Junge Heuschrecken

The boys, my "Young Grasshoppers", have been participating in Tae Kwon Do this year.  We've always loved the idea of martial arts for them, but back home it was extremely cost prohibitive.  Here, however, they bring the extra curriculars to the school.  They have all sorts of offerings but it's nice because they get to use the school versus paying overhead on their own building and the kids head there directly after school, so there's no scurrying about trying to get them there or entertain myself and Autumn while we wait on them. 


So, every Thursday they've been going to Tae Kwon Do and this past Saturday was their very first belt test.  We showed up to a gym at 9:30 in the morning with the other Grasshoppers (that's more of a Kung Fu reference, isn't it?  Oh well.) 


The boys found spots near the front:




And after a big group warm up, they broke them into small groups of 10 for the testing. I think it was by age. Easton's 3rd (and final) group had to do some harder stuff than Dalton's middle group did. It was also a little confusing as this particular "master" only spoke German, but according to our German friends, even they had a hard time understanding the guy.

Here's part of Dalton's:


And here's part of Easton's:


They both got promoted to the white-yellow belt. 


(Apparently there was no chance that they wouldn't get the belt. This first belt is more motivational, it seems.  Good thing, too, as we had to pay 30€ per boy and I wondered what would happen if they didn't pass. Even so, we're still proud of them for being willing to get up in front of everyone.)