First day of Kindergarten

The big day has finally arrived!  Leilani is off to Kindergarten.  After months of debate and discussion, we opted to send her to a school in our district (instead of our neighborhood school).  She's been counting the days all summer.  

 

 She wanted to take a gift to her teacher for the first day.  I did too.  Poor Mrs. Nelson has NO IDEA what she's gotten herself into.  I wonder how long it will be before we get the call home telling us that Ms. Leilani has taken over the class.  It's just a matter of time. We decided to take her fresh picked roses from our yard.

Leilani was so excited to take her lunchbox to school.  We opted for a Bento style lunch system and then she and I decorated the carrier.  She was so proud of our artwork!

 First day of school lunch=  Butterfly shaped sandwich ("Mama. Food always tastes better when it's fun-shaped."), grapes and strawberries, pretzels and grape tomatoes.

 PS.  The Kindergarten Open House was the week before school started.  Leilani was the only student who had both parents AND grandparents. (You know Grandy and Poppy wouldn't miss it!)  I wonder if that's a sign that the Flowers Family is going to be trouble?!

Testing for her Blue Belt

Leilani and Rubie tested for their blue belts in Taekwon Do this week.  They are halfway to their black belts.  This time around, the girls had private testing.  It was just the two of them and their instructor.  Grandy and Poppy made the trip up to watch. 

Look at them crouched and ready for action!

 

Perfecting their back kicks.

 Listening attentively (That's Grandy in the background!)

 Preparing for one of her monster back kicks.  Look at that concentration!

 Leilani struggles a bit with her sit ups.  Even with Instructor Nick helping her along, she still can only do a few on her own. 

 What she lacks in sit ups, she certainly makes up for in "the thinking position" exercise. She can hold that position forever.  It makes my stomach hurt just watching it! 

 Breaking the board.  Each time, the instructor asks Leilani for a bad habit and he writes it on the board before she breaks it.  Last time her bad habit was talking back. This time the board said "Not listening."

 Instructor Nick with Leilani and her broken board

It's hard to imagine that those two sweet-faced little babies are skilled enough in a martial art to break boards with their bare feet.  

First football game of the season

Cheerleader Leilani was ready to cheer UHS on to victory at the first home game. 

She loves the school mascot.  The costume AND the real version.  But I think her favorite is definitely the real scotty dog.

Leilani loves it whenever her daddy lets her "ride high."  Even he was all dressed in his school spirit wear.

After the game with one of my favorite students.  Such a nice young man and he's ridiculously talented.  Remember the name Donta Abron.  That kid is going places!!

Taekwon Do Testing

Yesterday the little martial artist tested for her green belt in Taekwon Do.  She and Rubie both did very well.    The green belt is the first intermediate belt level.  It will be her 5th level.  She is only 7 levels away from her black belt.  If she sticks with it, she could be a black belt by the time she's 9 years old.  Wow!!!

Video: orange belt testing

 The highlight of the whole night was the board breaking. We didn't realize the girls would be breaking their first boards as part of their examination. It was as exciting for the parents as it was for the kids. They were awesome!!

The way it works is their Instructor has them ask their parents to name a bad habit they need to break.  Then the Instructor writes the habit on the board.  The breaking of the board represents freedom from the bad habit. I hope it works because Leilani's board says "Don't talk back."  I simply cannot comprehend how I possibly could have a child who always has to have the last word.  Hmmmm.

Instructor Nick writing down Leilani's bad habit

Video: breaking the board
She actually breaks the board at 2:55 of the video (Right after I knock the camera out of Mike's hand and onto the floor.  Oops!)

 This is her friend Morgan who has the sweetest little face and is one tough cookie!

The tooth is OUT

After a few days of wiggling her "wobbly tooth" Leilani had enough.  She brought me a piece of string, asked me to tie it around her tooth and then she yanked it out herself.  It was AMAZING.  But you can see for yourself.  Click on the video:

Lani pulls out her OWN tooth!

Here it is!

 The tooth fairy brought her a dollar and a new book.  She was actually lots more excited about the book, than the money.

 The tooth went into her new special tooth fairy pouch that her Mama made.

Slip n Slide

Leilani had a play date last week at Rubie's house.  Rubie has a slip-n-slide so of course Leilani had to get one the next day.  The temperature has been over 100 for 5 days in a row, so anything to keep her entertained AND cool was welcome.

Breaking News!

Leilani has her very first loose tooth!  She didn't even realize that it was loose until I pointed it out to her. (The tooth was actually SIDEWAYS in her mouth)  Although the tooth is barely even still attached, Drama Queen is in rare form.  Clearly my daughter's alter-ego is a 68 year old southern belle because she is staggering around the house, swooning and clutching the imaginary pearls around her neck.


Notice that by the end of the video, she's laughing at her own ridiculousness.

Video:   Leilani's wobbly tooth part II

Video:   Leilani's wobbly tooth part I