Madison has Appeal

Last night's bedtime story featured gnomes. These were the two from "Gnomeo and Juliet," who were so grateful for Princess Madison's help that they decided to live at our house - in front of our house. I told Madison to look outside in the morning, maybe she can find them there.

Sure enough, she woke up and ran down the stairs. Out the door she ran, and right outside the porch she saw our new garden gnomes, based on the movie from "Gnomeo and Juliet." Here's a picture she took with her very own camera -she didn't do a bad job, did she? These cute gnomes add a bit of color to the front yard, and work well with the Memorial Day decorations, adding a bit of red, white and blue for the next few months. The movie came out on Blu-Ray today, so we picked that up as well and watched it in the evening.

But back to the gnomes. We've always had a thing for gnomes. That might be Mommy's heritage more than Daddy's, but we've always enjoyed the concept. Daddy likes them the same way he likes pink flamingoes, fuzzy dice and the House on the Rock. But deeper still, there's something fun about 'em. We have Christmas ornament gnomes - and one of Daddy's favorite Terry Pratchett books is about gnomes (only spelled "nomes"). Like I said, they're fun.

Speaking of fun, here's something fun that Madison has been doing. She's peeling the paint off the deck in the back, something that we're working on doing so we can redo it all. She drags Mommy out to the deck to get peeling - it's something she really likes doing. I need to clarify here that it wasn't like that scene in Tom Sawyer where he tricks Ben into painting a fence because he says it is fun. No, Madison just decided this was fun on her own. She can't wait to get out there and see how long of a strip of paint she can peel off the deck! As you can see, she's got appeal.

That was a terrible play on words. We had big news today that will affect our lives in August of 2012. Long time from now, yes, but earlier this year we were watching the christening of the Disney Dream. This afternoon, Mommy made reservations for the three of us to go on board - but here's the special part: it's part of a reunion. We're meeting up with a few families who went to China with us in 2008. This will be four years after our first trip to China together, so it will be quite a special occasion. The fact that it will be a Disney Cruise will make it even nicer. It's fourteen months away, but you know how fast time travels: it seems like only a few weeks ago we were in China, and yet it's actually been nearly three years. Wow.