Maddie earns her green belt

Maddie has been taking a Korean form of Martial Arts called Tang Soo Do for about 18 months. She absolutely loves it. More importantly she has learned so much. Tuesday she was able to test for her green belt. This is such a big deal. It has taken her a year to work for this belt. A year. For an eight-year-old, that is 12.5% of her lifetime. That is how much effort Maddie has put into this accomplishment.

Throughout her journey, her teacher has guided her each step of the way. I love this woman so much. We are so lucky that she has been a part of Maddie's life. SaBom Nim Lee is absolutely amazing at helping children grow through their mistakes and challenges to be stronger, happier people. Maddie's test was such a challenge for her. SaBom Nim helped her over each hurdle. Some of them were biggies.

Here is each step of the exam:

Forms & One-steps

 Back kick to break a board

Breaking two boards with a downward hammer fist

 This one was very challenging for Maddie. She tried several times and just couldn't get it. Here is Sa Bah Nim giving her some counsel.

YAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!! The final step is finished!!!!!

The joy. The love. The tears. I am so proud of Maddie and all that she has done. She is just amazing. Oh, and watch out, she's wicked good at Tang Soo Do.

Finishing the Carlo's Bakery tale

It has been brought to my attention that I completely forgot to finish off the Carlo's Bakery saga. Several months of adventure have come and gone, so I may have missed some of the details here. Hopefully the pictures will help give some kind of understanding how crazy it was inside that place. It was so loud! It was so crowded! Maddie was so excited! She started rattling off the names of everyone helping us. I recognized some, but she was in star-struck heaven!

Maddalena, Chrissy and Maddalena's daughter

The famous Cranky Mary

When you are waiting outside, you are given a numbered ticket to order. The instant we went in the door, they called out our number and we were assigned a 'personal shopper' of sorts. There was no opportunity to look at the cases. No chance to debate over beautiful things. We were asked for our order at the front door without so much as a glance around. Luckily I had heard tales of this, and we had discussed in line what we would take home. Chrissy was great -- we had to make sure John had a flowered cupcake, and she was really great to help. It took about 50 minutes to get our baked goods and clothing. The chaos was really overwhelming. We all left the store happy we weren't employed there. If Buddy would listen, I would love to offer a few suggestions! I had budgeted $50 for treats. I ended up only spending $18 for two families because we just couldn't see to choose additional items.

Chrissy, our personal shopper

John, eyeing the tasty treats

While in line, I was adamant that we would not be spending a fortune on shirts. One t-shirt each. Then we saw these hoodies, and in all the chaos, I forgot to even ask the price. Turns out they were $40 each. Oh well. The girls have loved them. They were so cute about everything. The hoodies provide a tangible memory. I hope it was money well spent. :)

After we left the bakery, we were starving. We drove in circles for blocks, searching for parking so that we could go to Panera. On the third round, a car vacated the perfect spot right in front of the restaurant. We just laughed and laughed -- great parking day for us!

We didn't sample the treats until we got home -- around 10 PM. They were all so good! I think everyone agreed that the cannoli was the best choice by far. I wish we had known about the chocolate dipped cannoli -- that would have been really fun to try.

Nina, Pinta, but not the Santa Maria

We had a great time this afternoon visiting the Nina and the Pinta -- replicas of the ships that Columbus used to sail the ocean blue in 1492. Columbus started out with the Santa Maria as well, but it sank on Christmas Eve in 1492 in Hispaniola. The group in charge of the replicas did not make the Santa Maria because it was too large to sail up small rivers like the other two boats can do.

The Pinta is the larger of the two boats, and the one my children definitely preferred to look at. The Nina was used in the film "1492" and was the boat Columbus preferred. Columbus used the Nina to sail over 25,000 miles. They are both common trading vessels called 'Caravels.' Each of the replicas was built by a group of traditional ship builders in Brazil that use techniques going back almost 600 years. If you're curious, you can learn more at www.thenina.com.

The Pinta

Climbing aboard The Pinta

For those of you that are interested

The Pinta's vital statistics:

• Length: 85 feet


• Beam 24 feet


• Draft: 7 feet


• Sail area: 4000 square feet


• Displacement: 101 tons

The Nina's comparative stats:

• Lentgh: 65 feet


• Beam: 18 feet


• Draft: 7 feet


• Sail Area: 1,919 square feet


• Displacement: 80 tons

Family Photos -- trying to decide.....

