A green belt and a wooden car

The weekend started out not so much with a "bang," but a mighty "CRACK!" as Owen added another broken board to his collection and moved up a level to the Green Belt in Tae Kwon Do.

It was a great test! Breaking the board took a few more tries this time, but Owen stuck with it and got it done. Perhaps the most impressive part of the test was the fierce determination and sharp movements he demonstrated as he was doing his two multi-step routines at the start. He has been working very hard and really knows what he's doing.

Owen's Tae Kwon Do success has been an inspiration to all of us ... but particularly to his mom, who signed up to take lessons herself two weeks ago. There she is in her own uniform at the top (she stayed for her class after Owen was done).

I think we're all looking forward to Mom's first test ... and her breaking a board.

After the test was done, Owen, Maya, and I drove up to Grandpa's house for the weekend. We had lots of projects in mind, particularly checking out all the work Grandpa had done on his house ... and getting some work done on Owen's Pinewood Derby car for Scouts.

Operating under the belief that the race was this Monday night, we gunned our way through the project. And now it turns out the Pinewood Derby isn't tomorrow night; tomorrow is just the night we bring the cars in for an intital weigh-in and some instructions about the final steps. The actual race is at the end of February, which is good because we've got two ounces of sinkers we need to add to the car before it's ready to race.

Otherwise, it's all done. Thanks go Grampy for the work in the shop and for the use of Grandpa's basement where we sanded the edges pimped Owen's ride. It's very cool!

We had a nice weekend with Grandpa. At Maya's request we had a picnic for our Saturday lunch.

We also visited some friends of Grandpa's from the church who have lots of model trains, Maya hung some art on the magnetic wall Grandpa added to his basement, and we went to a puppet show at Grandpa's church.

Most importantly, the kids got some cuddles in.

Which was good for everyone ...