It's a blue stripe day!

I am proud to announce that we are now a family of 2 newly awarded blue stripe Tae Kwon Do students!! Bennett tested today at 4 and Brad tonight at 7 and they both passed! Brad had to test on his own, without us cheering due to the time of his test, but he assures me he did great...

So, now on to Bennett's test :)  He did his form well. He did get off a little bit right at the end - he turned the wrong way and paused while the others went ahead. I held my breath, started to panic a bit (even thought I might cry a little - come on, you know how it is when your kids are in a tough situation!!), but he just looked around, went back a step, and finished with so much pride.  And my heart was happy too!!  

Next was board breaking - he broke it with a back kick ON HIS FIRST TRY!!! This blurry picture is the best we can do - look at that power!!! His foot is moving so fast that you can barely make out the blur!!! :)

Then, after the board breaking, Mr. Coon addressed all the students to make sure that they were really ready to get their new belts.  Then, he asked Bennett if his favorite thing about Tae Kwon Do was really push-ups and Bennett assured him that it was!! Mr. Coon said that not too many people like push-ups and no one put it down on their form as their favorite thing... score 1 for originality!!

Here is Mr. Coon and Bennett bowing to each other as Bennett gets his new belt. Look at that stance!!

Here is Ms. Tabby tying Bennett's new belt for him. He almost got it by himself, but not quite ;)
I was one proud mama this afternoon. He did his best and that's all I can ever hope for. I'm pretty sure that I was waaaay more nervous than he was - but that's what mom's do, I think. I'd love to shoulder all of his trials along the way if I could! I would do it without hesitation - but then he wouldn't learn much, I guess...

After a quick celebration dinner (Bennett's choice) at DQ, we went to Meet the Teacher at the elementary school. It was great - so neat to see all that is going on in his classroom and to get to meet some of the parents of the children Bennett talks about every day. He is loving school so much, which makes me so happy!

When I came home, Bennett had 1000 questions - what is star of the week? when will it start? did I see his desk? did I see the train car that he made? did I see his yellow folder? when will he be star of the week? so cute... unfortunately it got him all wound up, and undid all that Nana had done to get him calm and ready for bed. :)

All in all, a great day. I forgot to mention that I had lunch and went shopping with Angie in Homewood (fun!), cleaned out my bill/receipt basket and shredded a ton (made the shredder over-heat) and ironed a pair of pants. I don't iron... Good day. I'm so thankful!