Tuesday Afternoon

We got an email yesterday:  Madison got her certificate from Locks of Love, so Daddy printed it out for her.  It's been so long since we sent it in that Madison's hair has actually grown back!  Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration.

Today was a work day/piano day/ballet day again - and also a day to go out in the front yard and play catch.  We didn't have quite enough time to go down to the tennis courts, so we instead opted for the front yard, throwing a ball back and forth.  Notice I didn't mention "catching" a ball too much - we're still working on that part.  It's more like, "throwing a ball and chasing it down" back and forth.  Madison's arm - when she's not acting crazy - is pretty good.  She's got good aim, and you have to be careful if she's throwing a baseball.  Got to be alert!

We did a lot of things geared towards the piano recital upcoming, and went in a similar direction with ballet as well.  Both recitals are coming up in May, which will be here before you know it.

Madison has a snow day this Friday.  Obviously, it's not going to snow.  Not here, anyway.  But there were a certain amount of days alloted for the kids to take off in case of snow.  Because we didn't use too many of them, Madison gets a free day this Friday - which is something we're all kind of looking forward to.  Mommy got some discounts for zoo tickets, and it'll be a surprise for Madison.  We're heading to the zoo.  It was a toss-up between that, the Botanical Gardens and the new Legoland at Phipps Plaza.  The option with the discount won out!

Anyway, that'll be a fun day upcoming.  The weather should be just right - lately, it's been cool here.  It's that sort of weather across the country.  For example, the Braves game in Colorado today:  coldest MLB game ever on record.  Twenty-three degrees at the starting pitch - and it's almost May.  They won, by the way.

Of course, it'll be perfect weather for World Penguin Day, which is coming up this week.  Seriously, the cool weather has been fantastic outside.  We've been doing all kinds of work outside, fixing up the yard and making things look nice.  Also, we got some stuff to make the inside look nice:  a new piano stand for Madison.  Until recently, we've had that thing propped up on a long table, which just looks ugly.  But now we've cleared that out of the dining room area, and have a simple keyboard stand there. Madison likes it a lot - for one thing, it's adjustable and matches her height better.

Daddy is still writing his messages on the Twelve Tribes of Israel, which looks like it will be a two-month-long series this June-July.  Not so enthused about the this one, but we are learning a lot about the tribes that we didn't know.  The theme will be "Tribes," which covers a different sort of ground with the skits and dramas.  It's almost like "Survivor" with teams of Gladiators, Vikings, Cowboys, Pirates, Ninjas, Superheroes and Luchadores.  Each "tribe" represents a grade level, and just so you know, Madison's grade level are the Vikings.  It's time to start getting out our horned hats...