A Holiday Reading

This pretty much speaks for itself ... as soon as you know the book she's reading is "The Night Before Christmas."

It took us the better part of 23 minutes to get to this point. Up to then was a lot of organization, keeping us quiet, and introducing her "New book, Santa, to the class."

Long story short, you can tell Maya has been paying attention to the teacher's operations during story time at preschool.

Enjoy!

ORANGE BELT!

Owen earned his Orange belt in Tae Kwon Do tonight. His grandparents (Grammie and Grampy Ives and Grandpa Aalberts) were there with us to cheer him on.

We were very surprised it was testing time already, but he has been working very hard and really knew his stuff ... so I guess it's no surprise.

The night started off with him doing his "routine" of moves. He did a great job remembering the 18

steps and was very committed in the way that he moved, determined to get it right.

He then sparred against another student. Nothing too physical, just showing he knows what moves to do to defend himself and attack. Our favorite of the latter moves is a really (for lack of a better word) jaunty little hitch kick that he delivers with style. It reminds me a little of some of the dance steps I did in high school musicals ... but maybe that's just a reminder of the dangers of Broadway.

Like when he got his Yellow belt, the highlight of the evening was him breaking a board. Master Kim gave him the choice of how he would break it, either a roundhouse kick or with his fist.

Owen chose fist. Unlike when he broke his first board with his foot, this didn't come on the first hit. And you could tell it hurt a little bit, both on his knuckles and pride. But he didn't give up and it popped in two on the second hit. Grandpa Aalberts has a great video of the test I'll add to the site when I get it from him.

It was very impressive, Owen! We're all very proud of you!

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was awesome (as Halloween should be). Maya somehow ended up with three costumes to choose from. She started with a bumblebee costume, which she decided she didn't like and was then returned. Then came the "princess" outfit, a Rapunzel dress from the movie "Tangled," which she wore out of the store and played in the rest of the afternoon ... but was tired of by bedtime.

"Mom, I don't want to be Rapunzel!" she cried. (It would have been nice to know that before we cut out the tags from inside the collar.)

Next was a ballet dancer outfit, which never really seemed like a viable option.

Which left us last year's monkey outfit. Comfortable? Check. Warm? Check. Cute as all get out?! Check. Maya was a great chimp!

And for the third year running, Owen was from outer space. Two years ago he was a Transformer, last year a NASA Astronaut, this year a Clone Trooper from Star Wars.

 It gives me no small sense of satisfaction that I undoubtedly contemplated my own Star Wars costume when I was just a little older than he is ...

It was a beautiful night for Tick or Treating. Maya got to see her good friend Chris across the street. Grammie and Grampy's dog Winnie got into the act.

And everyone was exhausted by the end of the night. Maya (below) could barely lift her pumpkin full of candy.

... but the Hawkeye Jack 'O Lantern burned brightly ...

And Owen was a great helper passing out candy.

"These are not the Gummi Bears you are looking for!"