A small patch of sunshine cast its light onto the bed of a man and woman who were entangled in each other as they slept. The sun's rays shining through the window were all that where needed to wake the woman from her slumber. She had always been a light sleeper.
She was easily able to rise from the bed without disturbing her still sleeping husband. Always the first to wake, she used the time to take a warm relaxing shower. Her quiet mornings alone were so peaceful and wonderful. It was the only time she had to herself. Things would get busy once her husband and children woke.
Finishing her shower, she exited the bathroom and found her husband still in bed. Leaning over him, she lightly kissed his temple. Still sleeping soundly, he didn't stir, not even with the moisture from her long blonde hair dripping on his face.
For two hours, Sarah was alone with her thoughts. Her quiet reflection ended when she heard her youngest daughter padding across the hall upstairs.
Standing there in her pink camo footy pajamas and clutching her favorite stuffed animal, three-year-old Lexi smiled when she saw her mother. With bright blue eyes and slightly wavy, light blonde hair that hung just below her shoulder, Lexi was absolutely adorable.
Sarah's husband, Chuck, was the next to wake. Hearing Lexi and Sarah in the hall he got up and dressed. When he opened the bedroom door, he saw two little arms reaching up to him. Chuck bent down to pick up Lexi and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Still carrying his baby girl, Chuck walked over to his wife and gave her a good morning kiss.
Chuck and Sarah's oldest child and only son, Skyler, got up about twenty minutes later. Seven-year-old Skyler, looked a lot like his baby sister, having light blonde hair and blue eyes.
Shortly after Skyler woke, Jasmine did as well. At six years old, Jasmine with her brown eyes and long dark hair was the middle child.
It was Saturday. Jasmine and Skyler knew what that meant. Lexi was still too young too fully understand days of the week, but Saturday meant that Mommy was going to teach them one of her special skills. The Bartowski children so looked forward to this day. They were always eager to learn what Mommy had to show them.
Chuck was less excited about his wife's teachings. But it was something you had to expect when you marry a CIA agent. Sarah insisted they learn some of the things from her spy training. And with her special charm, she was able to get Chuck to agree to these lessons. All she had to do was flash him that smile of hers and Chuck couldn't resist her.
The first to receive their lesson today would be Lexi. Yes, at three years old Lexi was already learning to do some of the things her mother could do. Ever since she was just a toddler, Lexi would watch as her older siblings learned something special from Mommy.
Jasmine and Skyler knew what their baby sister was going to be doing today so they took her out of the living room while Sarah got everything ready.
Once everything was set up, Sarah informed her children and all three dashed into the living room. Lexi's eyes grew big and she smiled a smile as wide as her little mouth would allow. The furniture had been moved and in the middle of the living room, was a small inflatable punching bag.
Lexi squealed with delight. "My very own punching bag?!" Sarah nodded her head and smiled. Skyler and Jasmine were smiling as well. The first punching bag was such a milestone.
Chuck participated in this special day too. He took a picture of Lexi standing with her punching bag, in her camo pj's looking tough. Sarah sat on her knees behind her daughter with her arm wrapped around her and a smile on her face.
Chuck continued taking several pictures of his wife and daughter. His older children joined in for some of the pictures as well. And a few of the pictures were just of Lexi and her new punching bag.
After all the pictures were taken, Sarah brought a larger inflatable punching bag into the room, sitting it directly in front of Lexi, so she could begin teaching her daughter some moves.
"Watch Mommy," Sarah instructed her youngest daughter. Sarah then modeled a jab in slow motion. She repeated the action several times as Lexi looked on in amazement. Sarah followed up by showing Lexi a jab at full speed a couple of times.
Now it was little Lexi's turn to try. Sarah crossed the room over to her daughter and sat on her knees. Lexi immediately got into her fighting stance as she saw her mother and siblings do countless times. Sarah was proud of her daughter for knowing what to do and praised her for her knowledge of the fighting stance.
Sarah sat on Lexi's right as she had been displaying a preference for her left hand would most likely be a lefty, the only one in the family. As Sarah had been in front of Lexi when showing her the jab. Lexi had naturally entered her fighting stance to be leading with her right.
Sarah put her hands on Lexi's hips to show her how to turn while preforming the punch. Once she had gotten that move down, Sarah took Lexi's arm and hand in each of her hands. Then she slowly took her daughter through the motions of the punch, extending her arm and rotating her hand until straight, then returning to the fighting stance.
Sarah continued taking Lexi though the punch until she felt ready to try on her own. Lexi preformed a beautiful jab much to the delight of Sarah who, wrapped her arms around her in a big hug. Cheers and applause could be heard coming from the older Bartowski children.
Lexi bounded over to her father saying, "Daddy did you see? Did you see?"
Chuck smiled at his daughter's excitement. "Yes I did, princess. You did very well."
"Are you proud of me, Daddy?"
"Of course princess. Daddy is always proud of you."
"Lexi, baby," Sarah said to get her daughter's attention. "Do you want to learn a kick too?"
In the blink of an eye Lexi was next to her mother again. She watched as Sarah modeled a simple front kick. First in slow motion and later at the regular speed.
It was again Lexi's turn to try what Mommy had just shown her and she was bubbling over with excitement. Taking her daughter's leg, Sarah took Lexi through the motions just as she had when teaching the jab. And again when it was Lexi's turn to try for herself she did a beautiful job.
For a few more minutes, Lexi practiced her newly acquired skills of a jab and front kick. For the rest of the day she would throw random jabs and kicks to the air.
