Western Recital

We had a big day today, filled with lots of activity and fun!  The picture above was Mommy's idea, a trip to Quinlan Arts Center here in Gainesville.  They had all kinds of fun activities for the family to do together, including a bit of pottery, which you can see clearly above.  We made these owl necklaces, step by step, and Madison was certainly very much into it!

We toured the arts center, stopping at various places to look at paintings and sculptures, and even watch people making things.  There was one room in particular that had spinning wheels, where Madison and Mommy were watching seamstresses work to create different forms of art from fabric.  Also, there was a guy there who was making balloon creations - Madison got a rose.

Earlier in the day we had some fun at home reading more books from the library, and even spending a bit of time watching "The Fox and the Hound Dog 2."  Daddy had to work after that, but not for long.  It was an on-and-off-again sort of day there at the office.

The reason for leaving work again:  Madison's big recital!

Okay - big day today with pottery, music recitals, books, foxes, hound dogs, coronations for princesses and more.  Will update in a bit - and backtrack to Tuesday as well!

Here she is, playing "Monkey Sounds" for the audience.  We posted this picture above on a social networking site, and Mrs. Pam saw it and commented:  "She nailed it!"

That she did!  She then went on to sing her solo, a song called "Silly Old Clown."  Just look at these costumes, and all the elaborate decorations around her.  It was very well done - a lot of effort was put into getting everything looking just right.  And as you can see below, every child was dressed up for a rip-roarin' Western Roundup!

This is just one of the ensemble pieces, where the kids were singing "Home on the Range" and "Rawhide."  You can see Butterscotch in the picture here, a horse donated to us by Black Bart last Saturday.  Here below is a photo from another ensemble piece, where kids are playing different instruments for "Turkey and the Straw."

It was a great recital, one where we were very proud of Madison.  She practiced quite a lot for this, and it showed at the end!  To repeat her teacher's words:  "she nailed it!"

Daddy had to go back to work again after that, but he did so with a happy heart.  It was a great day.  He did get home just in time before Madison went to bed.  There was a princess coronation today at Disney, where one more princess was officially added to the court.

Yes - it was Merida.  And it is in fact the same Merida we met last October, which is kind of cool.  We watched a re-broadcast of her coronation together before bedtime together, a trip to Disney World for about ten minutes...

Madison is such a Merida fan.  In fact, that's the theme of the birthday coming up.  There's lots to do before then.  In fact, tonight, it's time for bed.  But we had a great day filled with lots of fun and activity.  Time to go to bed dreaming of bulls and bulls eyes.