Liam's musical theater debut! The teachers were worried that he wasn't going to sing and perform on stage.. but my little introvert did a pretty good job considering he wouldn't perform on stage the whole week during practice.
Song highlights from Liam's performance:
Liam's solo:
Somehow I don't think show business is his calling...
Friday, July 29, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Liam's Belt Promotion
Backtracking... Liam had his belt promotion couple of months ago. Despite Emilia's bad competition experience, the kids are continuing with judo classes. We have adjusted our focus for the kids to prioritize being proficient in judo first.
Emilia has learned quite a bit and her understanding grows with each good and bad experience. Liam, being younger, is still grasping at the concept. He has slowly, but surely been improving, and has improved so much in attitude and skill since his first weeks where laying on the mat was a frequent occurrence.
In order to have a belt promotion, the student needs to gain both sets of 5 character stripes and 5 skill stripes. Then the sensei will recommend for promotion. In order to be promoted, the student also needs to have approvals from both the student's teacher indicating he is doing well in school, as well as the parents, indicating he is behaving at home.
Liam has been looking forward to getting promoted since the day he finally received all his stripes! He has seen 3 promotions now with kids he knows, including Emilia, all get promoted.
Happy kid to be joining the ranks of the yellow/white belts.
Emilia has learned quite a bit and her understanding grows with each good and bad experience. Liam, being younger, is still grasping at the concept. He has slowly, but surely been improving, and has improved so much in attitude and skill since his first weeks where laying on the mat was a frequent occurrence.
In order to have a belt promotion, the student needs to gain both sets of 5 character stripes and 5 skill stripes. Then the sensei will recommend for promotion. In order to be promoted, the student also needs to have approvals from both the student's teacher indicating he is doing well in school, as well as the parents, indicating he is behaving at home.
Liam has been looking forward to getting promoted since the day he finally received all his stripes! He has seen 3 promotions now with kids he knows, including Emilia, all get promoted.
Happy kid to be joining the ranks of the yellow/white belts.
Friday, July 22, 2016
A Leopard
Liam came home from camp one day, chattering up a storm. He was telling me about his day and what he did. I listened, nodded, and would provide him feed back every so often with "That sounds fun"... or an "Oh really?". One of the things he said today was "Mommy, I got to pet a leopard today. A real leopard." I smiled and nodded at him and said "Oh, okay." Did I believe him? Of course not. Petting a leopard?? Yeh, right!
What do you know? Camp sends out photos and here Liam is, petting an Asian leopard Cat cross-breed with a domestic cat, also known as a Bengal.
Okay kid. You ARE RIGHT! You did pet a *leopard* cat!
What do you know? Camp sends out photos and here Liam is, petting an Asian leopard Cat cross-breed with a domestic cat, also known as a Bengal.
Okay kid. You ARE RIGHT! You did pet a *leopard* cat!
"Honey! Honey! Honey!"
It's Summer! Summer! Summer! And camps galore time. One of the camps Emilia participated in was an Intensive Musical Theater program where the kids learned to sing & dance (and whatever else goes on behind the scenes) and put on a kids version of "Winnie the Pooh".
She was casted as a cute little bee.
E's first musical debut starts at 0:40.
Ryan took video from a closer, side angle.
She had 4 short bee scenes. They were quick though, but I managed to film one of them just in time.
It was about 30+ minutes production. Costumes were cute, kids were cute, and the songs were catchy. Here's the grand finale.
Not sure if she has a future in show business. Emilia was not very diligent in practicing at home after camp even though we would nudge her to. Of course, now that the camp and production is over, Emilia and Liam! have been singing the opening Winnie the Pooh song together all the time!! So much, that in fact, Liam knows most of the words.
She was casted as a cute little bee.
E's first musical debut starts at 0:40.
Ryan took video from a closer, side angle.
She had 4 short bee scenes. They were quick though, but I managed to film one of them just in time.
It was about 30+ minutes production. Costumes were cute, kids were cute, and the songs were catchy. Here's the grand finale.
Not sure if she has a future in show business. Emilia was not very diligent in practicing at home after camp even though we would nudge her to. Of course, now that the camp and production is over, Emilia and Liam! have been singing the opening Winnie the Pooh song together all the time!! So much, that in fact, Liam knows most of the words.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Happy Together
I think the kids are realizing that two of them together equates to double the fun, or for me, double the trouble. Lately when they have been getting along, they have been getting along too too well! ;P Here's the dynamic duo playing "twinsies".
