Lex and I had belt tests last night. Lex tested for (and got!) his solid blue belt and I did my first belt test and got an orange belt. Lex hasn’t tested since last October (an admitted oversight on their part) and he was very happy to be testing again!

I love his concentration face!

Lex did several katas on his own. He is soooo brave!

The weapons katas no longer “count’ towards their belt progression, but they are encouraged to show them if they know them. Lex brought it!

New belt, blue belt!

Eve is taking a break from karate this month while she’s doing Girls On The Run (they are on the same days and she was exhausted after doing both for awhile!) so she didn’t test today. She was mentally ok with it ahead of time, but kind of fell apart during and after the test. Turns out seeing Lex progress without her was harder than she expected. We talked about ways for her to catch up and I *really* hope she gets back to karate next month!

The kids’ belt test ran long, of course, so we ate a super rushed slice of pizza for dinner then hurried back to the dojo for my belt test! Fortunately there were only seven adults testing, not nearly 50 like the kids, and we were all very low belts, so the whole thing was over and done with in 20 minutes, not the two full hours that the kids’ test ran!

Eve and Lex, once settled after our rushed dinner, were happy to watch me and cheer me on. Lex wanted to make an iMove of it, but the iPad is old an out of space (sooo sad!), so he just made some videos on my phone. He is a funny photographer!

Me in my white belt. I can’t deny Lex when he asks for a picture, since I take so many pictures of him! :)

That’s me on the far left, and my buddy Mike right next to me.

This is my first kata that I had to do all by myself!

I earned my first new belt! :)

I was so spaced and rushed (and hot!) after Lex’s test that I forgot to get a picture of him in his new belt. He took a picture of me in my new belt, but he didn’t get the belt in it and I look terrible, so you all don’t get to see it! :) But we got them and we are both very happy and ready to get started learning new katas!!