Karate Club Inter-Club Tourney / Fundraiser

I did it!  I organized and executed a super fun one day Inter-Club tourney with the proceeds going to the Team Canada kids.  With the tremendous help from Ken and some savvy bakers we had a very successful day.  We had 35 participants and everyone got to compete in one or two events.  We had 5 judges for fighting and 3 for kata.  The families hung out together, the kids competed and played and we ate.  It was the perfect event AND we raised $601.00 for our kids.  Here is a glimpse of the day:

BBQ and Bake Sale out front

Family Synchro Kata division.  Even Chantal (8 months pregnant) put her gi on to compete with her kids!

Sid took gold in her division for kata.  She competed with soft form and did it better than we've ever seen her preform it.  A lot of people were complimenting her and saying "Now we really see why she is on Team Canada!"

Fighting she had to fight boys in her division and took gold,  Her fighting was amazing and combined so many things she has been training hard on these past few weeks.

Three of the kids in her division.

 Sigung explaining the rules to Dave again

Daddy getting some extra score keeping help

Hanging out with friends!

Great fights

And guest judges

Sifu Garnet even came to judge.  AWESOME!

Some of the wonderful members who stuck around until the end of the day!

Oh and a spontaneous parking lot tail gate party before we went home.  Too much fun! 

Countdown To Italy

Countdown to Italy is on! Only 2.5 weeks to go. Go Sid!

Science Club

Science club is back!  Yay!!  We started last week with plants and we were invited out to our friend Emma's (Fernwood Farm).

We talked about plants and then did a scavenger hunt.  It was so nice to see such a big group of kids.

Sid's favorite part was trying to cuddle the free range chickens.  NO luck but she did get to sneak in and see the baby chicks.

That's one happy kid!

Back at home we continued our science day with learning about magnets

magnetite is a natural occurring magnet.  We had loads of fun playing with these iron filings!

Such cool patterns.

Free as a bird!  Here Sid models a new fall upcycled halloween costume now found in the Etsy shop
http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/SewnNatural?ref=em

And a froggy one too!

Training continues for Italy, only a few weeks left until we leave.  Last night Sid and Johnny were sparing and she knocked out his front tooth!  He had just been showing her how wiggly it was so I guess she was just helping out :)

A Fare time at the Fair

It was a bit last minute and a bit planned but we decided to do a raffle at the Russell fair to help with the BIG trip coming up in a month.

We had a great little booth by the entrance and had wonderful cupcakes and a great raffle for some amazing prizes

The kids demonstrated their forms and some kicks and brought people into our booth

Sometimes they chased them away too!

They entered a talent show and didn't place but it was truly a singing and dancing show.  They did really well and were well received by the judges and the crowd.

Amazingly, Ken's cousin Yves was there with his dive show and it was AMAZING!!!!

The ever talented divers were very kind and interested in Sid.  She was super impressed with them!

Back at the club, training is getting serious.  Italy is a month away.  Eeeeek.  Here she shows off why she can kick so high!

We are planning our first Inter-Club tourney in two weekends.  All proceeds will go to the Italy kids.  Above Sid poses for the flyer photo.

And then in her spare time.....  Actually this picture is my newest picture for the Etsy shop.  I love how it turned out!  The shop is so busy it had to close for a few days.  I have sold 6 bee mobiles, one rocket mobile and a earth ball all in 3 and a half weeks.  ACK  gotta get going!  Stuff is waiting for me to poke and poke and poke. 

nite nite, see you soon!

A perfect Long Weekend

 The weather promised rain and thunderstorms but we were gifted with some last summer heat and sunshine on Sunday.  Just perfect weather to watch the hot air balloons launch from across the river at dusk.

 A trip into town after supper with Lilly in tow made for a beautiful family evening together. Mom snapped away while Dad, Sid and Lilly took in the sights.  The path was lined with families who had the same idea and Lilly was a great ambassador for Airedale Rescue.

 Lilly sat, smiled her Airedale grin and wiggled at anyone who would make eye contact.  Her biggest downfall is that she truly LOVES kids and just wants to be pet by them.  Fortunately on a short leash and with a good command she will listen and be a very, very good girl.

 After the balloons floated away we went in search for the Rockliff Rockeries.  It was no accident that I suggested we park where we did.  From studying maps I knew the Rockeries where buried in the area somewhere and by chance we took Lilly, followed a path and ta-da.  The old ruins from the Carnegie Library.  The rockeries included ancient columns and this fountain tucked away in the woods. 