And yes, we did take the kiddos out like that... twinsies, hair clips, and such.. except for Liam's low rider shorts (which are actually Emilia's). Sorry kid. I do not approve of the hip hopping, baggy pants, underwear showing style!
Emilia's new real life doll.
This will one day be blackmail photos and videos.
And yes, we did take the kiddos out like that... twinsies, hair clips, and such.. except for Liam's low rider shorts (which are actually Emilia's). Sorry kid. I do not approve of the hip hopping, baggy pants, underwear showing style!
Emilia's new real life doll.
This will one day be blackmail photos and videos.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Vital Grand Opening
With so much going on lately, climbing is the only thing that keeps us sane. It's a constant, bubble of happiness, in the midst of the on-goings of life. I look forward to these family climbing sessions, which luckily suites all of us. We made the trek over to check out another new gym's grand opening at Vital Climbing.
The kids are sort of getting more interested in climbing. They are definitely more interested in creative play with non-toy gym equipment (which is a no no), but for a short period of time, the kiddos, especially Emilia, will have a desire to climb some routes. And if Liam sees Emilia climbing, then he usually wants to climb too. Emilia will walk around to look for climbs that suite her and she'll give it a go. Ryan usual helps her with picking out climbs and spot her. We haven't taught her much technique, but she is naturally starting to figure out her body position and movement.
Game face! She wants that next hold and can see her looking at it, trying to figure out how to get there.
Emilia really tries. The struggle is real. It's awesome seeing her focused and determined as she tries to figure out how to make the moves. And of course, it's disappointing when you can't make that move... but that's part of it, more times than not, it is about failing and not giving up, because it only takes 1 time to get it right.
Ryan giving Emilia tips on using the heel hooks.
Think maybe it is time to start teaching her technique. She definitely has the capability, but needs to get over the fear of heights still and needs to learn how to take a fall.
This green route was an easy one that was well within her capabilities. With coaxing from Ryan, she did it all her own even though she was skittish at the top out.
Creative play with non-toy gym equipment. They got lucky this time around and did not get scolded by anyone. But yes, we usually do not allow them to play on gym equipment.
Ryan shows how it's done. He makes it look easy! I couldn't make it past the first move. No grip on those slopers and Ryan's advice was to use compression and just squeeze the holds. Yeh. Right.
So.. I have to add in his bloopers too. Climbing looks effortless and easy once the moves are figured out, but it does take some figuring.
You may have noticed something interesting about the kids... to be continued in the next post.
The kids are sort of getting more interested in climbing. They are definitely more interested in creative play with non-toy gym equipment (which is a no no), but for a short period of time, the kiddos, especially Emilia, will have a desire to climb some routes. And if Liam sees Emilia climbing, then he usually wants to climb too. Emilia will walk around to look for climbs that suite her and she'll give it a go. Ryan usual helps her with picking out climbs and spot her. We haven't taught her much technique, but she is naturally starting to figure out her body position and movement.
Game face! She wants that next hold and can see her looking at it, trying to figure out how to get there.
Emilia really tries. The struggle is real. It's awesome seeing her focused and determined as she tries to figure out how to make the moves. And of course, it's disappointing when you can't make that move... but that's part of it, more times than not, it is about failing and not giving up, because it only takes 1 time to get it right.
Ryan giving Emilia tips on using the heel hooks.
Think maybe it is time to start teaching her technique. She definitely has the capability, but needs to get over the fear of heights still and needs to learn how to take a fall.
This green route was an easy one that was well within her capabilities. With coaxing from Ryan, she did it all her own even though she was skittish at the top out.
Creative play with non-toy gym equipment. They got lucky this time around and did not get scolded by anyone. But yes, we usually do not allow them to play on gym equipment.
Ryan shows how it's done. He makes it look easy! I couldn't make it past the first move. No grip on those slopers and Ryan's advice was to use compression and just squeeze the holds. Yeh. Right.
So.. I have to add in his bloopers too. Climbing looks effortless and easy once the moves are figured out, but it does take some figuring.
You may have noticed something interesting about the kids... to be continued in the next post.
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
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