We are a tennis-loving family. Well, at least half of the family is. Leah and I both play regularly and really enjoy it. This Spring, they started a Junior Team Tennis league, and Leah was happy to join a team.
Between lessons on Friday, team tennis on Saturday, and match play on Sunday, Leah was playing a lot of tennis this Spring. I’ve been playing a lot too, but I have no pictures to share with you.
This year, we decided to get season tickets to Six Flags when they were on a super sale. So, now we’re enjoying taking advantage of it. We’ve already been twice this year.
The first time we went was in April, as a celebration of great grades for the girls. What we didn’t tell them ahead of time was that we’d coordinated with their best friends’ parents, and they were going to be there as well. So, after we got into the park they were shocked to find their friends there. Suddenly a good time was turned into an even better time.
We rode a bunch of rides, ate some food, and had lots of fun together.
And it wasn’t all rides (well, it was almost all rides). In the New Orleans section of Six Flags, Leah danced with an alligator to some jazz music.
On Memorial Day, we went back to Six Flags with old friends. Simon and Jake (on the left) have known Molly since they were very little.
We rode even more rides including the new Firebird coaster that opened that weekend. One of our favorite rides is The Joker’s Jinx, which Molly and I rode together. It was great, but the ride broke down as the next group (with some of our people) was about to go. So, we got stuck at the end of the ride, unable to disembark for 10 or 15 minutes.
We look forward to more time at Six Flags this year (including a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, we hope).
Molly is now a black belt in karate! We are so proud of Molly for all her hard work over the past five years. She’s just awesome. I want to tell you all about her black belt test, but first I just want to let her awesomeness sink in for a bit...
OK, on to the test. Molly tested for her black belt last night. This was an advanced belt test at her dojo, so it was just the brown belts working toward their next degree and black belt candidates. There were actually 4 black belt candidates, including Molly.
The test began with a written test, which she’s been studying for for years. Questions include things like who created the Kyokushin style of karate, where, and in what year.
There are lots of exercises throughout the test, including jumping jacks, sit ups, burpees (lots of burpees), mountain climbers, and more.
Molly had to perform 17 katas throughout the test. Here’s one of the more basic ones - the 12 step kata.
As a black belt candidate, Molly gave a speech about her journey through karate.
Other students often help with the test, and there was no way Molly’s long-time friend Sarah (who got her black belt 2 months ago) was going to miss it. As soon as Sensei asked students to help with punches and kicks, Sarah ran straight for Molly. In fact, later this happened again, and Sensei immediately amended her request with “not Molly” to avoid having Molly continually evaluated by her friend.
A couple of Molly’s katas involve the bo staff, including Dragon, seen here.
The test also includes getting beat up a bit. Knowing how to punch and kick is important, but so is knowing how to take a hit. Here, Sensei is hitting Molly in the stomach to make sure she can take a hit.
In addition to taking a hit, she has to take a kick. She’s done this before, but this was the first time she was kicked in the stomach from both sides. She says she’s still sore the morning after.
After getting hit and kicked, she got stepped on too.
Here are photos from a few more katas, including Shadow, Heaven and Earth, and Tiger.
Molly had been tested on every kata up to this point as part of previous belt tests, but there was one new kata for black belt - Gangasho.
As part of her black belt test, Molly had to break 3 boards. She could choose how to break them. She chose to break 2 boards at one time with a hammer fist, then the final board with a kick.
Part of the self-defense training of karate is knowing how to fight two-on-one. So, all the black belt candidates have to fight against two people at the same time.
Molly sparred a bunch of people during the test, but I’m sure her favorite was getting to spar her old friend Sarah.
The test was long and grueling. As it approached 3 hours long, Molly was exhausted. Then she took a hard kick during sparring from a bigger girl, and started to cry. But she didn’t let it stop her. She pushed through, kept fighting, and proved how tough she was. A hug from a good friend was also a big help when fighting through tears.
