparring. The rule is that it's single elimination if there is more than 4 kids. Well, in this case there were 5 kids. That means the first person to lose was gone. Sure, they may be better than the other kids that were in there, but you will never know. So, she looked good and it was a close match. But, sadly she lost and was eliminated. She got a runner up trophy. Oh well, better luck next time. (and she better sit at the back of the line!)

It went quickly this summer and she had fun and that's what matters.

Amory wanted to be in tournament so much. He is now ready to go back because he's planning to take a weapons kata to tournament. (It's part of his jedi training)