The big moment

Black Belt!!

She did it, she really did it. Wow, she is still amazed, excited, and overwhelmed that she now has her black belt. It is so cool to know that how much it means to her and know how hard she worked for it. Can you tell I'm proud?

The official Black Belt test is actually kind of like a show, with almost 100 people advancing (most to get their First Degree Black belt, but also all the way up to 5th degree)

These 5 kids will always have the time they spent together the last 4 months, doing all the extra after-class work and side-kick contests.

At the competition, they do basics...

combinations...

forms and sparring. Little bits of everything they've perfected over they years.

At the end, they do 2 straight minutes of punching while standing in a riding stance. Very hard and the audience cheered them on. It was so cheesy, but surprisingly meaningful to me.

Mr. Quinn is the best best best!

Last time in white uniforms!!

And first time in blue uniforms! 

R to L: Mr. Lukin (earned his 3rd degree), Sohan, Jeremy, Shlok, Mr. Quinn, Laura, Eli, Mr. Strand (earned his 3rd degree) 

Each tester has to bring someone to hold the body shield for them to kick and to do punch defenses with. Laura's friend Fiona was kind enough to spend the day with us. She's really great and I'm glad Laura has girls like Helen and Fiona to look up to in karate.

I made a banner and the boys displayed it with her trophies and strung her old belts around the kitchen. She was so thrilled and can't stop looking at the pictures of her when she was tiny and just starting out.

Its also the first uniform or jersey of any kind that she chose her last name, instead of her first. It feels momentous to me.

What a day! Great job Laura!

April Fool's!

I spent about a week trying to pull a hanger off my closet rod, only to notice it was hanging with the hook back-to-front instead of front-to-back like a normal person hangs clothing. It just kept happening every day and I kept thinking "why would I have put this hanger on backwards? What an idiot!". My clothes are on the lower rod, shielded from view by Jim's clothes. I finally wised up and bent down to inspect the situation, and low and behold - they are ALL backwards!
I stormed down the stairs and accused whoever I could find, which was only Jim and Laura. Their reaction satisfied me that they weren't the culprit and had no idea what I was talking about, though they wished they had thought of it. So later that day, I cornered Adam and he confessed right away to this GENIUS April fool's prank. I can't believe it took me so long to discover it, can't believe it was Adam who pulled it off, and can't believe he kept it secret from all of us for so long.

Crashed Ice!

I finally got to go to Crashed Ice! It was ridiculous, and so fun.

Christmas at Uncle Bob and Aunt Kate's!

I forgot to hit "publish" on this one too. We celebrated Christmas at Jim's brother and his wife's house. True to form, they came up with a fun way to distribute gifts this year - we had a family Olympics tournament. We each have our own flag and region to represent, and we had games that involved a piñata, a nerf gun, and picking a huge nose. We love holidays with these guys!

Black belt bound

I started this post in early March and never posted. The black belt test is tomorrow, assuming they don't cancel due to the predicted April Blizzard of '18.

Well the hardest part of the black belt journey is behind Laura. She passed her 3rd screening in 3 months. Now she spends the next 2 months continuing to stay late after class working on stuff, participates in a less scary test at the school, then goes to the big black belt test in April with 100 other people from the area. That last one will be about 4 hours long, but if you make it that far, you can feel fairly sure you'll get the belt. Then it will be hers! It's been a lot of work, but I do feel like she has earned it. She is one of the youngest people testing and works so hard everyday, then wants to do more and more. She opened up about the screenings today and said you work until you just about die, then you get an adrenaline rush and go again. 

I think everyone should have something they want as bad as she wants this belt. 

Last class in her white uniform