Tournament Time

There have been quite a few judo tournaments lately and Ben has been attending them all.
Sadly he has not been getting medals so he realised he had to work a little harder.

At the last one he did just that.....and walked away with a gold medal.

Well done Ben very proud of you.

Long Weekend

Hello Friends...
so great to see you all again. This past weekend has been a long weekend for us. We have been celebrating Queen's Birthday. Which just so happens to have fallen when they are doing all the celebrating in England. However just in case you don't know, here in New Zealand we have a long weekend to celebrate the birthday of the current monarch. They keep it the same weekend each year, regardless of when the actual birthday falls.
So as I write this post most people are enjoying the fact we have a 4 day working week this week.

Friday
the evening started with us coordinating all the activities we had for the weekend

• soccer
• staying at my cousin's house
• Judo
• Travelling home
• Alex's 7th Birthday
• Friends over for lunch

so despite a few protests from the lower ranks, we had a game plan in our heads as to what had to be achieved  when and possibly by whom!

Soccer

This was meant to be one of our easier weekends of the sport. The boys, most conveniently luckily, for us had both their games at school.

Because of this I had stupidly happily in my helpful mode agreed to assist with the fundraising sausage sizzle we were running. This fitted in with what time we had to be at school for Alex's game so no worries.

The morning however did not work out too well, we had to remind the boys 3 times to ensure they had their soccer bags organised. We successfully left the house, arrived at school only to have them both inform us that they had in fact not put their soccer shorts in their bags!

To say we as parents were a little annoyed was an understatement! I think Steve was ready to contact CYFS and have them taken into care!

Consequently, the boys have lost the privilege of all things electronic in our house for a week.

As you can see it was a normal early morning winter day for soccer, yes that is fog!

There was some sun somewhere, however it was at least 10am before it shone through enough to clear the fog.

This however did nothing to stop our little soccer players.

Saturday afternoon

The boys decided a few weeks ago that they wanted to participate in the Waikato Bays Judo Tournament that was happening in Tauranga. We are fully supportive of their judo so were happy to attend, however weigh in started at 7.30am on Sunday, so we decided to stay with my cousin who lives 20 mins away from the venue rather than a 90 minute drive first thing in the morning.

So we took bedding and dessert and had an awesome relaxed evening with the family, eating gorgeous lasagne and apple crumble with ice cream, to say we were all stuff is an understatement, it was a great winter dinner that filled you to the top.

We did however sit and watch the movie "War Horse" which after watching I am not so sure of. It was an interesting story, although sadly I spent the whole movie waiting for something to actually happen. I found the whole movie a little jumpy, jumping from this part of the story to that part and then on to another part, no real flow to it! But hey that is just my opinion of it.

Judo
at 7.45am on a cold Sunday morning, we joined the ranks of several other families and had our little ones weighed, all 22 and 25kg of them!

Then we went and got breakfast to be back for 9am to watch them fight their hearts out.

Sadly their fights didn't quite go how they would have liked!
Alex had only himself and 1 other in his class. So they had a best of 3 fight. The other person won the first fight and then sadly went on to win the next fight too, so Alex walked away with nothing. He had to win 1 fight to get a medal. He was devastated and very annoyed.

 Ben had 3 others in his class so he got to fight 3 times. He won 1 and lost 2 thus giving him a bronze medal.

They both did extremely well in their fights, even if they did lose some, but at the end of the day they both went and gave it ago and tried hard. We are very proud of them for getting out there and trying.
Grandma even came and watched them fights, so they had lots of cheering from the stands when they were fighting.

Home time
After judo we called back at my cousin's house and collected our bedding and then hit the road for the drive home. 90 mins is not far but when you have had a long tiring day it can seem like forever.

We were on the road at 5pm and got the pleasure of seeing a wonderful winter sky as the sun went down.

