::karat-ay part-ay::

We had a party at the dojo on saturday for Max's birthday. Just in case I haven't mentioned it laetly, he's still very much into karate. We take him about three times a week and he absolutely loves it.
So he was so excited when we told him his party could be a karate party. And I was delighted because it meant no clean up or hosting for me at home, yay!
And Kris did a filling for the sensai, so it was a pure old fashioned barter.

We had a bunch of kids from church and a few from school. They all seemed to have a blast. The sensai sets up a bunch of cardboard forts and walls and shows the kids different games to play within them while chucking rolled up socks at each other. And the socks are grey and gross. Just so you know.


Sensai had them captivated with his instructions.

I love how Griffin's mouth is wide open in astonishment or concentration.

Ok, so they're not TOO well behaved (if you see Eva in the background.)

The only one who didn't really have a blast was Sandy. It was prettymuch his bedtime and he wanted to be out and running around with the kids--desperately. So we had to hold him and/or keep him captive the entire time.


The poor guy was MAD to be blocked in with a chair.


The games were pretty awesome, especially the last one which was just an all out knock down drag out sock battle.




It was great. All the kids left sweaty and exhausted with pink cheeks and messy cupcake mouths. We helped the sensai clean up and then went on home ourselves. Bedtime is always the best.

::max is a yellow belt::

Max has been going to his karate school since the summer we moved to Santa Fe. At first when he started he was just silly and crazy. He was enjoying himself and was excited to be doing karate, but really not that serious. He even got into trouble a few times for giggling too much.
But after he took a test and passed up into the next belt he suddenly became serious.
He was so excited and serious about karate that he could've gone every day.
Over the summer the sensai offered week long "summer camps" where groups of the kids would practice karate, play games and hang out. Max did a couple of these and loved them.

He was karate man all summer, and would try to wear his belts out of the house over his normal clothes.


But, the frustrating thing was that when it came time to take the next test--in October, finally! He didn't remember the stuff he needed for the test. So we had to do a private lesson or two and go to every class offered (which is like four per week) for a couple of weeks.
It was a huge pain.
But it paid off. He passed his test and is SO SO proud of himself.

It's exciting to see him so excited and involved in something.

Luckily (for him) he's proved to us that he's serious about it. Because the dojo just barely moved from right by our house to twenty minutes across town. If he wasn't so excited about it we'd be OUT. But as it is I can't take this away from him, so he gets to keep ninjafying himself.
We'll keep you posted on his progress. For now he's a big yellow belt and he couldn't be prouder.

::go max!!::

Max is doing awesome at karate.
A while back he was awarded a little "most improved" patch for his uniform (we haven't put it on his uniform yet, much to his annoyance). Technically he's not the MOST improved because there are other kids with the same patch, but oh well. He really has improved since he started though, and we're really proud of him. I think the patch applies quite well.

Then yesterday he came out of class with another patch. An exciting one!

I like the dragons. Evidently this is a promotion patch and it means he's making progress towards the next belt!

Isn't this so classic karate--"Here's a patch for you! That'll be $10 mom and dad!!"

We're very proud of him though, and I can't wait until he learns enough to test up to the next belt. It's nice to see him learning something physically challenging and especially we like to see him learning discipline. Now if only it was less complicated to get him to karate after school now that there's the little Sandy. We'll get the logistics figured out though. Eventually!


Go Max!!!

::bow to your sensai::

BOW TO YOUR SENSAI!!!!!

Max has been begging me for karate lessons for a long time. At least a year now. So when I saw that there was a little karate studio very close to our house (and believe me, there's not much very close to our house) we had to check it out.
And of course, checking it out led to signing up. The awesomeness of month-to-month membership didn't hurt.
He started yesterday. Today was his second class, and he felt very very cool.

I had nothing to do with these poses--I just held the camera. He's hilariously serious about this stuff.

Look out. His body is a lethal weapon. And once he develops some coordination, he might even figure out how to use it. In the meantime he's just concentrating on as many illegal ninja moves as he can.