Toy Story of Terror

We missed this last week when it first aired, but thanks to the internet, we were able to sit down and watch it from start to finish - without any commercials!  "Toy Story of Terror" brought back all the characters, and some genuine adventure that Pixar is so good at creating for kids and kids-at-heart.  We all had a good time watching this tonight, and a few other specials.  Madison enjoyed it of course, particularly the bits with Jessie, who has the most heroic part of the special.  What's great is that creepy vibe, but keeping it safe for the kids (and kids-at-heart).  Honestly, Mommy and Daddy have a "creepy line" that is nowhere near as far as others.  We don't go for horror movies in general, and stuff like this is fun for the season, and that's about it.

Along those lines, before bed, Daddy read a book to Madison:  "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  Having just seen it the other day, the characters are fresh in Madison's mind.  Daddy remembers seeing this movie in the theater the first time it came out, and even now is singing the songs in his head.  She enjoyed the reading, although I'm probably not as eloquent as Christopher Lee when reading the poem.

Earlier in the afternoon, we had piano as we always do.  Mrs. Pam is injecting a bit of Halloween fun into the practices, with creepy noises that come from her programmed piano - the kids squealed at the fun noises.  We've got some interesting chords to master - I say "we," because Daddy has to learn all this alongside Madison.  Things are getting more complicated, but Madison is keeping pace rather well.  The design of the class is such that she can keep up, and Mrs. Pam is very good at what she does.  It's a fun class, and the kids are all improving quite rapidly.  This week, we'll catch up with our practicing - it's been a challenge to do that the last few weeks.

Madison was at school today of course, and learning with Ned.  This is a new assembly program, or at least a new one to her.  They teach all sorts of concepts, but the big one seems to be "never give up."  In fact, that's what the N in "Ned" stands for.  I forgot what the other two letters stand for.  Thank goodness it is a simple name like Ned.  Could you imagine creating an educational acronym for someone like Sebastian or Mahershalalhashbaz?

Anyway, Daddy printed up some stuff from Ned's website today, activities for the kids to do at home.  Now we have a Ned door hanger on the bathroom that says "never give up."  There are all sorts of implications here, but I'm going to change the subject.

The fall weather is here, and cooler winds are sweeping across our dry state.  Although it did rain a bit this morning.  This was not in the forecast, and nobody expected it.  It wasn't any steady downpour, but rather a bit of drizzle to start the day off.  That quickly burned away to follow the pattern of this month: outside of a tropical depression, we've been much dryer.  Yet the forecast looks slightly threatening for Halloween night - we'll have to keep an eye on that, as there is still plenty of time for that to change.

Tonight Madison slept well, as did we all.  Daddy went to bed early, still catching up apparently.  But not before catching Agent Coulson on television.

This isn't the version we saw, but Madison and Daddy did see a Lego Agent Coulson on the sample Lego Marvel game.  Madison's excited about this one, but so are we.  Christmas is on the way, which means all kinds of new and fun games.  Speaking of which, the Christmas shopping is continuing - early, of course.  We could stop now, and Madison would have an incredible Christmas.  We probably should stop, but there are always a few more items to pick up along the season.  No matter how or when we pick them up, it's looking like it will be a relaxing shopping season for us.  Can you believe that's only a little over a week away?  Neither can we!