I'M GONNA TONFA YOU UPSIDE THE HEAD!

In our neverending quest to do stupid parental things, we've allowed our eldest children to start taking the weapons portion of karate class. Since the next year will be all wood (bowstaff and tonfa) we decided we'd take the plunge. (The past year they did bowstaff & scythes (sp?) which are the metal trident looking things that I call the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" weapons. NOT something we wanted into this house.) Instead, we went for the bowstaff, which is sorta like a policeman's nightstick. Harmless, right? Well, it is until your baby brother finds where you've been commanded to put your tonfa on Mommy's bedroom couch and decides to use it to BEAT ON THE TV. Yeah, Daddy put an end to THAT one right quick!!

This past weekend was the weapons seminar -- they went for 3 hours on Saturday & missed their first soccer game (priorities, after all LOL!) and learned a new kata for weapons. Figures that now they are eligible to test ($$$) for not only their karate katas to earn their blue belt, but now they get to test ($$$) for their tonfa stripe or whatever they get for it. Sigh... Next they'll be asking for the bowstaff ($$$$$$$$) and then we'll be paying for THREE different tests times TWO.

Patrick is still really "into" it. Kevin is struggling with the fact that it is a smaller class size over the summer (lots of the kids take the summer off, which Sensei grumbles about on a regular basis because they'll be rusty once they come back & he'll spend a lot of time reviewing instead of teaching), so he's unable to "hide" in the group. It's just Patrick & him -- so I heard him get busted the other night at the beginning of class to "pay attention". Good lesson, eh?