Black and White Ruffed Lemur

Here's our little girl with the yet another fascinating creature during our "Get Wild" series - this one is a black and white ruffed lemur, which is a mouthful to say.  It's easier to call him Silas, which is convenient, because that's his name.

Silas likes to climb on to other people, which is in fact what he was doing here with Madison.  She said it tickled, and was trying to keep her smile while stifling a laugh or two.  Silas was a lot of fun to snap pictures of today.

Service was all about the monkeys, which was so cool because again, the latest "Planet of the Apes" movie came out this weekend.  The timing was great for us "Apes" fans, despite the fact that the movie itself was so-so.  In fact, Mommy and Daddy went back and watched yet another "Planet of the Apes" movie later on tonight, just before bed - sort of going with the theme of things.  This was one of the movies that Mommy got for Daddy for Valentine's Day a few years ago, all part of a big set:  it also had a gorilla holding a heart that said something like "I go ape for you."  Or something like that!

No gorillas in service today.  But we did have a capuchin monkey, a few lemurs, and this other creature  that sort of looked like both, but had these huge eyes.

So today was a bit more on the packing side, which seems like a lot the amount of times it has been written this week.  It's been a gradual process, one that has been more relaxing and less last-minute.  This is all good, of course.

Today Mommy had another remarkable meal for us when we got home - more fish for Daddy, which he loves.  And for dessert, we all had root beer floats!  That's right, we were pretty high on life right then.  Only one thing left to do after that:  watch Spongebob.  We haven't really sat down and watched a bunch of Spongebob episodes before, but today we did.  This is all in the name of "research" for our upcoming series, but let's be honest:  it's not.  It's just to watch something funny.  The first and second seasons had some great moments in them, and it was fun watching Madison see some for the first time. She knows about Spongebob and has some games with Spongebob in them (one was a math-themed game we got for her Leapster Explorer).  But the next few weeks will probably be a dive back to Bikini Bottom, and hopefully even more episodes with Plankton in them.  Daddy loves Plankton.  The voice alone cracks me up.

Before bed, Madison was filling out her sermon booklet for KidPak.  Once a week, the kids get this booklet that Daddy writes - it is all the sermons for the entire series.  Rather than just give the answers, there are fill-in-the-blanks on each page, which for the most part are easy to figure out on your own.  Particularly if you actually read the message, or even the question.  Anyway, as Madison has been in KPJR lately, she hasn't really needed the booklets yet.  But she's getting them now as she advances onward and upward, and she's taking her booklet very seriously.  Her name is inscribed on the interior, and she's filling the answers out ahead of time.  That's so cool to see!

Tonight we told a story before bedtime, an epic journey sort of story as Madison sat in bed.  Afterwards, Mommy and Daddy went back to that Tim Burton "Planet of the Apes" movie.  We happen to like it, even the surreal ending.  In a way, we miss the old ape masks - these new CGI monkeys are cool and all, but there's something novel about the ape costumes.  I know it was a pain, but we really love the look.  Anyway, we watched that until bedtime, which ... it is now.  So I guess this means goodnight!