 A quick stop for a beautiful family pic of my two favorite peeps in the whole entire world!!

Our Lilly watches and waits for her kid to come back

 This past weekend we were also lucky enough to spend some time with Uncle Rick and his family on his birthday!  Maria took us all to lunch at Lone Star and we had lots of fun and laughs. 

 Sid demonstrates the Wushi Finger Hold.  With this ancient secret move she can put an adult into submission in a second.  Ok not really but Uncle Rick is the best at playing!

 I have to include this picture from Karate because quite by accident I discovered something amazing about photography.  I often struggle with the lighting in the dojo since fluorescent lights cause blue accents and the floor is VERY blue as well.  I correct this with a decent white balance but I still tend to get a weird shade depending on where the kids are in the room.  I recently read an article in my Nikon Magazine (N-Photo) that changed everything for me.  Put a green filter on my flash!  HA look at that.  The picture above is shot with a standard fluorescent lights white balance and a green filter.  It completely solves the mysterious blue tint issue.  This probably means nothing to most people but my photog friends will get a kick out of it!

And this beautiful masterpiece is a delicious home made chocolate cherry cheese cake, one of the dad's made to bring to the club.  He actually made two, he also prepared a gluten free strawberry cheesecake too.  Why?  Just because.  He doesn't even eat cheesecake but he made it for all the parents.  We were all really touched by his kindness and it was seriously super delicious cheese cake.

 

And lastly, I think this is just so cool.  Kenny has set up a great little recoding studio in the basement and Sid has really taken a shine to hanging out with him while he does some recording.  This is now Sid's music class!  Check out the video of her recording back ups for one of Ken's songs.

Sid - Back Up Vocals

The recording may not actually make it into the song but there is no better way to learn than hands on just doing it!  Watch for the updated link with the completed song when he is done!

 

Have a great back to school week!

 

Grade 3!

Sid is starting the equivalent of grade 3.  This year will be the first year we really hunker down and start moving away from the process of learning and push towards more of a product oriented school year.

We have spent the last two years learning how to learn and exploring the world and our interests while mastering the basics of math, English and reading.  As she slides into her eighth year we will also slide into harder school tasks.  More reading, more writing more time doing work.   Many friends ask me what that looks like.  Most days it looks like about an hour of seat work in the morning (in our jammies of course!) and then lots of opportunities to do our hands on learning through out the day.

 

 Thanks to the inspiration of a friend, we are starting with embroidery this term.  Sid really likes the challenge and i am enjoying learning too.

 The cat cards were home made.  I took a cracker box, cut the square then printed a simple picture and cut and pasted it.  I put the holes in and away she went!  After doing four different patterns we switched to the rubberized drawer liners you can get at the dollar store.  They have holes through them and Sid was able to draw a picture and work on her own stitching.  This is where we have started learning how to do different stitches.

We continue with our wildcraft with identifying weeds/herb, making tinctures and natural dyes.  Our outdoor time in the parks, bogs and woods supports our science studies and this year we started a cooking class where each week Sid picks a recipe and she is responsible for collecting the ingredients at the grocery store and preparing the meal.  So far she has chosen banana pancakes with peanut butter spread and then she made sweet potato fries with garlic dip.  Both recipes required a lot of parental hands on but she is learning so much from doing these.

 We still have choir and will have a performance on Sunday to mark the end of the summer term and the start of the fall.  We have science club every Tuesdays and geography club one Friday a month.  This term Sid is really excited about her pottery class on Mondays.

Of course it isn't all fun!!!  We have some books we are working through and some really great online resources too.

Dreambox is a great learning software that is subscription based and meets core standards.

 Life of Fred is goofy fun math studies that teach so much more than just the basic math.  We actually often find ourselves reading these as bedtime stories!

 Time 4 Learning is another subscription that meets core standards and it covers the year worth of science, social studies, math and language arts.

Again a subscription based program that has really fun and educational videos that Sid watches in her "down" time.

For history we are working on Story of the world which is covering a lot of history in the middle east which is really pertinent at this time.

And lastly we are working with Handwriting without tears which is a comprehensive writing program that supports writing and spelling.

And we cannot forget the 15 hours of karate a week.  I guess that covers physical activity!

 

So a big welcome to September.  We are ready!!!