Karate Test

The Cisco Kid has been going to Karate since July of 2011. He wants to go all the way to become a black belt. In July he started out in a white belt and four months later he graduated to a yellow belt. Saturday he tested for his new belt color. Yellow with a Black stripe. In a couple of months and once he knows all the requirements he will be eligible to participate in tournaments. Tournaments are people pitted against each other and using martial arts moves you gather points if you get the first strike or first series of strikes in. They call it sparing... TV makes karate sparing look something like a dance with karate movements. Right now it is not like that at all. This is a full contact sport. They are being thought to do a series of different high kicks, low kicks, extended punches, jabs and lots of blocking also combination movements. A combination example: two jabs, back step and then a round kick. The test he did on Saturday was for eight different combination movements. Now with his new belt he has to learn 20 different combination movements. I have to say that sparing looks very difficult to do. Not only does he have to worry about his opponent getting the best of him but he will have to try to anticipate their moves so he can do the right combination to score the highest points. Recognizing the combination is a two way street. Now the competition begins. Who will be able to get the best combinations and make the most points.

 

Cub Scouts Blue & Gold Banquet

Last Night was the advancement ceramonie for the Pack. Blue & Gold was amazing. The Boys had so much fun. Our Den won Best Robot. So we get to have an Ice cream party. The food was great. It was catered by Benito’s Italian Cafe. My favorite part of the Blue & Gold Banquet was as I was calling the boys up one by one to give them their Bear badge they had ear to ear smiles and laughter. They worked so hard for that badge and they are so proud of themselves. It just goes to show….if they work hard for something they appreciate it so much more.  

Handing out all their Bear Awards

I also gave each boy a wooden memory book, with a collage of pictures throughout the year.

 

I made the 11x12 book out of wood and burnt the Cub Scouts into the wood with a wood burner tool.

I had all the boys sign each others books. 

I then put a collage of pictures of them and their activities throughout the year.   

I included all the paperwork they had to do for their achievements.  

Lastley I included the Blue & Gold Program.  

Robots from the Tiger Den, Wolf Den and our Bear Den.

Webelos Den

The boys talked about their contribution to building the robot. 

I made the table center pieces to go with the robot theme.  This is made out of soda cans,bottle cap for the eyes and nose, beads for the ears.  

The desert table: I made the robot desert stand and the majority of the deserts.

There were dirt cups, carrot cake cupcakes, cheese cake, chocolate & vanilla cake with butter cream, Nutter butter peanut butter cups, cream puffs, éclairs, Apple cheese caramel pies, Biscotti's & mints. 

The Apple Cheese Caramel Pie:

You can get the gram cracker shells in the store pre-made.

The cream is made from Crème cheese, brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon and apple spice.  

The apples are store bought pie filling. I added cinnamon and apple spice to them.  

The pie crust topping is the pre-made Pillsbury Dough rolled pie crust that I cut into strips and placed on top.

Just before serving I drizzled caramel on top.  

It is hard to believe this is the third Blue & Gold event we have been to.  Two more and my little boy will be off to Boy Scouts. 

 

Valentines

What a day Tuesday was. First I spent most of the day at School in The Cisco Kids class helping with the Valentine’s Day party and crafts. They had so many cookies, candy and cake to eat it was amazing the kids did not go into a sugar coma. They decorated their Valentines bag and made a Valentines picture letter. Very Cute Stuff!

Yesterday evening after the Cisco Kids Guitar lessons we went out to grab a quick Valentines dinner. When we got home we had exchanges some valentine’s gifts. For The Cisco Kid he got some small fun novelty gifts. The Chief got some Tech Magazine and Sugar Free Cookies. The Chief and The Cisco Kid went overboard with it all. I have to start out by doing some small justification for crazy amount of gifts they got me. Not only are the Chief and I celebrating Valentine’s Day but we are celebrating our fifteenth wedding anniversary. WOW!!! Time Fly’s!! They got me a HUGE amount of Cake decorating items. I will have so much fun experimenting with all the items.

The Cisco Kid loves his goofy glasses. He hardly ever smiles for the camera but when he put these glasses on it transformed him into a silly kid for the camera. 

His little valentives goodies.

My little goodies!  With all this cake decorating equipment i might be able to make some really pretty cakes.  

  I have been looking at everything for hours.