Caitlin, Emma and Ethan had a tae kwon do tournament yesterday. It was Cole's very first tournament. Each of them participated in both events...sparring and kata.

Cole competed first. He was in a group of about twenty kids ages 4-7, all white belts like him. Only three of them seemed to have a kata prepared. The rest just stood there and the judge had to tell them, "Okay, show me a kick. Now show me a block. Now, show me a double punch." I was really worried that Cole would forget the kata he had prepared or that he wouldn't realize that he was supposed to perform his kata because none of the other kids were. Apparently I had nothing to worry about! He got up there, stood at attention, did ready position, yelled, "JUDGES, MY NAME IS COLE!" then did his kata PERFECTLY!!!!! He didn't forget a single move, he was confident and he did it the best I had ever seen him do it! I guess all of his hard work and practice paid off in the end. He had been practicing SO hard. For weeks he had practiced his kata daily. He would sit there, eating dinner, going over the moves in his mind, saying the things he was supposed to be doing. "Attention...bow...ready position...judges my name is...fighting stance kiyup...four corner block...double punch...slide step...front kick...step behind side kick...attention...bow." I heard him repeating that constantly for weeks. I couldn't have been more proud of him. He didn't place in that competition, but he did his absolute best and he was incredible.

Next came sparring. He was totally robbed of that one! The judge totally messed up. It was a bit irritating. First, she called a point for the other boy, when it totally should have been Cole's point. I'm not sure if she got them mixed up or what, but the boy didn't even touch Cole and Cole punched him, but she called a point for a punch, but in the other boy's favor. Two points for Cole later, she called the score, "Two to one..." IN THE OTHER BOY'S FAVOR!!!! What a load of crap. Then, the boy got another point, so while they should have been tied up (well, actually, Cole should have already won except they gave the wrong kid the first point) she called the other boy as the winner. So, in all, Cole got three points and the other boy got one, but because of the judge's mistakes, the other boy won :( That kid actually ended up with third place. Who knows how well Cole would have done had the judge not made those mistakes. Judges ruling is final though, so we couldn't argue it. Cole seemed oblivious and was just thrilled to be competing, so we let it go.

Then came the girl's competitions. They started with sparring. There were ten girls in their grouup they were competing against. They did an AMAZING job! They ended up having to fight eachother for third and fourth place. Emma beat Caitlin, giving Emma third place and Caitlin fourth!

Next came their kata competition. Emma and Caitlin were in diffferent divisions so they didn't have to compete against eachother for this part. They both did an amazing job and both had some stiff competition. I was sitting in front of Emma's ring, but was watching Caitlin's competition in the other ring because Emma wasn't up yet. They got through all of Caitlin's group, then starting calling people back up to show them their kata again. You can usually tell who is going to place in the competition by watching who they call back up. They call back up the ones they want to see again so they can make their final decision. I was bummed when they didn't call Caitlin, or her friend from class, Declan, back up. :( After the four they called back up were done, they announced the winners. DECLAN GOT FIRST AND CAITLIN GOT SECOND!!!! Apparently they had already decided first and second place and were just trying to figure out third and fourth when they called people back up!!!! You should have seen the HUGE smile on Caitlin's face when she got called. She, too, had figured that she didn't place when she didn't get called back up. Emma didn't place in her division, but I was so incredibly proud of her. She did her kata the best I have ever seen her do it and she has been working so hard. She was a little bummed that Caitlin got another trophy and she didn't, but she sucked it up, told Caitlin how happy she was for her, gave her a hug and told her congratulations.

We had an awesome time and I'm just so pleased with my children. They have been working so hard, practicing everyday and it really paid off. On Saturday they are attending their belt promotion ceremony. Cole is becoming a yellow belt and both girls will get their purple belts, then advance to purple belt, second degree because they are currently doing double promotion, which allows them double advancement each session.

After the tournament, the kid's instructor, Matt, came up to me and told me, "I've been hearing some wonderful things about Cole and his kata. All I'm hearing is that he totally got robbed," which is funny because when I was in the bathroom, some woman I don't know came up to me and said, "Your boy did such a good job with his kata. He should have gotten the big trophy."

During the awards ceremony, Declan's mom came up to me and told me that she and her husband were talking to Matt a couple of days earlier and he was telling them how proud he was of my girls and how well they were doing and what an incredible couple of kids they were. I always love to hear that kind of stuff. lol

If they keep it up, Emma will be a black belt when she is seven and Caitlin will when she is nine! It's funny to think that these tiny little girls will have their black belts! Cole is starting to think about possibly doing double promotion. However, I think what we'll do next session is have him take two classes, but not do double promotion. I just don't think he's ready for that quite yet. If he starts doing double promotion, he'll be a black belt shortly after he turns seven! Crazy...just crazy. I'll have all these little karate masters running around my house. Sera learned a new little trick yesterday. She says "Aiyah!" and punches! It's too cute! If you say, "Aiya!" she starts punching away. You know you're around karate a lot when your one year old is starting to learn some moves!