Here's the final line-up of today's thrilling Brachiosaurus Limbo competition. It was the first annual event of this kind, and as you can see here the competitors were pretty excited to be a part of it. First, there's the big pink ball with the panda face. He's a tough competitor, but it will be hard to beat the orange brachiosaurus there. Especially when the event is named after him. These dinosaurs are known for playing limbo, and it'll be tough to beat him. Next is a small inflatable ball that Madison kissed for luck earlier. This pink ball may seem like a competitor you can just roll over, but you'd best think twice. Next in line is a smaller orange ball with his eye on the trophy. Madison is ready to hand out invisible trophies to the winner afterwards, and this orange ball figures to be standing on the winner's podium when it is all said and done. Next, there's the blue and orange tennis ball, a real pro and a last-minute entry in today's big competition. Lastly, there's Madison, who has the eye of the tiger when it comes to Brachiosaurus Limbo. She's ready for action!
Daddy did not make any of this up - he was finishing up hanging things in the garage, when Madison invited him for a game of limbo. Until Daddy could join the game, she had been playing with her friends we have listed above, and everyone was making it under the bar, for the most part at least!
Another game that seems a bit more productive at least would be the "Sight Word Recognition" game, which really isn't a game so much as it is a series of index cards with short words on them. The goal is for Madison to recognize these words at first sight, so Mommy put them all on index cards that we review one at a time.
a
at
an
and
am
are
can
do
for
go
has
have
he
here
in
I
is
it
like
look
me
my
no
play
said
see
she
so
the
to
up
we
We're just starting, so there's only a few that she gets right away - the obvious ones. But we all know that Madison is a quick learner, and we're excited to think about how fast she'll have this list nailed down. What's great is that she's really interested in learning these as fast as she can. She wants to be able to read on her own, although she still loves to have us read to her. It's funny how fast she'll drop whatever she's doing in order to go sit with us at the couch or front porch to share a book.
Tomorrow is Easter, which means that Mommy is busy in the kitchen making special treats for everyone. The new thing this year are these marshmallow peeps, dipped in white chocolate at the bottom (to look like egg shells), dipped in sprinkles, and then put on a stick. Very cute - and tasty! She's got a few other things she's made as well, and all of them have enough sugar in them to make the cavity creeps very, very happy.
It was time to do our Easter Eggs tonight, something Madison was very excited about! We got the dye ready, and this year even added sparkles to the mix. These eggs seem a bit more normal as far as our usual efforts go - the typical pastels and color mixes that you picture at Easter time. The one at the top of the plate is actually a Batman egg, his face barely recognizable in the photo - but trust me, he's there. His nemesis, Egghead, is on another plate. That is, until we get hungry and decide to eat him.
Speaking of which, our idea for Aunt Shain's basket is lots of fun: we're doing a Zombie theme this year. It all started with a zombie egg, and sort of went out from there, as we made all the rest of the basket sort of zombie-fied. Regardless of your opinion of if that is a real word or not, here are some photos of the basket!
"You look like Boris Karloff and you don't even care. You're dancin' at the Zombie Zoo."
We did quite a bit of work outside this morning, sort of rushing things in anticipation of storm that never came - at least not yet, anyway. A brief look at the doppler indicates we may see some rumblings late, late tonight - but nothing like the dramatic weather we've seen lately from Texas. This is the same system of course, finally making its way to us. But we've been blessed. Really, they've been blessed too: no fatalities.
It was a beautiful day. Absolutely gorgeous. We cleared a lot of shrubbery and leaves, cleaning up a good portion of one side of the yard, and Daddy went out to get some red mulch, which we'll lay down this weekend, probably. Madison is always a bit help, pushing the wheel barrow, or filling it up with leaves and so forth. Also, Daddy managed to finish hanging up all of the license plates. You won't believe this, but we happened to have exactly the amount of license plates to completely go around the top of the garage - not one too many, and not one too short. Pretty impressive!
While we were outside, Mommy found a few gypsy moth caterpillars beneath the trees, and even a few cocoons. That's when we remembered the butterfly habitat that we have up in Madison's room, and decided to do a quick learning adventure:
This is sealed environment with about five caterpillars, two cocoons and a whole lot of leaves and sticks. It currently rests nearby Madison's piano, so she can come and hopefully observe these guys go through the cycle and become moths. It'll be an interesting set-up for a while, though I'm not entirely sure how many days. I do know that once they're moths, we'll release them because:
a). We're nice and
b). We fear Mothra's vengeance.
