Karate Tournament

Today Trinity and Elijah had their first karate tournament. The whole event lasted nearly four hours--thank goodness for the food and beverages to keep the spectators happy! Elijah participated in three Little Ninja events, in which the first and second place participants won trophies, while the rest of the participants received medals. Elijah was so cute. He wound up winning second place and was beaming from ear-to-ear when they handed him his trophy. My favorite was the wood-breaking event. Five and six year olds don't actually punch a wood block (ouch!); instead they punch a piece of card-stock paper in half. For this event, Elijah had to jog in place with his knees coming up to his chest, drop down to his stomach, pop back up and punch the "block." He did his moves very smooth and fast...that paper never saw him coming. =) I think this event is what bumped Elijah up in the competition.

Trinity participated in the beginning staff-bow competition, and from my perspective (which I'll admit is biased) she was amazing. She was the only white-belt to participate, so she was up against orange and green belts. It was so impressive watching her twirl that big stick around (okay, I know it's not called a "big stick" and she would probably be offended if she overheard me calling it that, but I'm struggling with the terminology here). Before she began, she had to approach the judges and give a formal introduction of herself and her martial arts school, and she spoke loudly with confidence. I love it that she's such a secure little kid. Hopefully that self-confidence doesn't get trampled out of her by the time she enters the snottyness and shallowness of middle school. I still remember entering 7th grade as a confident, happy kid, but soon after almost completely withdrawing into shyness and insecurity under the cruel scrutiny of middle school girls.

Anyway, Trinity also wound up winning second place. There was one very tall boy who displayed quite a mastery of the bow, and he took the trophy. He was so sweet though...he walked up to Trin and told her that she did a great job and he thought she should have won. And that's when my very outgoing girl suddenly became shy and just smiled at him, speechless.