Happy Birthday -

Happy Birthday - to my Blog and to My Dad!

I have been blogging for 5 years! can you believe it? March of 05 was the fist time I took to it, since then there have been lots of stories and fun and pictures. I have made lots of crafts, card and friends - changed jobs and had a good time.

I have won a few things, lost a few others and had joy, laughter, frustration and tears to share with readers.

My most desired posts are a strange rag tag of things.

Colorology - Colorstrology

Katate

Karate Feet pedicure pictures

altered mini mail boxes

Secret santa sayings

fun and sweet friends and family who keep tabs on me and mine through this cyber world. Thanks For sticking with me through all these things I want to tell the world. Thanks for reading my stories about Kids and Life and hobbies.

I am continuing to write here- I love this forum. I hope you will come visit me here often with a smile.

And a special Happy 77 th birthday to My dad Alan F. Spector- he is my inspiration and my hero. I love this man.

Board Breaking success

Hh - went to break boards this morning. we took the neighbor girl too, and she was quite impressed , I got the final sequence of a sudo chop ( hand- to chop across board)

Tournament Sparring with Black belt

Hh sparring with a black belt, she does score a point and does defend herself too.

Tournament was with SNK on 10/31/09

More from Breckenridge Testing

More high kicking maddness, this was the fun stuff and at least they were moving.

Early on sunday morning this was the lovely view street side and just waking up with a light dusting of snow.

More pictures of the Many participants.

ski slope and mountain side - just waking on the Sunday morning. look at all that frosting !

breckenridge excellence - black belt testing

Lots of testers for this Prep Cycle

After getting the final belt with old ones on the floor

Kicking and endurance were part of the testing too

Tons of sitting and waiting and waiting some more focus and fidget less?? yuk that was the hardest part I am sure

All Those men are VIP's our G.M. Seo and his G.M. Kim are the middle and Hh on the right side with the other 19 testers in her group

High Brown Achieved !

A long weekend in Breckenridge with Seo's National Karate- HH has achieved the rank of High Brown belt the real first step to black belt excellence. The trip was pleasant and there was a ton of hurry up and wait all weekend long. This is a pretty typical scenario with GM Seo. I did tons of sitting so did Hh mostly on the hard carpeted floors. She says she even got a butt chap LOL :)

1st time black belt testing

Last of the Prep cycle classes :)

Waiting on instruction conditional black belts and the brown belts ( 1st time testers)

We are off for the hills tomorrow, the Black belt testing in Breckenridge- Hh going for her high brown belt. It will be grueling and she is ready but nervous I think. We will leave the pups at home and J says he will come up and feed them, and put them to bed. He will need to feed fish too! I am glad he is going to come up and help.

we are arming ourselves with books, books on tape and laptops- it will be a lot of sitting and waiting and stuff. we will take protien bars for Hh as she will most likely not get a full meal for two days.

I will take photos and possibly video - look for those post to come next week.

Choped and kick through boards

HH- Karate Choped and kicked through 5 boards at the board breaking event this weekend!

the Chop is most impressive to me, she got it the 1st time around and everytime this event. = she just had to not overthink it and imagine following through

We are 1/2 way through what is called Prep-cycle for the high black belt testing and that is going well too. She is really focused on improving her overall game. She is working hard toward greater goals. I think the testing will be tough but fair.

More about the parade

This is the Grand Master of the school, master Seo

The Karate group - speacial weapons demo team in the black tops and regualr students in the red tops

This was the Arvada Harvest festival parade ( one of the longest in existance accross the state) - they do this every fall, Hh was required to participate as part of the Karate school and I will post some photos of their grouip here too. you can not see her as she was across the street and holding on to a huge American flag as part of thier display. They got the " largest float award" for the sheer size of the flag- it took about 70 people to carry it the parade route.

Karate and Life lessons

Success in the martial arts - by Harry Cook



This is a very good article about what it takes to " do " the martial arts. Hh I hope is on the way to a black belt and i hope she will use these principles set out by Mr. Cook, She has learned a few has improved a few and needs to work on more still to really achive her sucess.

her disipline has helped her tremendosly already in school and life, breaking boards and practicing and being aware of your body is so crucial at her point in life.

testing is tough

Brown belt succeses - SSd1 and HH testing for brown belt is tough buisness, Hh has to go to these events and get her " stripes" until she is ready to test for conditional black belt. SSd1 went from high red to low brown. Yeah for the karate program- they are doing great things for these young people.

Brown Belt Sucess!! wow this girl is good!

HH is thrilled to " move up" to the Black pants she gets to wear now that she is on the way to black belt. - you go girl

Can you see her Teacher in the back making a face? haha - this is a great photo of Hh though.

Hh achieved her Brown Belt May 9th

This is a proud moment for her and Me too! She worked incredably hard to achive this sucess.

Way to go Karate Girl.

- I am trying to catch up a bit but have had a few projects to complete. My May is getting away with lots to do and see and complete.

kicking it

this was last saturday's activity, these are the, boards, and the kid who broke some ( 3 of 4 she tried) and a shot of her ankle after a failed attempt.

low brown belt

Hh graduated to Low brown belt!! way to go girl . SSD1 will be graduating to High red on Friday! way to go for him too.

Go Hh - sparring

look at the height she is getting on her foot right at the head level of the other sparring partner !

black belt Karate Feet Pedicure!

sweet new pedicure, we treated each other to a mini spa date today Hh got this cool black toes with silver designs and neat little jewels in the flower centers.

high red Belt!

Here is Hh , she has gotten her high red belt! they had a graduation from the low red to " burnt meat" She has been sparing and learning her forms, I am so very proud of her accomplishments in this area- she really has a will to make it to the black belt :)

karate tournament- a success

Hh with a third place trophy ! for forms, sparing was more difficult and she didn't go beyond the first round, but she did a great job, go girl! SSD1- didn't score well but he did participate and that was a good thing! yeah boys are great!

high blue belts

this was taken last Saturday the 1st of March. SSD1 and Hh received thier HIGH blue belts and they both broke boards durring the graduation.

Hh is enjoying sparing and wanted to spar but didn't have anyone her size this day.

I am so proud of them both for sticking with this- it has been a confedence builder for them both and a way to shine. it offers alot of other benefits. Hh says she is definately the strongest girl in her class at the moment and the disiple helps her make good choices for herself too. a big bonus is it is FUN too :-)

Blue belt Success

here is the graduation to Blue belts! this was saturday past and the karate kids are really progressing.

SSD1 Did not follow directions and wait for his photo with a " blue Belt" so there are none of him in front of the dojo oh well he still did well and made it to the next level.

both SSd1 and Hh are loving this stuff, I am so proud they have stuck with it and are really getting a better self from it.

I highly recomend this activity for those kids who take to it.

great job girl!