Nathan's Visit

Eric's twin brother Nathan came to visit last week.  He had been working in Chicago for a few days, and was able to come stay with us for a few days for the long weekend.  It was so nice to see him!  We always love having Nathan around.

Emma wrote this in the room where Nathan would be staying.

We watched some movies together, and Emma wanted (and I think perhaps succeeded) to play every Lego game she has with Nathan.  He probably thinks that's all we own and all we do!  Emma has at least 12 different Lego games, so it really is a lot!  Emma also wanted to play Nathan some chess.  And of course, not wanting to be left out, Eric also played some Chess with Nathan.  This might be my very favorite thing to watch the two of them do.  You've heard of sibling rivalry?  Well, these two are the best at it.  No, they don't smack talk a lot, or get mean or aggressive (or upset when they lose), but they are so similar that their very attempts to out-strategize the other plant a permanent smile on my face.  They played twice, each winning once, and decided in the interest of brotherly love to leave it at that.  A tie.  =)

We went out to Lake Geneva for some lunch at the Sprecher restaurant there and to wander around the shops and by the lake.  It was a perfect day for it!  With so much rain lately it was fabulous to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.  Lunch was delicious, and we came across some very interesting items in some of the stores.  Emma's favorite was this hat.  It's made of sheep's wool.  It was awesome!

The lake was beautiful.  Eric being Eric, he just had to dip his feet in the water.  Eric's never met a river or stream or pond or lake or any body of water that he didn't want to walk around in.  Regardless of how cold it might be (I mean the water's temperature, not the temperature outside.  He doesn't seek out this activity in the middle of winter... usually.).  As we finally found a bench to relax on and enjoy the view, Emma was still a ball of energy, and kept walking back and forth along the edge of the sidewalk, or just running around in a circle on the grass.  Yup, my kid is weird.  Cute.  But weird.  And, because I was bored, you get the lake pictures slightly antiqued.

On Saturday Eric, Nathan and Emma all went to see the new Star Trek movie together.  We had seen it the previous week (and I liked it), so I opted out this time.  Then that evening we enjoyed a BBQ with some wonderful friends.

On Monday morning Eric and Nathan went out for breakfast, while I stayed home with Emma, who wasn't awake yet.  When she got up and found out where they were, you should have seen the look on her face!  She was NOT pleased.  I, however, thought it was hilarious.  Yeah, I'm not what you'd call a "good" mom.

Emma was very sad to see Nathan go.  She loved spending time with him and having someone else she could relentlessly tease and show-off for.  We hope he'll be back soon!

TKD Belt Test & Celebration Dinner

Yes, another post about taekwondo.  This one is mostly to link to the videos of her form and sparring so that family can see them.  Emma was testing for her high purple belt and successfully earned it.  I think she knew her form better than anyone else in class!  And during her sparring she kicked (I'm sure accidentally, but it was still awesome) the face shield off her opponents helmet.  Unfortunately right when that happened another set of kids got in the way, so you can't really see it clearly.  You can see the mask fly off at about the :45 second mark, but that's about it.  Anyway, we're so proud of Emma and how hard she works at this!




Afterwards, we went out for dinner to celebrate a job well done.  We didn't know yet if she had passed, and actually earned her next belt, but we were proud of the job she had done and all her hard work in preparing for it.  We went to Buffalo Wild Wings because Eric wanted to take us there.  Emma and I had never been.  Emma loved it!  It was great seeing her get all messy.

Kite Flying

We recently went out to enjoy some of our nicer weather and flew one of Emma's kites.  It is pure joy watching her do just about anything, and this was no exception.  I can't wait to do it again!

And the entire time we were there I had this song in my head.  Not because the kite wasn't working, but just because it's about kites.  Oddly enough, I didn't really think about the Mary Poppins song Let's Go Fly A Kite.  Apparently I'm very particular about my kite songs.

TKD Tournament

Eric said I should name this post:  Strike first.  Strike hard.  No mercy, Sir!

Bonus points if you instantly know the reference!  If not, maybe this will help:  Fear does not exist in this dojo.  Or maybe this:  Sweep the leg!  And finally, in case you have no idea what I'm talking about:  Wax on, wax off.  Got it?  Okay good.  Now Eric is appeased.

On Saturday Emma participated in her first taekwondo tournament.  She did her form and some sparring.  We had no idea what to expect, but ended up having so much fun!  Emma loved it too.  Her form looked great.  She earned 2nd place for it!  And it's always fun to watch her spar.  She fought her way through 3 rounds to earn 2nd place in her bracket!  And she should have won her last round.  All of her kicks were too high (nice problem to have) and she lost a point for accidentally hitting her opponent in the head.  Plus, after her awesome jump-kick to the head at about 8 seconds in during her first round, she sort of started focusing on just that attack and forgot to also punch more and block.  But considering it was her first tournament, I can't believe how well she did.  And as long as she had fun, we're happy with her performance.

In case you watch the videos, here is the points system for the sparring:  1 point for a punch or a kick to the chest or side.  2 points for a kick to the head.  3 points for a jump-kick to the head.

Here is her form.  They only did as much of it as they've learned in class so far this session.



The medals for forms:

Ready to spar!

Sparring rounds 1, 2, & 3.  About 8 seconds into the first round is where you can see her make contact and earn 3 points for her jump-kick to the head.  It's awesome!







Medals for sparring:

Our cute purple belt with her 2 medals!

Emma with her head instructor