Ice Cream Parlor

Can you believe we spent the entire day inside today? I think it was about 8:30 that we realized this, as Madison and Daddy bravely stepped outside to walk across the lawn and get the mail from the mailbox.

Earlier in the day, a UPS delivery guy brought Madison some birthday presents, so we did open the door once.

But the rest of the day was spent inside! What did we do today, you ask?

Madison spent most of the day with her new toys. One of which was an instant ice cream parlor that looks somewhat like this:

Madison's ice cream parlor is much, much bigger though. It has THIRTY-FIVE pieces. This used to be something to be amazed at. Like, as in: "Wow, honey, that's a lot of pieces for the money." Now, it's like: "Wow, honey, that's a lot of pieces of plastic all over the floor!"

Still, Madison has been more diligent about keeping this set together. She's been very meticulous about making us ice cream too. She first takes our orders - Daddy gets a mint or sometimes a chocolate. Or sometimes Daddy does an old Albert Finney impersonation and orders a banana ice cream. Next, Madison needs to know should it be served in a cone, or in a bowl? The bowls come with spoons and the cones have paper wrappers that go around the sugar cone portion. One final question: sprinkles? If so, should it be chocolate or rainbow colored? She gets the order together back at the parlor, using a big spoon to scoop out of a box or smaller container - and she never forgets the napkin. Ice cream is served!

She pays attention to all of these details and gets everything covered. And, to our relief, she picks up all the pieces when she's done and puts them where they belong.

In other exciting news, Madison and Daddy defeated Blackbeard tonight. Hold your applause until the end, please. We played Lego pirates some more, and had our bonding time for over an hour. Okay, so it was probably longer than that. The good news is that we discovered the Fountain of Youth and all is well. Explorers can stop looking now.

Speaking of which, Madison got a Leapster Explorer for her birthday. She was using this a lot today, as Daddy got her started on it. She's got games with Tiana, Belle, Cinderella, Tinkerbell and Rapunzel now - and each has some sort of learning application with it. She's really into each of these, and the neat thing is that they both feature some adjustments that make the replay value very good. Madison is clearly at a beginner stage on some of these, learning basic math and language skills. But a peek at some of the more advanced levels of the same stages reveals that she could be playing these same games years from now. And, the bonus is that the graphics and sound are great and she's really into it. So, thumbs up so far!

We had plenty of leftover food from the luau and birthday parties, so there was lots to choose from for lunch. We ate together, and basically lounged about afterwards.

Daddy did do some writing for our new series which starts in two weekends. Mommy has been ordering costuming while Daddy writes - it's going to be a lot of fun. This is a series called, "Kung Pow!"

There will be elements from "Kung Fu Panda" in it and elements of "The Karate Kid" too. All in all, it's shaping up to be an outstanding series, message-wise. Obviously, having been to China will add a bit to the series. More info to come in a bit - but for now, here's one brief description of what's to come:

Bow to your sensai! Everybody is kung fu fighting, as all this series, KidPak becomes the dojo with mojo. We’ll be getting our kicks and earning our belts as we open our Bibles to learn about timeless virtues such as confidence, patience, compassion, self-control and courage. The time has come to face your destiny as a true warrior. Join us for KidPak Adventures: Kung Pow!