My Karate Kids

Here are the boys with their medals after competing on Sunday in the Aspire Martial Arts Winter Champions Competition. Both boys were knocked out in the early stages to the eventual winners - Jacob competed in both hand drills and sparring rounds, with Samuel in just sparring. Hence why Jacob has two medals!

They did really well despite some very fierce and tough competitors.

My Karate Kids

The boys had their Karate grading last Sunday and we found out last night that they had both passed!

Jacob is now Orange belt and Samuel gained his Red Stripe.

You'll have to excuse the slightly mad photo - but it was the best of a bad bunch as they were messing around too much and Jacob is a bit poorly too. But you get the idea of how scary they are!



And just in case you were wondering, the first belt is white then it moves to purple, yellow, orange, green, brown stripe, brown, blue, red stripe, red and then black belt. So Samuel has done really well to say that he's only 6!!

Green Tiny Tiger

I was hoping to manage some more challenges this week, but something has gone wrong with the time! This is for Sketch Saturday challenge:

Samuel has a party to go to on Sunday morning (the best thing is that it is across the road at the Wacky Warehouse!) and his little friend is from his Tiny Tigers (little kiddies Karate) class. So I just had to make the Birthday Boy in a little Karate uniform!

He is now a green belt, hence the green theme! I've flipped the sketch round as I liked it better that way! The little person and his clothes are all Sizzix dies with the papers (with the exception of the green oval) are from the very soon to be released Sugar Birdies cd. The number 5 is a Sizzix Round-a-Bout alphabet die cut and the card candy is from Craftwork Cards.

A fairly quick and easy card to put together and it really should not have taken me all night to do, but I kept being distracted by The Apprentice!

• Backing papers: Sugar Birdies cd
• Dies: All Sizzix including Round-a-Bout alphabet set
• Card Candy: Craftwork Cards
  
  
  

My Tiny Tiger!

Samuel took part in an inter club Competition on Sunday - he is part of the Aspire Martial Arts club and part of the Tiny Tigers group. As he is 5 he could take part in the Form competition which is basically sparring but for points - they get kitted out in protective headgear, hand and feet pads and do their moves! Here are a few photos of Samuel (in the white helmet) doing his stuff against Josh (who is also in his same club) - Josh went on to win the competition.

Special guest was Joe Tierney who was the ref (in the white shirt) and is a 7th Dan (God like status!) The scoring system was explained at the start and it was the first one to score 5 points or the highest score within the allowed time. A point was given each time for contact (either a punch or kick) if seen by both 'spotters' and the ref and two points for a head kick. So basically, you had to block your opponent and still try and make contact. This is where the hand drills come in - they are a series of hand, arm and body movements which form the basis of blocking movements to various parts of the body.

The little ones really don't hit each other too hard although Samuel has a very strong kick when he's concentrating!

It's amazing to watch the little ones doing the sparring and Samuel really enjoyed himself and was awarded two certificates for taking part.

Tiny Tiger Birthday!

One of Samuel's little friends from Tiny Tigers (Karate for kids) is having a Birthday Party today. So, as Michael is now an orange belt, I decided to do him in his uniform with the orange theme. The gold star brad looks like its coming out of his hair, well its not, its holding the large scallop tag to the card!

I showed the card to Samuel and asked him who it was - good lad said "Michael"!