Each black belt candidate had to spar against Sensei. They don’t have to win, but they have to stand their ground and fight. It’s the first to 3 points. Molly did great, and even scored a point as you can see here!
After all that, the test kept going. They took off their sparring gear and Sensei sat on them as they held a push-up position. They also had to do a bunch more mountain climbers (not pictured).
Molly did it! She got her black belt! She’s still a bit weepy at this point, but trying to turn it into a smile having accomplished her goal.
The dojo acknowledges that all these girls have a family behind them, so we got to present Molly with her black belt certificate.
Molly had her parents, sister, and grandparents there to cheer her on.
Leah had her first cello recital. She’s been playing for less than a year, and is doing really well.
Here are all the cellists from Leah’s recital. She was the youngest and smallest.
Leah really likes her cello teacher, Mrs. Jen.
Molly’s in two different orchestras at school, so she wasn’t done after her Symphony concert. Five days after her Symphony Orchestra concert, she performed with the Concert Orchestra, a strings group made up of sixth graders.
The music is great, but the best part of the video is Molly’s reaction after the 5th song a bit after 12:55, so make sure you don’t miss that.
Also, if you’re trying to find Molly throughout the video and having trouble, it’s not your fault. In order to give the kids different perspectives, Mr. Denne had them switch seats around throughout the performance. Molly was happy to get to her final seat up front for the last two songs.
Four days after their performance in Hershey, the Symphony Orchestra performed their Spring concert.
Molly’s middle school sent 8 busses worth of kids to Hershey, Pennsylvania for Music in the Parks. While the 6th grade groups did not make the trip, Molly got to go with Symphony Orchestra, which has kids from all grades and meets before school at 6:50 to practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I chaperoned the trip. Molly and I had to be at her school at 4:30am to organize ourselves, our stuff, and load into the busses for the trip. We arrived in Hershey a little after 7 and split up to go to 3 different local schools where the different groups would perform. Then the kids performed all morning.
After performing in the morning, the kids changed clothes and headed to Hershey Park for some fun. Here’s our group of 6th grade girls.
They played around in the water park, rode a couple coasters, ate some food, and had a great time. I think their favorite ride was Tidal Force.
After the fun at the park, we headed into the arena for the awards ceremony. Molly’s group took 1st place in their division, as did several other groups from her school.
We then boarded the busses and headed home. We got back to our house a bit before 9pm, exhausted and ready for bed.
Jen and I both had our birthdays in May. For me, this meant hitting the 40 mark. The good news is that means I’m now old enough to play in 40+ tennis leagues, which doubles my opportunities for tennis teams. That’s assuming my old body can handle the extra time on court.
Jen made a lemon cake for my 40th birthday. She deemed it a tad wonky and a bit bolder in color than she intended, but no one turned it down, that's for sure!
Since Jen and my birthdays are nine days apart, we often celebrate with family together. So, the 40th birthday cake was actually half 39th birthday cake too.
We had a busy Mother’s Day back in May. First, a morning full of church. Molly and Leah both sang with their choirs.
Sadly, Jen didn’t actually get to see them as she was teaching Sunday School. At least there was video for her to see later.
We then met up with Grams, Aunt Caroline, and Uncle Charles at Uncle Julio’s restaurant to celebrate. Sadly, they lost our reservation, but they did their best to get us a table as soon as they could. Sorry, no pictures from lunch.
After lunch, we headed home and opened presents with Jen, the all-star mom in our house (this necklace Leah made has #BestMomEver written on it).
Jen’s excited about this big gift from the girls…
It was a paper trimmer. No wonder she was so excited. Looks like she also like this bracelet.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Leah does not like shrimp. She has not had it in a long time. While at Busch Gardens, she begged and pleaded to play a carnival game to win a stuffed toy (pictured here). Part of the deal she ended up striking was to try shrimp again back home (as well as mashed potatoes). Here she is trying shrimp, upholding her part of the bargain. She’s very happy about this, as you can tell.
