Roland Osborne visits TXBBA

Roland Osborne is a very cool guy. Besides being an all-around superstar in the martial arts world, he's great with kids, and really down to earth. I took this pic of him with Morgan, printed it on my little photo printer, and he autographed it for her. And don't you know that made her feel pretty special.

Here Morgan is showing off some of the moves she learned during the bokken (wooden sword) seminar.

The bokken group was small which meant lots of time for everyone to show their stuff.

Roland also gave a kicknastics seminar. Kicknastics is gymnastics meets martial arts. The kids learned some awesome new kicks and a new form (combination of moves that's memorized and performed) that will be great for the school's demo team to learn.

We had a great day with Roland and all the folks who came out for the seminar! See you next year!

Who doesn't love a parade?

WARNING: This is a photo-heavy post!

I hope everyone out there in blogland had a great 4th of July! For the very first time ever in my whole entire life I walked in a parade. And walked. Fast. No, faster. Hurry! We're falling behind! We'll be the laughing stock of the parade! Oh no! Go, go...wait, what? Sorry, I must have been having a flashback for a second there. It was a very traumatic experience. Nobody told me I'd be JOGGING!

Seriously though, it was a lot of fun. My youngest daughter is on the demonstration team for our martial arts school and today they walked the 4th of July parade. I've got lots of photos to share, not just of our team, but of several notable sights.

Let's start off with the local celebrities and politicians. What good is a parade without them?

Our team with Miss Texas. Sorry Miss Texas, but I don't know your real name.

And here's Mr. Rob Orr with our humble little team. This is actually the second time Mr. Orr has had an appearance on LOTHF. For his previous photo op look here.

This is the very front of the parade. I don't know any parade lingo to tell you the official name of the parade front-runners.

Here comes the cavalry.

Here's that Mr. Orr again. Man, what a camera hog! (Mr. Orr, if you are reading this I offer my sincere apologies for the name calling. I don't know what came over me.)

Watch out for poop!

And here come the stars of the parade, the TX Black Belt Academy Demo Team! YAY! Put your hands together! Woo hoo! Wait...what? The parade is over, you say? So sorry.

On a more serious note, this next photo depicts one of many reasons why we are able to walk in a 4th of July parade at all. Keep our troops and their families in your prayers!

Happy Independence Day!