Admiral Madison

So we were discussing what to do for dinner tonight, when the thought occurred to us:  how about Japanese?  And so it came to pass that Madison found yet another one of those pictures where you can insert your head, and by coincidence, Daddy has his camera nearby.  I intended on taking pictures inside, but it was sort of awkward while a guy was cooking up food and other patrons were there as well.  So, we rested the camera a bit, and will have to rely on our fond memories of a fun night at the Kani House.  Madison loved it.  She enjoyed the soup and rice and chicken, and of course the ice cream.  But what she enjoyed most was the show - the cook was very good, and very entertaining.  Of course, he made the obligatory volcano of onion slices, complete with flames shooting out the top.  When that was over, the volcano was converted to a train that put out steam as it choo-chooed across the cooking surface.  This was Madison's favorite part, she said.  Anyway, it was a fun night.  Believe it or not, it has been three years since we've been to a hibachi restaurant.  Madison was actually three years old then (only a few months away from being four).  She enjoyed it back then too - actually, we all did.

Today was a fun day overall.  Daddy and Mommy kept things busy for a time - Mommy was busy doing yard work outside, while Daddy took Madison on a few errands in town.  The post office was a success, as was the bank stop.  Although the bank was out of lollipops.  This was a scary situation, as you can imagine there possibly being a run on the bank.  Imagine all the patrons rushing to the bank demanding their lollipops!  It would be a scene just like in "It's a Wonderful Life," where the bank owner himself would probably have to come out and carefully distribute dum-dums to demanding and worried customers.

Madison was a little disappointed, but we both knew there would certainly be free candy at the printer's.  Daddy had a chore to do there for church, and first of all, there was free candy there.  Madison had a little tiny bit of it.  Secondly, and much cooler, she got a free tour of the area where the printing presses were.  She saw a couple of the printers in action, led around by a guide and greeted by several very friendly employees.  One even gave her a new pad of paper to draw on.  This pad would be used before the day was over!

As we walked out of the printing place with our order, Daddy saw some of the new memorials across the street.  With the Fourth of July just next week, he led Madison over to the small park where we looked at the monuments there.

Never forget that they gave all.  This was a difficult concept to go over with Madison, but she clearly understood it - many men gave up everything to fight and protect us, so that we could live safe and happy in our country.  We got to the Vietnam memorial, and looked over the names on the wall.  It's interesting because Madison lived close to Vietnam - was it possible she has any ancestors in that direction?

After that, we had fun in the car wash.  The car wash is always fun for Madison.  It's fun for Daddy too - we turn up the music, look through the sunroof and watch all the soap, water sprays, and giant brushes attack the car as we go through.  We got home just in time for lunch - and then we were off again, this time to the library, where we picked up a whole lot more books.  We also got some movies for Madison - and one for Daddy that we'd watch later on.

When we got home, there was time for her daily reading program on the school's website.  Madison is actually ranked as ADMIRAL.  Rather than give kids number rankings or letter ones, they're going for the whole military rank thing - specifically the Navy.  Because NAVY and reading programs just go hand-in-hand.  Obviously, she's doing really well on the program to have a rank as admiral.  It's not quite Grand Admiral, but it's easily the best in her class.

This ranking puts her up there with other famous admirals:  Admiral Ackbar, Admiral Norrington, Admiral Motti, Admiral Adama and of course Admiral Kirk.

We had a little time for garden work after that.  Madison has her little pink rake and garden gloves, and the three of us were straightening things out a bit in the front yard, weeding and so forth.  Can you believe there is actually poison ivy in the front yard?  Where did this come from?  We started dealing with it a bit, and made sure everyone bathed when we got inside.  That's something none of us want to mess with!

And that's where the topic of dinner came around, which you already know about.  We had worked up a good appetite, and we really needed that good appetite because there was a lot of good food at the Kani House.  We really enjoyed it!

Getting home, we watched the beautiful sunset - storms are rolling in around us, although we haven't gotten any of the rain in a few days.  Together, we watched another early era Disney movie that Daddy hasn't seen.  Actually, none of us had seen this one:  it's called "Melody Time."  There are a few movies Disney released around World War II, some just collections of animated shorts.  This one, like "Make Mine Music" from the other night, had a series of cartoon shorts.  Daddy never knew where these were originally from, but this movie contained "Johnny Appleseed" and "Pecos Bill."  Also, it featured a leftover bit from "The Three Caballeros."  It was better than "Make Mine Music" overall - the three of us enjoyed watching it.  It's interesting that these movies count towards the official motion picture releases of Disney, and yet they are not quite as promoted as others.  Next on this list is "Fun and Fancy Free" another one we've seen bits of, but never sat through entirely.  It's neat seeing these from a historical perspective, plus recognizing the artists involved, plus just enjoying the stories.

We all went to bed tonight, quite tired from a pretty full day.  Those are Madison's words:  "That was a full day!"