Pridelands

Madison came with us to our new series "The Pridelands," which started today and was a wonderful success. Mommy once again worked very hard on costumes - take a look at the ones to your left here. The costumes were the whole reason for doing this series, as we found quite a few leftover costumes that you'll see below from another church special event. They hadn't been used, so we thought we'd make the best of the investment and create a series taking place in Tanzania, with flavors of "The Lion King."

Daddy wrote things out in rhyme, so that the two characters you see above would tell a story that takes place in the Pridelands, where all sorts of animals live, like zebras, gazelles, wildebeest, hippos, monkeys, elephants, ostriches, and of course a lion. The zebras and gazelles were actors from girls' dance team, and were really good.

Gazelles dance ‘cross the land as they were made to

Zebras zip about, whinny and neigh!

The ostrich cranes her neck at the remarkable view

As the slow turtle there makes his own way.

The ostrich and elephant costumes are more elaborate, and the kids were really excited when all the animals began to march out onto the stage. We had music playing that Daddy bought at the Animal Kingdom recently, as everyone acted out the story of "The Lion and the Mouse." In today's message, we learned three phrases in Swahili - "hakuna matata," "harambe," and "rafiki." Each mean something that we tied to the Bible in a unique way for a really different sort of message. It was definitely a lot of fun for us, and the audience really responded too.

Madison saw our presentation at 11:00 today, and enjoyed just as much. She keeps saying "The Lion King!" She also sat and listened to the message delivered at the end of the service, pulling out her little book and taking notes. Of course, her notes were a little different looking from everyone else's. But she was still attentive, and enjoyed watching the service today.

Of course, today is the Fourth of July. Two years ago, we celebrated in China. Today we didn't get to do much in regards of "celebrating," outside of eat watermelon. Last night, we heard plenty of fireworks out on the lake - and expect as much tonight as well. No fireworks here though: not probably the best idea with Madison around!

Before then, we're watching "Lilo & Stitch 2" with Madison and eating popcorn again. Madison is enjoying the movie, and we're sitting about thinking about our next Disney vacation where we'll find Stitch again - at the Polynesian Resort! THEN, we'll get to see fireworks... from the beach there!