I got the camera out and took 1 picture and then Ben suggested "I get closer!"
Steve and I just fell about laughing as we tried to ask him exactly what he wanted me to do, because there was no way I could get closer to the sky!
Turns out he wanted me to use the zoom button on the camera, man they come out with such cute stuff all the time. Although he did go on to inform us that because it was a nice red sky then the next day would be nice, think he has been listening too much to his dad when he says:

• Red sky at night sailors delight
• Red sky in the morning sailors warning

I took more pictures and we all ooh'd and ah'd over the pretty sky ahead of us

I am aware that this post has turned into a long one so will end for now and tell you about the last day of our long weekend which just happened to be Alex's 7th Birthday.
Catch you soon.

More Judo

This past weekend we also, along with the big party, had a Judo Tournament.
I almost died the night the Sensei (Terry) announced that we were having a tournament day on the 4th. I sat there shaking my head thinking 'no, we are away that weekend but I know the boys will want to be here!'

So we reshuffled our weekend plans and raced back from Rotorua, after the birthday party, late on Saturday evening ready for a very early start on Sunday morning. (why they have to start tournaments at 8.30am I will never know?)

Anyway, as per usual, we both got roped into helping on the day, but at this tournament I was working on the mat area, so got to watch all the boys fights, unlike last time when I worked in the kitchen and managed to miss some of the fights!

The boys both fought hard and good. They won some, they lost some and they both had a lot of fun, which at the end of the day is important.
Ben desperately wanted to be part of this because Judo is almost ending for the year and this is when Terry does a lot of the grading. Ben knows he isn't at Orange belt level yet, but he is hoping he might get a notch towards it on his yellow belt. So fingers crossed for next weekend when Judo has their fun day and awards ceremony.

The boys, however, did walk away with a few medals.
Ben got a silver in his class fights and a bronze in the open fight.

Yea for me

 Alex managed a bronze in his class fight.

I got another medal, yea

He did enter the open fight, but sadly did not get placed, although we are proud of both of them for the effort they showed on the day.

with their big friend Jarod

End of year party next weekend and then summer holidays off!

Judo End of Year

As you all know by now, Judo is playing a large part in this family currently.
So it was with great pleasure that we were able to swing a few things to be able to attend the end of year party. It was held the day after the Wedding in Rotorua, so we drove back for it the next morning!

It was a day of fun and laughter.
The kids played loads of fun games like egg and spoon race, throwing and catching eggs (un cooked of course) and multiple others, that involved water, balls and chocolate!
A BBQ lunch of sausage sizzle was provided and everyone was in a relaxed mood.

The end of year party was also the time when all the trophies were given out for the year.
So everyone sat around and cheered as people got awarded trophies for all their hard work throughout the year.

Ben and Alex were no exception and both managed to walk away with a trophy.
Ben got awarded with 'PeeWee Judoka of the Year'
Alex got awarded with 'Most Promising PeeWee'

They both deserved them and have worked very hard over the last 9 months so we were very proud of them.

All those trophies to be awarded

Way to go Alex

Way to go Ben

Jared is slightly taller, but the boys love him, shame he is moving to the next class up this year! He will be missed by the boys

One tradition that apparently happens at the end of year party is slime. Yep, good old fashion slime that you run through, roll in and slip and slide around with.
So several large buckets were made up, one very large tarp was put down and several kids had a right old time slipping and sliding all around the place.

hose needed as slime was made with soap and stung when got in an eye!

What an awesome way to end the year of very hard work by everyone.

Judo

As you may remember, the boys have been doing Judo since April and they love it.
At the end of June we let them attend a little fun day that was held at our Judo Club and they had a ball competing at it, Ben even walked away with a medal.

Since then they have wanted to compete in many of the little fun days that have been held around the region by local clubs. They have both again thoroughly enjoyed competing in them. Ben has walked away with a medal of some description from just about every day, whereas sadly Alex has not quite got there yet.

They have both been asking recently, as well, when they will get a yellow belt.
We have been answering that one by telling them that their Sensei is always watching them and when he feels they are ready for it they will be graded and achieve it, hopefully.

This weekend, our club decided to hold a little fun day for just our club, no other clubs were invited, so everyone knew everyone and it was a well supported event.
They decided not to place the children in weight groups this time but have them go in height and build groups.
This actually made for a much fairer mix of competitors.

