Disciple Ceremony at Dr. Lee's Academy

Everybody arrived early to prepare for the first US Disciple Ceremony in the White Crane Kung Fu system.  Sifu Mel R, Sifu Khadi M, Sifu Chris V. and I were witnesses during the formal ceremony.   Dr. Lee began with a history lesson on the White Crane Kung Fu system and the ceremony itself was very traditional and myself along with the other witnesses were honored to be a part of it.  The small crowd of spectators for the intimate event included family and close friends.  After the ceremony, Disciple Bob invited everyone to a cookout at Dr. Lee's residence.  Good food and laughs were shared as we celebrated martial arts family togetherness and history was made.

Happy Birthday Sempei Marcus

It was great to share good times with the Van Horn family as they celebrated Marcus's 10th birthday and had a barbecue.  Good people, good food, good times!  Bud was flying his new rc helicopter outside and there were two games of washers going on.  Everyone had a fun time.

Day Off in China Town

I took Heide on a walking tour a China Town and showed her places I spent many hours training, working and relaxing at in my favorite part of Philadelphia.  Many memories of times spent with family and friends came back as we walked the streets. Then we met up with our good friend and student Sempei Matt Van Horn for a relaxing lunch.

 

Terrific class at American Karate and Arnis Academy

The classes started awesome with Sensei Patrick Shay as guest instructor before he goes away to college tomorrow. He also brought us a surprise - an awesome martial artist named Scottie Smythe.  Sensei Pat started class with warmup stretching which afterwards I took over into basic drill combinations which was then followed by self defense technique review.  Sempei Matt Van Horn was assisting with teaching the green belts as I kept the review of techniques as far as time allowed.  Everybody was focused and enthused such as Kathy Clouse, Heide Clouse and Sempei Marcus Van Horn.  Just before class we found out Marcus turned 10 today - so naturally, in the martial arts spirit and because we love him, once we bowed off the matt, we proceeded to circle around him to deliver 10 strong birthday punches (Happy Birthday Marcus!!).  Sensei Pat and Scotty Smythe stayed after class to do strength training and Scotty dazzled us with his awesome skill in freestyle wrestling techniques.

Another great day at my favorite lake, Lake Oswego.

We arrived at the lake around 10:30 am so we picked our favorite picnic spot near the water under the cedar trees  As soon as we set up we heard thundering noises in the sky and at first thought it was thunder. The noises got closer and we noticed three F16 Fighter Jets which were obviously on training missions. What an awesome sight - we had a front row view sitting in lawn chairs looking at fighter jets going through drills. It went on for about 2 and a half hours while the picnic area was filling up with people.

As they enjoyed the training, Mallori and Kathy were enjoying cedar water practically by themselves except for a few people - the water was a bit chilly today.  I went on a quest for small pygmie pines which only grown in the state of NJ, to try to dig one up to try to plant it at home. While I was gone the girls went turtle hunting and caught a tiny paint turtle. While I was hunting for the pines I noticed a lot of mushrooms and gathered some up to educate the girls about which were edible or not.  On my quest I ran across some cute little green and brown frogs in a puddle. I got back with two mushrooms and told everyone about them then Heide and Kathy went on a 40 minute quest of their own to look for frogs and mushrooms. After what might have been a lunch break or to refuel the jets came back flying much lower and closer.  I felt the vibrations from the jet engines.  Then I looked down the walking path and I see Heide coming pack with a big Ziploc bag full of mushrooms.  We studied them on the table to see which might be edible or not. It was an awesome day and we were thankful for the free airshow and for studying botanical and zoological biology as well as spending time with great friends Mike and Lori and their daughter Mallori.

Opening Weekend NY Ren Faire 8/5/12

The NY Renaissance Fair is always a terrific event and we look forward to the Medieval fun yearly; this year was again superb.  Upon arrival we quickly found my son Randy Kiersnowski who is portraying one of Robin Hood's men, outlaw and tracker Alan-a-dale, then the fun really began as we followed Randy's performances!  

Randy is such a versatile actor, we were thrilled to watch him throughout the day as he fought the Sheriff of Nottingham's men, or enchanted children with his guitar playing, and made the audience laugh with hilarious songs and dances in hysterical skits with the other performers.  It is non stop fun as soon as you arrive and every performer makes the entire day an adventure so that we didn't want the day to end.  Love you Randy and I am so proud of you.

Dr. Buzz's seminar

We just finished a terrific introduction seminar to Modern Arnis and Sandokan at Dr. Buzz's Martial Arts dojo.  I loved working with everyone and everyone was awesome.  We concentrated on basic strikes one through twelve and two Forms in the time we had together.  I think classes like that could last all day because the students were great and their enthusiasm and energy makes the time pass so quickly.  It was awesome that the group was so focused that they even learned to count in Tagalog and we covered a second short form.  A big thank you to the group and I can't wait  to work with them next time.  I am so thankful for everyone because as an instructor I learned a lot from the students as well.