π Day

Another π Day, and it was a nice one outside too! We celebrated at California Pizza this afternoon with a great big pizza π. This was just after another visit to the dentist. We seem to visit both of these places about twice a year.

It was great to see everyone again at the office, and all of us had a clean bill of health on our teeth. Mommy's teeth look really nice, actually. Madison still has the other issue of concern we found at the dentist a few months ago, and we'll have to deal with that soon. But today was still good for all of us, and Madison had a great time as usual. She loves the receptionist, and had a lot of fun, considering it was a dentist's office.

While Daddy was getting his teeth looked at, the entire office could hear Madison's giggles as she ran around the front desk. Then, of course there was the topic of ... THE TREASURE CHEST. Yes, we're talking about that big chest the kids get to look through once they're done with the dental work. Madison got to look through and pick out her favorite item, and of course she found a balloon toy.

We ate at California Pizza afterwards - Madison polished off a few slices of pizza and got a nice bowl of ice cream as a treat. If we were purists, we'd go for the lemon π...

On the way home, we picked up several nice outfits for Madison - trading in some of her older clothing and toys at a consignment shop. It worked out great, actually, because we saved quite a bit. AND, we got some wonderful new clothing for Madison. She just beams when she sees her new clothing. "Thank you!" she gushes!

Once we got home, Daddy played catch a little with Madison in the front yard - until the smell of the bradford pear trees in our front yard drove us off! They are starting to blossom, and if there's one flower you don't want to smell, it's a bradford pear tree. Between that and the pollen, it was time to come inside and check out Madison's new Junior Explorer Globe. This is a great tool for learning continents and regions of the world - like China, the United States, and right there on the edge of the Pacific is Japan.

Japan, of course, is the topic of conversation for the past four days. We haven't mentioned it here, and it isn't necessarily something to explain to Madison yet. But the large scale disasters there have been heart-breaking, and we've been praying for the people in Japan every night. Since we've met Madison, there have been some of the largest earthquakes in my recollection: Haiti, Chili, New Zealand and of course China. All this over the course of two and a half years. The earth has been shaking violently as of late - the latest has actually moved an island of Japan eight feet. Stunning, and simply awful. Madison has been praying for people who have "boo boos" across the world, but with no detailed explanations from us as of yet. This is just part of the world we live in, and one of the more difficult things to explain to Madison as she gets older.

Here's a photo of Mommy and Madison doing some more homework. Madison has been so into this lately. She's been dragging Mommy over to do her exercises, matching up and counting and doing a whole lot of learning. This is exciting for everyone, as Madison is showing us how incredibly smart she is. This girl has been very sharp!

With the picture above, you can see the globe we just got in the foreground, with China in green. Madison knows where this is, and knows where the Great Wall is as well. She's learning where America is too, and using this interactive globe to continue soaking in new learning. Madison is simply amazing - learning quite a bit!

In honor of this special day, one of Madison's assignments was learning π to the thirtieth place. I think that may be approximately 3.141592653589793238462643383279, or something like that. Using our globe there, she's taking the distance of the equator, and dividing it by the distance straight through the earth from our house to somewhere deep in the Indian Ocean.

Okay, not really. Still, Daddy was curious where the exact opposite side of the world was from our house. Here above is a neat image that shows where the exact opposite side of the world is as it relates to our house.

And yes: if you divide the straight distance through the earth that connects these points by the distance of the equator, the answer you get is π!