All of the competitors from the virtual qualifier series had the chance to compete one final time for titles and medals today. Gold medal winners would then have the chance to compete for one of two grand champion titles (under 17 and 18+).

Elizabeth had made some major adjustments to her classical kata after the judges ranked her lower than expected at nationals (apparently she had a few elements mixed between different styles of the same kata).  She had of course only finished the last part of it the night before. Despite this she nailed pretty much everything and finished with 4 golds and 1 silver.

Gold is hard style forms, classical forms, traditional weapons and extreme weapons.

Silver in creative weapons.

Erika placed 3rd in hard style with an excellent performance.

Having gotten a number of golds Elizabeth qualified to compete in the grands with all the other 17 and under gold medalist (45 divisions). Sadly this meant waiting around for another hour or so while all the other divisions finished up. We ended up being the only ones left at the dojo with the girls huddled around the screen watching the various other divisions while they waited.  Elizabeth could choose any one division in which she won gold to use that form for the grands.  She chose to do her classical kata and didn't end up placing in the grands but it was still a great experience. She said in retrospect her extreme bo probably would have been a better choice for a mixed division like that.

Overall a very strong finish to a great virtual season.

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Heather invited us all over for a lovely afternoon of games and food in her backyard in celebration of her 50th birthday. The kids greatly enjoyed running around, colouring on balloons and playing games together while the adults lounged about while catching up on the past year's events.

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Today was Father's day at preschool so daddy, having been very good, was allowed to come along with Michael and check out all the cool toys and activities. In case any dads were feeling shy they had an abundant supply of strategically placed donuts to lure them in. Michael very much enjoyed having daddy visit and carefully showed him around and demonstrated various activity stations including: putting out fires, reading books, working on an alphabet puzzle, playing with the water table, building a car, playing with hot wheels, fishing, painting and of course eating donuts.

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This was the last of the WKC virtual world qualifier series events in which one could accumulate points to earn a wildcard spot on the national team for the world championships in Ireland this fall. Elizabeth earned 1st in hard style forms, classical forms and traditional weapons. She only managed 2nd in extreme and creative weapons.  Overall she finished the series:

1st in hard style forms

1st in classical forms

1st in traditional weapons

1st in creative weapons

2nd in extreme weapons

She was the top ranked Canadian in all 5 divisions thus earning the wildcard spot for the national team in all 5. As she had already qualified in everything except classical forms it was the only one that really made a difference. We were particularly blown away by the comparison to last year when she only earned a single 1st/wildcard spot. Way to go Elizabeth!

After the tournament (despite having run 12km and biked about 20 yesterday) Elizabeth decided to get in some training with the team.

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The great Glebe garage sale was back this year and the kids were just a wee bit excited. They had been planning their attack for months and were practically bouncing off the walls in the morning. While the crowds were definitely down from previous years (especially on the outskirts) there were still many, many people. The kids greatly enjoyed buying stuff and managed to secure quite a lot of junk given their limited budgets. They are already talking about next year's sale.

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