Happy Veterans Day

This was taken from an old catalog.   It doesn't give any credit to the picture or the words, but I love the sweet old man taking care of the flag.  Thank you veterans and those currently serving.

Walking Stick

There is a hill behind my parent's cabin at Lawco Lake.  This hill, the lake, and the cabin has a long history of "coming of age" stories in the Haney family.  One of those stories for my kids is when they get their very own walking stick.  My Dad's dad, my Grampa (Clark) Haney made mine when I was a little girl.  On this day, Kai decided he was ready for his own walking stick, so he and my Dad, his Grampa (Mike) Haney went up the hill to search for the perfect stick.

Success!!

Cutting it down to the perfect size..

I got distracted by Mom's hydrangea while I was waiting for Grampa to finish the walking stick.  

They're my favorite, aren't they pretty?  This one was a Mother's Day gift from my sister.

And the now the former baby boy can show off his new walking stick, which gains him access to the world of the big boys I'm sure.

Indian Summer

We had beautiful weather this weekend.  Sunshiny, warm, breezy, and crisp. 

The kind of weather that begs for boys and girl to come outside.

The perfect day for some plein air painting.

A little windy, but no Mom freak outs when it gets messy. 

Who can resist the possibilities of these colors?

And some new puppy time with the big guy. 

Yes, we got a new puppy THE DAY AFTER I said I would never have two dogs again. 

Famous last words. 

She likes to sit on his shoulder.  She may think she's a parrot.

 Blanket + Cute Boy + Shady Tree =

 BLISS

It's in the can.

Lately I've been decorating these shiny upcycled veggie cans for every occasion. The possibilities for what these things can hold are endless. I love to use them as birthday gifts to hold candy and money. It's more interesting than a store bought card and I always have spare paper and ribbon lying around to fix them up with.  Just make sure you hammer down any sharp edges inside the opening of the can.

With Halloween coming up I was inspired to make these little cuties as treat holders.

 

 

 I may use them to display some root beers and orange bottles too.  With my computer I printed off a large black bat on cardstock over which I stamped the words "Boo Bar".

 

My favorite thing are the black glitter bats.  Wonder what else I can use black glitter on?

Some Things I've Learned - Martial Arts Tournaments

This is my second born Ethan a few years ago, love that smile! This was taken after his first tournament as a little guy, and made me think of how nervous we were. Well, how nervous I was because I wanted him to have fun and not be disappointed if things didn’t go his way. While we will always be nervous for our kids at their first, second, or tenth martial arts tournament, there are ways to make it a stress-free and fun experience.

Below is a picture of me and my oldest son Trey at our first tournament together. He's missing his two front teeth because of the tooth fairy, not the tournament by the way. (And he's taller than me now!)

Unless you are lucky enough to have a good tournament in your town, some travel will be required. You can make a weekend of it by heading out the night before tournament day and staying in a hotel close to the venue. This is helpful if you have to travel out of town more than a couple of hours. Most tournaments have an early check-in time and being close to the venue can keep your little karate kid from being tired before it even starts.

If you are like us, we usually make the drive the day of. In this case I advise you to pack your car the night before with your uniform, sparring gear, mouthpiece, whatever you need for your weapons kata, music for musical forms, directions, copy of your registration, and anything else your instructor wants you to take. I have actually had the ironed uniforms hanging on the front door ready to go, then realized an hour down the highway that they were STILL hanging on the front door. Not a fun way to start! The host school made a special trip to their school store to get our boys a couple of uniforms (very nice, thank you!) but it was a hassle I would have rather avoided. Not to mention we have our boys forever on video doing their forms with another school’s logo on their backs instead of our family’s school name and logo. Lesson learned!

Also pack a bag of cards, games, or a book to keep the kids and siblings busy in between divisions. There can be a lot of time spent waiting on their turn to come up which can wear on their nerves (and moms!). It can also help to envision themselves going through the moves of their kata or sparring technique during downtime.

Do you have any suggestions for a fun and stress-free tournament experience?