The Mask of Terror

Madison made a mask today, which was sort of fun for her with the smiling face on it.  But it sort of came off looking like a "V is for Vendetta" mask, that is to say, it wasn't quite as sweet as she probably meant it.  Particularly when she did some selfies, using a filter:

This might be a good horror movie poster, actually.  Either that or she's a member of a hardcore hip-hop band member with mentally challenged clowns - where's the Orange Faygo?  Sensing Mommy's dread, Madison did a few home movies in front of the computer, filming herself in outer space and using a spooky voice - that is until she takes the mask off and lets the viewer know it's really just her.  Whew, we were scared there!

Daddy had a long day, as are most Wednesdays, but it was good to check in with Madison - or her spooky counterpart.  We had a great church service tonight, but unfortunately Madison couldn't make it.  The reason was a good one though:  tomorrow is her first day at school.  That means today was her last day of the summer break.

So how did she spend it?  Today Madison went to a birthday party of her friend Elizabeth, going to a place over in Cumming where kids get together to make pottery and crafts while celebrating a birthday. We won't see the completed project until a week, as most pottery takes a bit of time to 'process.'  The craft she chose to make was a smaller version of Shamu.  Daddy will get to check it out in about a week, but we're looking forward to it.

Everyone went to bed early tonight - we're all getting up early tomorrow for that first day of school.  Or, at least that was the plan for Mommy and Daddy.  Here's what actually happened:  we got an iPad mini in the mail.  We were looking into handheld devices over the weekend, and thinking for second grade that this sort of product was a little out of our price range, considering its primary purpose was to go to elementary school.  The Kindle does have apps on it, and educational ones at that.  However, the iPad mini seems to have a bit more - and yet still it was just a little more than we wanted to pay at the moment.

And then there was the online sale we encountered Monday.  So now we have ourselves an iPad.  Or, at least Madison does.  Daddy spent a good part of the night loading up educational apps, and some other apps too.  It's a delicate looking thing, so we'll want to get something to put it in.  We ordered a keyboard to go with it, but it just doesn't seem to work right.  Anyway, all of it is a work in progress.  But we were so blessed to be able to get this for Madison.  We'd been sort of fretting over this sort of thing over the weekend, praying for a way to work it all out, and bam!  There's a sale.

Tomorrow morning's "first day of school" picture will be taken with the iPad.  We'll see how that works.  It's a new season for us.

Another hot topic of the night:  extracurricular activities.  It appears as if things are amping up in the ballet world.  Madison is in a higher age bracket, and therefore is required to go to classes two times a week.  That's two-and-a-half hours of ballet.  We decided to go all ahead full on ballet, as she likes it, and Mommy does too.  This was a toughie though, as we are starting to fill up real estate on the weekly calendar.  So Mondays and Thursdays are ballet this year.  On Tuesdays, we'll be back with piano classes, moving forward with that age bracket - so that makes three nights of the week full.  Then there was tennis on Wednesday afternoons.  That's four nights out of five, so there's a current debate about what is too much, certainly when you consider homework. The current thought is having our own 'tennis practice' at our home court here, on weekends - maybe after church.  That would free up Wednesday afternoons some.  Anyway, that's the current discussion.  Things are gearing up as the school year begins, so we'll see how it all works out, and you can read about it here.  Until then, let's all get some sleep.  Tomorrow morning is going to come pretty early!