Busy weekend

This weekend was full of activities...Alexander got a really cool gift from my friend Anila who is a colleague of mine where I work. She's from Kenya and is all the time sending Alexander gifts from there. This time it was a hand carved Ebony wood Lion. He loved it! He actually tried to make his Osito (toe as he calls it) and the lion kiss. Then he tried to sleep with it. I removed it from his bed for fear of loss of an eye...after all it is quite hard. Then, we got a very nice gift from my Aunt and Uncle...a 55 inch big screen. I've never EVER seen Ricardo jump to a project so fast. I think he would have loaded it and unloaded it by himself if he thought it was possible. Needless to say the TV lead to dinner and drinks at our new favorite Mexican resturaunt! Busy but productive weekend!!!

Carnival

Last Friday we headed out with the Grabowski’s to their church carnival. The weather was hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk but we braved the rays and headed out to eat the food and play carnival games…I was hoping to bring home a goldfish but no luck. Alexander got to play the fish game which was his first ever carnival game. The kid couldn’t hit any of the bowls because he has such an arm on him and kept throwing the balls over and out of the tent. LOL! He played one other bowling game and actually won a prize. The highlight of the carnival for him was being able to run around the grass and of course do his karate for all to see. Gracie was not having the heat so we headed back to their house for the rest of the evening. The kids had an awesome time playing with all of Gracie’s toys and their cute dog Alice. Melissa and I got to chat a bit and play with the kids and Ricardo and Mike got to watch ESPN and talk sports and I am quite certain they were not unhappy about that. Alexander fell asleep in 5 minutes in the car on the way home.

Dancing Manny

I forgot to post this video of Alexander and the boys dancing to the live music Friday night. We all got a big kick out of this!

2010 US Nationals

This past week we traveled to Greenville South Carolina for the US National Karate Do Federation Championships. Most people don't know but in order to compete you have to qualify at the previous tournaments like Vegas and Ohio. Ricardo and 8 of his students from the competition team competed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. We started off on Thursday with Ricardo competing and it was super intense. He has been training so hard for months and

all of us wanted him to win. Unfortunately, he did not make the US team. He was so disappointed but was uplifted by a lot of positive comments from the US coach including him blatantly telling him he was the best and should have won but he was glad he didn't beat his students. HAHA. It was pretty much a reaffirmation of his hard work. He has 2 more years to go to try out and win so we're going to start working hard on making it to Texas next year. But, the week did get better when one of his students won first place...a National Champion! This is a huge deal. This could lead to the Pan Am Games and potentially a place on the Olympic team someday if the student (who is a girl...woop woop) keeps working hard. He also had 3 second place or silvers and 1 third place, bronze winner. A big deal considering he only took 8 kids and got 5 medals.

The rest of the week was spent at the pool, the zoo, and with all of us parents bellied up the bar at 5:30 everyday for FREE drinks and snacks. Yes FREE! The hotel we stayed at was awesome - Embassy Suites Conference Center and Golf Resort. Definitely recommend that one for next time. Anyway, Ricardo had practice each evening at 5 and all of the parents, me included, were trying to get him to practice for 2 hours because free drinks were served for 2 hours. LOL! Yes, Alexander went to Karate practice. OF COURSE!

I can't say how much fun we had spending time together and with the team. I think all of us parents had as much fun as the kids. Wednesday night we all headed to Red Robin for dinner...table for 25 please. But the best unplanned event was Friday night when we all went to downtown Greenville for dinner. It started to pour down rain and we kept walking in it, just laughing the entire time. Alexander was with his best friend Zane so he was good to go and we finally found a restaurant that had a guy playing a guitar. It was super awesome. We all shared some yummy food and great conversation and most importantly a lot of laughter which is something everyone needs. I honestly can't wait to do it again very soon!

I have more pics but they're on Cha Chi's camera so those will have to wait. But, this is a video of Alexander performing on the plaza outside of the Hyatt downtown yesterday. We had been playing in the water waiting on Ricardo so he was barefoot and loving it. He just had to start doing his Karate. He was so in to it that I had to tape it. This was the second form he was doing. It is amazing how much he tries to imitate Ricardo and the kids and with such concentration. You know, Ricardo just hates that! hehe

Pool Fun

Wednesday night Mel and I took Alexander to her friend's pool at their apartment complex to hang out and have some fun with him. I opted to take pics and get splashed while sitting on the side because I knew the water would be cold. Aunt MeMe took it like a champ and hung out in the pool with little manny and they had a blast. That kid loves to splash and be splashed. You can barely see it but he is cracking up in one of the pictures from me splashing him. We were the only three people there aside from one lady who was laying out. Alexander kept saying "lala" instead of lady which was a hoot.