MMA Sparring

So Sol and Thad have been doing some martial arts classes for about a year now, and have really wanted to begin sparring. What they needed was some protective gear, and for Christmas they used their Christmas money from Grandpa Bailey and Uncles Garrett and Jesse, and Auntie Jenna to get gloves and headgear. Here are some pictures from their first attempt at sparring outside of our basement! They did pretty well sparring the other kid their size, but when it got down to sparring each other they kinda ended up wrestling and Sol just overpowered Thad the first time. The second time they sparred Thad did better, getting Sol into a headlock and making him tap. All in all it's a really fun thing and they have really enjoyed doing it. Sometime soon we'll probably get Eli and Ezra into it as well!

Ice Skating!

We have tried a new thing with our older two boys since Christmas this year. We offered up a reward to them for doing "acts of kindness" to others in the family. This includes things like helping little brothers with their morning jobs, helping mom with lunch or other tasks, being cooperative, and just having a nice attitude during the day. Sol and Thad email me each day with their list of kind acts and I choose a "winner for the day". They had to earn 7 tickets for their reward, and by last Saturday they had both earned their 7, and chose to go ice skating! Their time on rollerblades has paid off and they both did really well, despite the fact that their were probably 200 people on the ice at any given time! Good job boys!