School of Ballet

This afternoon was Madison's first day at her new School of Ballet.  Yes, we call it the School of Ballet now, which sounds somewhat stuffy - but that's sort of the imagery we get when watching all the PBS ballet specials.  Angelina Ballerina would go to this sort of ballet school, where everyone has to dress just right, and have their hair pulled back just right and... well, you get the idea.

Mommy and Daddy waited in the hallway, playing a decent game of Scrabble while Madison danced inside, doing hop steps and a more formal, regimented sort of ballet class.

She enjoyed it, and wants to keep coming back, so that's great news.  One thing we'll have to adjust to is the time:  we got back a little later, almost nearly time for bed!  We scrambled for dinner, and piano practice and a game or two on the X-box.  

Piano practice is easy this week, which I have to give a shout-out to Mrs. Pam on that.  THANK YOU!  Madison got better on the third try of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  As mentioned earlier, she's a little rusty.  And this isn't your momma's version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" either, where there's just three notes used.  This one uses two hands, and that 3-5-7 chord on top of all that.  It took Madison one or two tries to catch on, but by attempt #3, she was set.

Speaking of "set," Santa is just about done with Madison's list for Christmas.  We've decided that "Disney Infinity" would be a great thing to find underneath the Christmas tree, so we'll be lobbying Santa for that.  It was pre-ordered way back in June, and we've spotted a couple related items along the way, so a huge chunk of our Christmas shopping for Madison is nearly over with.  Amazing!

Also speaking of "set," Daddy built a new bookshelf for Madison today - and we got the last pieces of Madison's bed this afternoon, so we'll be all set to have her a new bed by this weekend.  This is exciting news!  She's been pretty excited about her bedroom becoming transformed.  She's getting bigger, which of course is one of those things that we feel bittersweet about.  How come our little girl can't say young forever?

Another thing we picked up on the way home was a present for Nana.  She requested the movie "Epic," which came out on DVD/Blu Ray this week.  That was easy to find.  BUT... there's a catch...

Since the mid-90's, every Christmas I give my mother a VHS copy of "Gone with the Wind."  Basically, the root of this was my discovery one November:  we noticed she never watched the movie we gave her the last Christmas.  And she ASKED for it - it's just that she didn't have time to watch it.  So we "borrowed" it from her house, re-wrapped it, and gave it to her the next Christmas!  It was a funny moment.  Of course, I gave her other stuff.  But every year would go by, and the pattern would repeat:  she never watched this movie!  SO each year, we keep giving it to her each Christmas, wrapped in a different way to throw her off a bit.

Well... her birthday was a few days ago, and we're going over to the house this weekend to celebrate.  She asked for the movie "Epic."  We got it for her tonight, but here's the fun part:  Daddy slit the packaging open, and switched out the "Epic" DVD with ANOTHER movie.  

Yes, we put a copy of "Gone with the Wind" in there!  The hardest part is always staying quiet about it, not pushing your hand, and waiting for that phone call!