Sunflower Dresses

Here's a photo of Madison in her dancing costume at ballet practice today - she and her friends had a great time this evening, preparing for another recital upcoming.  It was a busy, busy day for her, as are most Tuesdays.  The difference with this one is that we had Spring Break last week, which basically meant some catching up to do.

Despite it all, Madison was quick with answers in her piano class.  She played her chords well too - yesterday's arduous practice paid off a bit.  Seriously, last night we were practicing a long, long time.  The end result is that she got to move her cow.  What that means is this:  each student has a cow that they place along the Chisholm Trail (this no longer goes up through Texas, but in fact around the circumference of her classroom).  As they do their homework each week, they get to color and put a new cow up, a little further on the trail.  The recital, as you can imagine, has a western feel.  The kids will be singing "Home on the Range" and even "Rawhide."  The first song we've been singing and playing over and over again.  We have a great Garrison Keillor version, but the one that her teacher has played to the kids (and Madison has watched a few times) features Alvin and the Chipmunks.  In their version, Alvin seems to have a hard time with the word "antelope."  It might be because he's so hungry, but he keeps singing "cantaloupe."  Where the deer and the cantaloupe play...

The "Rawhide" song should be funny, because the first version Daddy ever knew of that came from "The Blues Brothers."  We'll play that for her sometime, her first Blues Brothers song I suppose.

Along with the lessons, Madison is learning about famous American composers like Aaron Copeland.  It's been a fun class, and we're all looking forward to the recital - that's about a month from now.  Not long to go - Madison had better start practicing more on her two songs!  She's chosen "Monkey Sounds" to play, which has three different chords in it.  She's going to sing "Silly Old Clown," which we played in D minor today - this is the key you play on when you want to add a hint of menace to your song.

Tonight was crock pot night for dinner, which was delicious, of course.  We had chicken, noodles, peas and dumplings, and it was mighty tasty!

Today's weather, by the way, was really warm.  It's been hot, and the pollen has been all over the place as well - it looks like yellow sidewalk chalk along the driveway.  Cars are tinted yellow, and randomly along the highway, frustrated drivers are activating their windshield wiper fluid more often than they do the rest of the entire year.

During ballet, Mommy went to Aldi's to do her grocery shopping.  As Mommy is always in search of deals, this grocery store has become a great hobby for her.  She collects things and brags about how much they cost afterwards, and how much we've saved.  Indeed, we save a lot with Mommy doing the shopping.  Daddy, not so much.

We all got home, and it was too late to watch a movie with Madison.  We had done so much practicing that we did something we haven't done in a few weeks:  return to Gotham City.  Yep, we were back on Lego Batman 2 again.  That, and playing some duel pinball games - recently we purchased on the X-box marketplace a few Marvel pinball tables, and the two of us were having fun keeping the ball in play as the earth's mightiest heroes looked on.

Tonight after Madison went to bed, we watched "Bikini Beach," which was just one of the "Beach Party" movies Annette Funicello was in.  We found a few more online and might have ourselves a marathon before it is all said and done.  What goofy movies they were, but we love 'em.  Vincent Price as Big Daddy was just a classic moment.  These aren't by any means masterpieces, but we enjoy watching them anyway.  I suppose that makes us uncultured Philistines or something, but regardless, we'll probably be watching all the "Beach Party" movies this week!

Tonight, Daddy stayed up way too late finishing that John Grisham book.  I just get sucked in with some of these novels sometimes, and this one was no exception.  Next, I'll crack open his latest "Theodore Boone" novel, and have that finished quickly too.  It's addictive reading!