For the next few hours the day proceeded as it would in a more normal household. The family ate lunch together and talked about various things. Some of the subjects would be unusual in other families, but were completely normal in the Bartowski household.
After lunch, Chuck read Lexi story before nap time. Jasmine and Skyler played together. And Sarah sat on the couch wrapped in Chuck arms as they talked and shared a few kisses.
Not long after Lexi's nap, it was time for Jasmine and Skyler to learn one of Mommy's special skills.
Chuck was busy getting Lexi dressed, while Sarah was getting things ready for the lesson Skyler and Jasmine would receive today.
Chuck and Lexi found the rest of the family out in the backyard. Leaning against one of the trees was a board of wood with several X's drawn on it in permanent marker. Chuck looked at the board confused. "Sarah, what are you teaching our kids today?"
"Knife throwing," Sarah answered as though it were as innocent and natural as teaching children to tie their shoes or use a fork.
"Sarah. Skyler is seven and Jasmine is only six!"
"Yes, they are. And today they are going to learn the art of knife throwing."
Jasmine and Skyler couldn't be more excited. They had watched their mother show off her amazing knife throwing skills and couldn't wait until they finally got to start learning that themselves. Today was finally that day. For weeks, Sarah had been teaching them about knife safety so they would be ready for this day.
Sarah presented both Jasmine and Skyler with their first knives, knives that had their names on them. The children hugged Sarah tightly and repeatedly thanked her. Today was turning out to be a great day. First, they watched as their sister got her first punching bag and now they had received their first knives. And now they were going to learn how to throw them.
Sarah was about to teach her six and seven-year-old children one of her favorite skills. Sarah had always been a fan of throwing knives, ever since her father started teaching her. Her affinity for knife throwing grew as she further developed the skill through the CIA.
After displaying the proper technique several times, Sarah tucked her knife away. Working with her son first, Sarah, took him through the motions of proper knife throwing. Skyler was able to strike the board with the knife but couldn't make it stick. He continued trying several times as Sarah helped him correct the error in his technique. After twelve throws, he was able to get the knife stuck in the wood. It didn't land on one of the X's but that would come later.
Skyler started jumping up and down and pointing toward his now stuck knife. "Mom! I did it! I got the knife to stick in the wood! I did it!"
Now it was Jasmine's turn. She seemed to have a natural talent for the skill just as her mother had. It only took her three attempts before she got her knife to stick. It came pretty close to one of the X's that had been marked on the board as well.
"Jasmine that's great! You're a natural."
Jasmine smiled brightly as she embraced her mother.
"Mommy when can I learn that?" Lexi asked after watching her older siblings.
"You're still a little young, sweetie. You'll have to wait a few years, but when the time is right, I promise I'll teach you."
Lexi turned to look up at her father. "Daddy, can you do that?"
"You know Chuck, I could teach you too, if you wanted."
All three children were shocked. "You can't throw knives Daddy?!"
Chuck looked from his children to Sarah and back as he spoke. "No Daddy's better with computers. Mommy is the one who knows all the fighting and knife throwing."
Just as Sarah had been teaching their children some of her special spy skills. Chuck had been teaching them about computers. Jasmine and Skyler were already learning about making websites, while Lexi was learning the basics of using various programs.
That night the children were so excited about their new "toys" that wanted to take them to bed. But Chuck didn't want his children to be sleeping with weapons. He had a hard enough time dealing with the fact that Sarah slept with a knife under her pillow.
Sarah took her children's knives and put them in a safe place, where her children couldn't have access to them without supervision. Lexi's punching bag was moved in with all the other punching bags.
After all the excitement of the day, it took a while for the three children to wind down enough to go to sleep. Saturdays were always the best.
Sunday was a rather relaxing, uneventful day and Monday it was back to school. Skyler and Jasmine went to the local elementary school, Skyler to second grade and Jasmine to first. Lexi went to Little Hands, Big Hearts preschool.
On this particular school day, all three Bartowski children would get in trouble.
Lexi got in trouble when she would practice her new fighting moves on the dolls and other toys in the classroom. Every time Lexi would start with her jabs and kicks, the teacher would direct her away from the area onto a quieter activity.
Eventually she settled down to draw. When the teacher asked her what she was drawing Lexi described the scribbles on her paper as a picture of her fighting the evil ninjas with her great punches and kicks.
During library time, Jasmine took her pencils and started throwing them into the low shelves. She was smart enough to know that the pencils wouldn't stick into the shelves like a knife would but she was having fun practicing the technique her mother had taught her.
When Jasmine continued throwing the pencils after being repeatedly told to stop. Her pencils were taken away and she had to spend the rest of library time sitting with the teacher.
Skyler got in the worst trouble of all. After another boy stole his marker, Skyler used one of the fighting techniques he learned from his mother, in order to reacquire the blue marker. The little boy ended up crying and when the teacher asked what happened he told her that Skyler had hurt him.
Later, he used another technique on a boy who took the chair he wanted at lunch.
Both Jasmine and Skyler's teachers concerned about the behaviors they had seen went to the principal, who called the Bartowski home.
When the phone started ringing, Chuck was the one to answer. "Hello."
"Hello. Mr. Bartowski this is Mrs. Trenton principal, of West Burbank Elementary. Your children Skyler and Jasmine have been displaying some... rather... unusual talents. May I ask what is going on inside the home that they might be picking these things up?"
"I think you want to talk to my wife about that." Chuck lowered the phone and covered the mouthpiece with his hand. "Honey telephone!"