Belt Test

As always, the Monday following a Karate Tournament is a Belt Test. Hannah did great and will get her new belt in two weeks at the Belt Ceremony! She's been thinking a lot the last couple of days about staying with Karate, and not doing dance. She's gotten so much better in Karate that we'd like to see her go on. Her instructor even told us this evening that she was the only one in all the girls in her sparring match to actually perform a belt color kick! Which is really good.

Hannah's Last Karate Tournament

Hannah participated in her last Karate Tournament today. After she completes her belt test on Monday, followed by the awarding of a new belt the following week, she will be done with Karate and wants to try dance.

It was a long afternoon. The tournament this time was mandatory, which made for more kids competing, and longer wait times. The gym wasn't as cool as it could have been, but there were a lot of people there. Hannah had her reliable cheering section of Gramma and Papa, and Gramie, in addition to us of course.

All the kids warming up, and stretching. First competition was her forms, which she did well at, but not perfect. Unlike last time she did not place. However, since the last tournament, she has learned an entirely new form. She did her best and that's what counts!

The next competition was sparring, where for the first time at a tournament, her Karate instructor was the judge of her competition. This is where Hannah kicked some major butt. All the other times of having competed in sparing, Hannah is usually out after the first match and is dismissed to go home. Not this time, she won her first match 3-0!! She did awesome with her color belt kicks, and scored a point with her back kick. She went on to spar 2 or 3 more times, just missing 4th place. She was pretty disappointed and needless to say glad this was her last tournament.All the kids were hot and sweaty,
and pretty tired towards the end of the afternoon. After Hannah was done with her events and she had her competition trophy, we all went to Applebee's to celebrate Hannah's accomplishments in Karate. We're so proud of Hannah and how far she's come in Karate, a little sad she isn't going on. But we know she'll do good in dance, she has rhythm and the body of a dancer!

Fun with Grandpa

It's not often that Hannah gets to see Grandpa, unless she's off track. Today Grandpa waited until the end of his route to come by for a visit and was able to go with us to pick up Hannah from school He then stuck around for a couple of hours and played with the girls. Which they both loved.

School Pictures

Hannah came home today with her school pictures.
Here is our cute 2nd grader.

An Afternoon of Fun and Fellowship

We were at a friends house this afternoon with a pool. Hannah had a great time playing with church friends and school friends and wore themselves out from being in the pool ALL afternoon and into the evening. Hannah is getting better and better in the pool. She actually plugs her nose and goes all the way under.

Helping out with Worship

During second service of church today, as I was sitting outside having finished lunch (we had lunch in between services today), I noticed the kids were out doing worship so I wandered down to snap a couple of pictures, and was happy to see that Hannah was up there helping out with the hand motions for the songs they were doing!