Spooky Gingerbread House 2025

Tonight we spent a good bit of time working on this year's SPOOKY GINGERBREAD HOUSE!  We've been doing this since 2015,  so this is sort of the tenth anniversary edition.  Mom ordered this kit online, and had it all set up for us to do.  We popped in the movie "Ghostbusters" and got to work, Maddie on two sides and me on the other two sides.  We each did a side of the roof there, using Booberry cereal.  Maddie decided to make a face on her side, a real Monster House, while I did just a lot of different patterns and so on.  We had a lot of candy corn and pumpkins there tonight, and oh boy, I'm paying for it now.  But it was fun as always, and the end result turned out great!

The rest of the day was work at the office and college for Maddie - she was back there after a day off because of the coughing.  She had a good day at school, and we were getting some things done at KidPak towards this weekend, and a little bit towards December even.  

This morning I was up early and got a good ways in on the Corpse Bride pathway there, even getting a post card for my efforts, another advancement in the story.  Moving right along there!  It'll be closer to Halloween when I finish that marathon.

Maddie is feeling a bit better, coughing less and doing fine.  She was doing some homework and reflection when we got home.  The weather was cool and rainy out there, and September is going out with really pleasant temperatures.  I'll say that for September.  Used to be one of my least favorite months, of course, mainly because school started then and I hated school.  But this September was packed with fun - it's been a good one!

We closed up the day with reading, and with saying our prayers.  And getting a nice sleep as a heavy rain poured down outside.

Penultimate Testing

It was the penultimate testing today, and wow, Maddie was amazing.  Not that I'm so amazed anymore, because I come in and she's always so talented.  She's just really great, and just to prove to you that I'm not exaggerating, Master Edge was huge with his compliments for her after watching her do her form.  She was crisp and forceful and just spectacular tonight.  

Of course, they all were.  But the Furious Five were on top of things tonight, my new nickname for the last five girls to go with the board breaking.  More on that in a bit.  First, here's the group shot that I always take of tonight's testers.  This is the last testing before the final one, the one that gets Maddie her new third degree black belt.  She's still wearing an ATA belt, this despite the fact that she's been in the GTMA for a good bit now.  That's just the timing of it all, but that's all about to change in a few months when she finally gets that third degree belt.

So as always, things started out with sparring today.  Maddie was on the other side of the room for that, but I snapped a few pictures of the students as they sparred with one another, just as always.  I'm somewhat a staff photographer, taking pictures and posting them online later.  I'm sharing just a few of tonight's testing here.

Nate was right in front of me, so I snapped a few of him as well as he sparred.  Here he is above, going airborne with a combat stick.  He's got impressive height as it is!  And here he is below, breaking his board.

Now here's the fun part of the night.  All the students were doing their board-breaking, one after the other.  And most of the class was struggling here a bit.  The students weren't breaking through, and so there were multiple attempts and things were looking a little slow.  And then Maddie came up.

Bam!  She confidently got those board holders in position right away, looked at the placement of the boards, and just destroyed those boards, one after the other.  It was over with before you knew it.  And then after that, the rest of the Furious Five leveled those boards perfectly to close out things. 

Master Edge put them at the end of the board breaking session just to end on a strong note - the girls did so good there.  And that just left one thing more, the form portion of the night.  It's so great to see.  I know it's nerve-wracking, but the students really shone here.

Rather than film Maddie, this time I took photos of her doing her form.  The first two pictures of this entry (at the top) are of her doing her form, and you'll see more in a bit.  Until then, here's Nate doing an impressive kick.

And these are of Maddie below.  She was so good tonight.  I just love the sound that Master Edge describes, the "snap" of a taekwondo gi as someone doing their form kicks out or strikes with their fists.  It's this sudden movement that suggests there's a whole lot of power behind it.  Maddie was excelling at that tonight - you could really hear the power.  She did great!

So yes, it was a good night.  And it's tradition to go off after all the celebrating, and go get some boba tea.  We brought Nate along, and the three of us enjoyed some of that delicious tea before heading back home.

Tonight's movie was "The Haunted Mansion," the original Eddie Murphy one, and it's one that we all actually like the best of the two Disney movies.  It just seems more fun.  Anyway, we enjoyed that, and then we were off to get ready for bed.  We continued with "Jingo," and then said our prayers, and got some sleep.

But one more thing about today - I'm unlocking characters and moving along the Corpse Bride virtual marathon.  It's been so much fun to walk along this route.  I'll be plugging in that soundtrack soon - we saw the movie itself the other night, and it's one of our favorites.  

Okay, time for sleep.  To quote the Van Dorts, "It was a glorious day!"

Sunday On Ice

Tonight we did something we hadn't done in quite some time!  We went down to see Disney on Ice! 

We got tickets for four, and we got there really early, and that's okay by me because I like to soak in the atmosphere a bit.  But the arena was pretty empty when we first walked in.  We didn't do any photo ops with the backdrops because they were a bit pricy, and besides, we already have a zillion pictures with backdrops from the cruise, right?  I was tempted to get a few little trinkets, but self-control ruled the day and we just got some water, and some food for Nate and Maddie.  As for the show, it's somewhat like it always is, and that's not a bad thing.  There were some fun elements to some of the newer movies - we liked the memory sphere zorb balls that glowed, and the large manta floating across the ice was pretty neat.  Mom and I generally like the Disney on Ice productions that just tell one or two stories, but this production today, "Jump In," was pretty fun with so many different characters and scenes throughout.  And the kids in the audience were so into it.  There was so much noise in there for characters, and so many singing along.  It was a great time, and it was just fun to be a kid again in a way!

Of course, this morning we were at church, and that was the wrap-up of our "Start Your Engines" series, which was fun.  The kids really responded to things there, lots of energy. But the message this morning about Romans Road was a very important one, and we had a great altar service.  These are a few of the pictures Maddie took of the morning at KidPak:

Afterwards, we went over to Wang's for some food.  We hadn't been there in a while, and Mom and Maddie were wanting to go back.  And that was nice.  It gave us just enough time to get home and get ready for our adventure tonight.  

Tonight we had time to watch a few seasonal shorts, but we were tired.  All of us!  And Maddie seems to be coughing a good bit more.  We might take tomorrow off of school, but we'll see.  So we got ready for bed, and this evening we started a new Discworld book, "Jingo."

This is significant, because I haven't read "Jingo" before.  I've read all the other Discworld novels, outside of the science-themed ones, cookbooks, maps and so on.  But "Jingo" I've been saving for the last few years.  Mom got it for me, and we've just been reading other things - but now, it's next in the City Watch series, so Maddie and I are reading it together.  It's my first time, so it's special. 

Okay, all that said, after reading a bit, we were ready for a good night's sleep.  It was a fun day!