Alex in his little group

Alex had 2 other people to fight against, 1 little girl who I knew he would beat and 1 boy who he would have to work against. He easily beat the little girl and with a bit of work also beat the boy too. That meant he had secured his first medal and a gold at that too. We were so proud. He was pretty chuffed too.

Ben however had a taste of his own medicine and had a large group to fight against and some of them were not a walk over, he really had to prove himself and work hard at technique during these fights, oh and he also had to manage to not laugh and giggle when being held on the floor! Just goes to show that he loves what he is doing and is very relaxed with it.



Ben's little group



He managed to win 2 of his fights and lost 2 or 3 more, so all over he had managed to secure a Bronze medal. Which is all he needed really, because I think this time he took away more understanding about technique than actual winning etc.

Getting Gold

Ben's larger group

After all the medals had been awarded the Sensei started calling little groups up and informing them they had achieved enough to have a small yellow strip placed on their white belt, thus meaning they were either 1 or 2 steps closer to a yellow belt, however he never called either Ben or Alex up for either of these first 2 groups. My emotions hit me a little and I suddenly got very worried for them, but within about 2 secs my mind caught up and I realsied that Ben and Alex would not be getting little strips on their white belts towards their yellow belts because they were no longer going to be wearing white belts!

Yes, my 2 darling little fighters had just succeeded in securing themselves 'Yellow Belts'

Way to go boys, we are so very proud of you and all the hard work you have put into Judo over the last 7 months to achieve this awesome award.

Several other people in the club got promoted on their belt colours and it was a wonderful successful day for lots of people at the end of it.

Proud Parents

As mentioned here, the boys have decided that their sport of choice if Judo.
We have joined a wonderful caring club who are very proud of all their members. They support them at all times and take pride in doing so.
The boys have only been doing Judo for just over 11 weeks now, all of the last school term.

3 weeks ago they had a Fun Day at our Judo Club.
This involved having registrations from over 100 children from all over the Waikato region.
Ben and Alex insisted that they take part, so Steve took them along. They weighed in at 19kg & 21kg and were deemed as the youngest and lightest in the competition, but that didn't matter, they still got classed as 'PeeWees' and got to fight 2 others in their class.

Quick pep talk from Sensei

Got to do my warm ups

Man these people are all so big!

Anyone notice how much smaller I am to everyone else?

Sadly with the lack on numbers in this class Ben and Alex had to fight each other and with only 4 in the class only 3 could get a placing.
Ben walked  away with a Bronze Medal and Alex got a Certificate of Participation.

They both thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and learnt a lot.

We soon found out that Tauranga Judo Club was also going to hold a Fun Day and the boys decided that they wanted to be part of this as well.
What we didn't work out at the time was that this was going to involve a 6am start to get to the venue!
With a nice long earlier morning drive we arrived at the venue, where there were 60 other kids all ready to commence fighting.

After weigh in, it was established that the boys both came in the U24kg Class, so sadly, again they had to fight each other!

There were 6 in the class and Ben & Alex started the whole day off by being the first fight of the day. Ben won, but not before his little brother gave him a good fight for his money.
They both went on to have some great fights.
Alex sadly did not win any of his fights but he did score some points in some of his fights, so all was not in vain, he fought very well and give him a little more weight and maybe some height and he will whip them next time.

As for Ben, well he managed to walk in and just win all 4 of his fights, only one of the 6 to do that, so he walked away with 1st Place, yes that is right, he got Gold Medal in this tournament.

WE are so proud, he did an awesome job on the mats scoring some good points in his fights and working hard for his wins.

Mum managed to drive up from Rotorua to watch the boys fight, first time she has ever seen them fight, although it is also the first time I have seen them in a Tournament as I was away for their last one.
She was not disappointed either, and she was cheering moves to them during the fight just like a awesome Grandmother should do along with 2 very proud parents.
The other parents there kept laughing at me cause I was yelling so much during their fights! But everyone was cheering for them during their fights, they were the youngest and smallest from our club and it was obvious that everyone was very proud to sit and watch them fight.

Well done boys, you are awesome and we are very proud of you.
Do you think you can take on Tokoroa in September?