Purple Decided

Rank Camp concluded today, and as you can see above, Madison had a wonderful time.  It was testing day, and above you can see the traditional photo of Mr. and Mrs. Edge posing with Madison at the successful conclusion.  She's now officially "Purple Decided," which means she's officially a purple belt, although she's had the purple belt a few weeks now.  This is basically "purple, part two."  The parents showed up at 1:30 and just as we did for the first time, one year ago now, we lined the walls and watched the kids during their testing.

You can see how intense they are, facing off against those vicious cushions!  They were ready this morning, having spent the last week in intense lessons about breaking holds, aggressive combos, and dodgeball snowball fights.

But seriously, Madison was ready this morning, and just looked fantastic in this sequence below, where Ms. Walker receives the brunt end of a pretty ferocious combo.

Madison's aggressive shouts can be heard all the way across the room, and when she's on the attack, these shouts are frequent, and filled with all this stored energy.

This combo featured kicks, a flurry of punches, and evasive maneuvers too.

Madison ducks, and then comes back with more punching, keeping Ms. Walker on the defensive.

It was pretty thrilling and intense to watch.  Our little princess was in "destroyer mode," and it's certainly a different side to her!  It's great to see she could handle herself well.  We were positioned right there in front of her, so we had front row seats to all the action.

I only wish I had filmed it - we just didn't now how close we'd be.  But even without the filmed recording, we took a zillion pictures, and on top of that, it's something a parent won't forget:  a wonderful performance by your daughter.

She had a great time this afternoon at testing, and made a lot of friends.  You can see her here, cracking up after a choke hold demonstration sort of went funny.  You can also see Mommy and Daddy in the reflection there, Daddy holding the camera.  She deepened her relationship with lots of friends this week - they're all in this together.

Here's that choke hold, right in the middle of testing.  Good thing the teachers weren't looking!  Seriously though, they all know how to have a good time, and it's a perfect balance of fun, and learning when to be serious and firm.

She really has a great time, and she's really learned to channel this aggressive energy with her strikes and kicks.  It's hilarious, thrilling and almost scary to see.  Just look at her face here!

It's a face of confidence, and a face that you don't want to be on the receiving end of.  She's spent the week increasing her power, breaking boards and doing a lot of push-ups.  She's doing really well, and having a great time with taekwondo.

At the end of the testing, we actually got a new purple belt, one that is "purple decided."  It seems odd to receive a belt that is exactly the same color as before, but you can certainly see how as we advance with the belts, there is much more to learn, and it will take longer to get to these newer belts.  

Here's Madison and Mommy together, just after getting that new belt.  All the parents had a great time watching their kids show off what they learned, and we're always so incredibly proud of Madison.  She's accomplished so much, and she puts her all into so much.

Here's the whole group afterwards for the traditional large group shot.  We have several of these now, accumulated over a year where you can see the progress of all the students in various stages.  It's a personal journey, but the students are doing all of this together, so it's almost like a "band of brothers," (even though Madison just pointed out:  "Uh... there's girls in there too.").

ANYWAY, you can see one of Madison's friends above, Jesse, who was going roller skating later on that night.  She asked us if she could go roller skating, and despite the fact that there are eight trillion things to do for Summer Xtreme... we said "yes."

After leaving the office, we went over to Thompson Bridge Road's Skate Country, where we got there  an hour early.  Seriously, they weren't open yet in summer on a Friday night.  So we went over to the McDonald's across the street and hung out, looking at pictures from the day's testing, laughing, and eating completely unhealthy foods.  But afterwards, we were at the roller skating rink, and the kids all had a great time!

Here they are, doing the Hokey Pokey.  That's what it's all about.  This might have been the most hazardous Hokey Pokey in the history of Hokey Pokeys.  There were many casualties this night, the results of horrifying accidents.  Over half of the participants above actually fell down multiple times during the course of this treacherous dance.  The only two that did not fall were the ones who sat there, quietly clapping, secretly terrified to move much, given the obvious dangers of such a notorious dance.  Yet Madison was not worried about her personal safety tonight, even without proper armor and gear.  She faced the Hokey Pokey head-on, and defied danger, putting her whole self in - and her whole self out.  Why?  Because that's what it's all about!

Anyway, the kids had a good night.  We went home afterwards, and it was back to our book, back to prayers and back to a good night's rest. We'll sleep in tomorrow a little bit, because it's been such a full week - and we've got an even fuller one next week.   But today was good, and unforgettable for many reasons.