We recently had our family photos taken by Michelle Gardella, who is one wonderful photographer! Now it comes time to choose -- I have to pick my favorite three. What do you think?

Meeting Grace & Getting on Film-- Cake Boss Episode Three

Cake Boss adventure continued....

We finally got to the block where the Carlo's Bakery is located.

Maddie was getting so excited she actually scratched her own eyelid!

John was mesmerized by the groups of people cheering and shouting. Then he started joining in the merriment as well. We spent another hour working our way to the front of the bakery. About the time we were three groups from the front of the line, the nice policeman came out to make an announcement.

He said that Grace, Buddy's sister, was going to come out with a film crew to greet the line. He told us to 'act like we were in line.' We all thought that was funny -- we were well rehearsed in 'acting like we were in line' by this point.

This was Maddie's face when she heard we were going to meet Grace. Wow! I don't think I've ever seen her like this! She's so calm usually. The sqeaks and squeals that go with this photo were so much fun!

In a few minutes, Grace came out. But, it wasn't to shoot stock footage panning the crowd. She came out first without the cameras to take pictures with each of the families that would be filmed. Holy cow! Maddie was in heaven! Grace was really sweet and kind. I was very impressed! After she met all the families, she went back in and then came out a second time with the camera guy. She spoke right to us --the camera was all of four feet from my face.

Seriously! I never get filmed when I'm put together. As one woman in line said, "I only have my ugly on!" That's how it felt. In the rain all day, backpack, chair and camera loaded so that I looked like an extreme tourist, and no make-up on, but I guess that's just how it is. I'll take my fame where I can get it :)

Our moment on camera was probably only 5 to 10 seconds, but it was thrilling. Grace walks up to us and hands us a ticket, explaining that we need to hold onto it, because it's our only way into the store.

The girls were jumping up and down when it was all over. I can't deny it -- I was pretty excited too!

They stopped allowing people in the store while the filming was taking place, so we had to wait a few minutes longer until Grace was finished working her way down the line a bit. She made her way back into the store and the cameras followed her as well.

During that final wait, the producer came up and gave us permission slips for the kids to be shown on TV. She was really nice and tracked us down in the store to get the signed forms. Then she took pictures of each child and loaded their name to match them up with the permission slips and their place in the footage. It was a fun little glimpse at the work going on behind the camera. We don't know which episode the footage will be used -- they said it could be any episode since it wasn't story specific.

Next installment... we actually get into the store!

Holy Cannoli!--Cake Boss Adventure Episode Two

More of our Cake Boss adventure....

Well, as we drove into Hoboken, we shouted out, counting down the streets to get to Carlo's Bakery. The kids were so excited!!!

Upon our arrival, we found a HUGE line, and no parking. All the parking on the street is two hour, metered parking.

Luckily, I have a handicapped sticker from my foot surgery, and we found the only handicapped parking space on the street. I worried and fretted for hours that I had done something illegal or incorrect by parking there.

We crossed the street and walked for some time before finding the end of the line. We joined up with the line at exactly 12:00 PM. Then we did a lot of this.....

For about four and a half hours on one very long city block we waited in that line. (Don't worry, that wasn't our total wait time. That was just one block.)

We waited.... and waited.... and waited.....

I took pictures of the line when we were about halfway down the block -- about the time we'd been in line for two and a half to three hours. This is the line heading toward the bakery....


And this was where we had been....
It just went on forever!

But, all the people in line were wonderful. I couldn't have made it without the great people that held our spot while I ran to check on the car, took the kids to go to the bathroom and got pizza. One family even brought us back Dunkin' Doughnuts so that the kids could last longer.

We were surrounded by people from Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and a thousand other places.

At about 4:20 PM (four hours and twenty minutes in line)we finally could see the promised land -- the block where Carlo's Bakery resides. You can see there is still more line to go.....

You can also see our blue van on the far left of this picture -- that's how good my parking place was. That's why I was so terrified I was going to get towed!

More to come.....