Eye of the Dragon

So we were shopping this afternoon, and found ourselves in Micheal's as Mommy was doing a bit of work for the church.  Madison and Daddy found this book above, which has the best of both worlds:  Iron Man and Chinese New Year.  We have all sorts of Chinese New Year books with traditional artwork and explanations of all the things that go on, but here's one with Iron Man in it.  It seems random at first, but then again, the villain is The Mandarin.  Madison is really into Iron Man as of late, mainly because of his role in the Superhero Squad - lots of her made-up stories involve Iron Man and Iron Girl.  Tonight before bed, of course we read this book - Madison enjoyed it very much.  The Mandarin did not enjoy it so much, but he'll probably escape soon:  he's got to be in a movie this summer.  Speaking of which... here's a photo from "Iron Man 3," which happens to be... you guessed it... in China:

Halfway around the world, as in back here at home, Mommy was collecting fabric and clothing items today for the upcoming ONE Marriage Conference at our church.  As mentioned previously (I think), the theme is that of a vintage circus.  Daddy was helping screw in a couple thousand lightbulbs this morning, which I believe will be dangling in the main sanctuary of the church.

When he got home around lunchtime, it was time to head over to the chiropractor's office.  Here's our girl at the office, rip-roarin' and ready to go!

This time, Daddy took a video of the entire visit, at least the parts with Madison in them.  She giggles and laughs all the way through her adjustments, and has the greatest time.  It's like a tickle fight or something, and everyone laughs each time we visit.  This occasion, Daddy brought a small camera to film the whole thing - I should have the pieces edited together by tomorrow.

For lunch we went to the Cracker Barrel, where Daddy ordered fish again.  It's a good thing Daddy likes fish, as that's just the thing needed in his diet lately.  High cholesterol and blood pressure are reshaping the year 2013, but that's a good thing.  We want to be around - and healthy - for Madison when she gets older, don't we?

Anyway, as usual, we played checkers - and for the first time as a team, Daddy and Madison actually won the peg game.  Daddy can do it by himself, but when we take turns, you can imagine it's hard to actually win with only one pin left.  But today we did it, so neither one of us is an "ignoramus."

We did a little thrift shop tour after that, looking for items for Mommy's project.  She's creating a photo booth for the marriage conference, and following that theme of an old time circus.  Meanwhile, Daddy and Madison were running around looking at CDs and books.  Madison found a few, such as the one above.  Some were holiday-themed books, which we'll tuck away for another few months.  One was a book based on the movie "Atlantis."  She was so into this that we actually watched "Atlantis:  Milo's Return" tonight.  Or, at least we watched part of it.  The reason for this is that it was later when we got back, and we wanted Madison to eat, get that piano practice in, and of course get a good night's rest.  Oh, and she definitely wanted me to read her new story about Iron Man.

"You can't make a bomb without oregano. It makes a very nice 'boom.'"

- Vincenzo Santorini