Mishmash

Daddy grilled dinner tonight, which is the official start of the warmer season, although the calendar says Spring starts tomorrow. It may seem a little early, but some grilled hot dogs and hamburgers were too hard to resist. And by gum, it all tasted really good!

Today was a mishmash of activity: we did finish our piano practice, which was a bit more extensive than usual. One reason is a piano recital coming up. Don't those two words together sound amazing? We'll post the date here soon enough, but there's a piano recital coming up and a ballet recital. We're officially in the parent zone now with all these recitals! Madison is going to play a song about snails, we think. It goes with the overall theme chosen for the recital, which is based on the "Carnival of the Animals." As such, we've been also instructed to listen to the song, "Talk to the Animals," by Dr. Doolittle. This is not the Eddie Murphy version, but rather the Rex Harrison version, which features songs and music.

Another thing we did today was go to Sears. Yeah, it was that kind of day. We went to Lakeshore Mall, one of the quietest places in the known universe, and home to at least a dozen visitors per day. Seriously, I wish someone could do something about Lakeshore Mall - it is so depressing there! It used to be the place in the late eighties and early nineties. I remember when they built the expansion to the mall, complete with a carousel and theater. Part of the new expansion: Sears. It had moved from another dying mall area, if memory serves me correct. There used to be a theater over on Enota Drive, a Sears - and a store called "Roses." Now there's an ancient memory - Roses stores were all over back then.

Times change!

So here we were at Sears, which oddly enough was our destination for the day. Yep, it was that exciting of a day. Our goal was to go to Sears to get a rake, and maybe some shoes for Madison. Madison was charming as always. We had a tea party in the shoe section. One end cap was the tea station, where Madison produced some of the most remarkable imaginary tea ever tasted. She even got some for the salesperson who was there - she tried it and loved it's taste. The other end cap - that is, the place to sit down and try on shoes - that one became a chiropractic office. Both Daddy and Madison measured each other's feet, and did some necessary back work.

But soon it was time to leave the playground known as Sears!

We spent a lot of time at home today, counting. You can thank the Leapster Explorer for that. Madison and Daddy made it to the end of Tinkerbell's game, with math problems getting steadily more and more difficult. Daddy was there to help, and Madison seemed to understand some of those basic concepts. Math is one of those subjects that can be tough at any age - remember the time where you were trying to figure out what 18-10 is, just by using your fingers? That's where we were today, only we were using both of Daddy's hands, and then both of Madison's hands. We were counting the afternoon away, doing simple math as Tinkerbell made her way to get a special scepter. That ought to count for something.

As said earlier, it was a mishmash sort of day...!

"Put on your Sunday best kids; we're going to Sears!"

- Mike Brady