Some Pictures

I told them to make their mean faces but Abby couldn't do it without giggling terribly! Ben and Michaela are barely holding it together since Abby is cracking up so bad!

Since arriving here in Florida we have wanted the kids to get involved in some kind of activities.

The kids were doing drama with just a couple other children from the homeschool group. This was great fun and they even got to perform at an old folks home around Christmas time. However, when it came time to memorize lines and doing plays they seemed to lose interest pretty quick. This meant it was more work for mom to remind them to memorize lines and such. Once something extra-curricular becomes a chore it is no longer something fun.

Next, we tried the girls in a Christian dance class for an 8 week intro course of ballet/lyrical. They liked it OK but not enough to LOVE it. When it came time to sign them up again they asked not to. When they started their dance class, we told Ben we would find a Karate class but never really inquired about many.

As I began looking around I had rather high standards knowing what the Takata's taught back home so this made my search a bit overwhelming. However, God lead me to just the right place! The atmosphere was not too intense or over-indulgent in the mysticism behind martial arts but it is not all fun and games either. There is a high standard to begin with and a good amount of respect required of them. I am hoping that Ben will be able to keep up with the older kids so that I can keep them all in one class. They are in a 'trial period' for 8 weeks that was very affordable to see if they would take to it. The first lesson was a private one with just the teacher and the 3 of them in order to get the basic positions down. It was fun for them to get that one on one time to meet the person that is teaching them and be able to not feel totally out of sorts on their first class. Today was their first lesson in the class with other students. At the end on the class they made a pretty big deal about getting their first belt. I was actually very surprised that they are smiling ear to ear and enjoying it so far. I am very shocked that Michaela seems to be picking it up pretty well without too much effort. Their teacher has a teenage girl that is a black belt and has been in his classes since she was about 5 years old. I would say that the girls are slightly in awe of the fact that she has acheived such a high rank which makes them a bit more motivated to get there as well!!