What a neat idea Mommy stumbled upon. Now Madison can see a little science first-hand, right here inside the house!
"Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming."
Here is a photo of the bushes in front of our house. Vibrant colors, aren't they? We very much enjoy sitting out on the porch of late, reading and just enjoying the cool of the hours just before nighttime sets in. Today Daddy only had a short window to do this, as work consumed much of the day.
This week is Spring Break, which means no school for the kids in our area. Madison is off of school as well, and also off from ballet class and music class. The end result has been some later nights, and some sleeping in as well. Can you believe she's slept in until 10:00 am? Part of that is the "recovery" from this past weekend. That was quite draining. Usually though, Easter is a lot more hectic than it is this year. Again, we have no illustrated sermon or drama to prepare for in the main sanctuary, so things should be fairly simple and stress-free. We'll see how that turns out as we get closer though!
As Easter gets closer, of course we turn to the topic of rabbits. One of Madison's favorite shows has rabbits in it, "Max and Ruby." I don't believe I've talked about Max and Ruby before, but this is a show that Madison likes to watch all year long. I'm not entirely sure why the attraction, as she's usually drawn to faster-paced programming. Nevertheless, she enjoys these shows very much, sometimes wanting to watch them again and again the next day and the day after that. This week, it's because of the Easter Egg hunt. She's excited about that. But other times of the year, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe it's Max and his tendency to blurt out the same thing over and over again. Or perhaps it's that strange mischievous smile Max has from time to time. Or, it could be Can't-Sit-Up-Slug.
What a great toy! If only we had toys like this growing up. Genius!
For some reason, Madison decided to be a cat for a while. Kids just get that in their minds, and there you go. For an hour or so, we had a new pet cat. She purred, rubbed up against your leg, and let out a few meows here and there. Daddy put out a few empty bowls so she could pretend to have some milk and catfood. It was nice having a pet kitty for a bit, and as a bonus this one didn't have all kinds of stray hairs and strange smells!
We've been enjoying our library books lately, sometimes sitting on the front porch and sometimes just sitting on the couch. Madison gets all excited about reading time, which is great to see. She is even learning a bit of word recognition here and there, as Daddy sometimes points to the words as he reads them. She'll begin pronouncing words one letter at a time, getting the gist of what reading is all about. Another neat thing is that she's more patient with words than she used to be: Daddy can read larger paragraphs, and she'll listen intently to what's going on with the story. We've had so many books too! The library is a great source of new material - and it fits any and every theme we'd need for those educational moments, or just moments to goof off with. She does love to see new books.
This is holy week, but it's not the time for our family to go on vacation, as Daddy's job needs him to stick around. Still, everyone else seems to be on vacation left and right, and we've got that quiet longing to get out of here and go do something fun. We might make a local trip here or there in the upcoming weeks - right now we're amassing a few day trip ideas, including "Peter Pan" at the Puppetry Center, and maybe a trip to the Fernbank Science Center. Daddy has been wanting to fly a kite, and go get a fishing pole for Madison too. Lots of little things can add up to a lot of fun around here. Not exactly a "stay-cation," but still there are plenty of opportunities for fun around here.
Meanwhile, Mommy has been with Madison doing some serious gardening outside, straightening out the lawn and doing some weeding. We've added mulch here or there and have cleared a lot of debris from the lawn. The front of the house is looking much nicer, thanks mainly to Madison and Mommy.
Easter is coming soon, so the other thing we'd better start working on is baskets. There's a story there, a long time coming: each year, we used to have a battle with Aunt Shain over who had the most creative basket. It wasn't necessarily a contest, but just a chance to give each other some ridiculous baskets. We took pictures, so maybe I'll have a chance to share them here sometime. Lately, with the kids, it's been a little harder to go as extravagant with our entries, but we still do something a little different for each other each year. In fact, this year's basket should be good - but you'll have to read about that later. Don't want to give it away yet!
"Climb your way to the top. That's why the drapes are there."
Madison has been drawing a lot lately, mostly portraits of the family in different situations. Sometimes we're sleeping in our beds at night and others amongst flowers. Madison makes sure Daddy scans these - he's been trying to make sure we don't lose record of any of them, so that some day she can look back on her artistry. There are different themes that appear from time to time - like St. Patrick's Day and Easter - but these pictures in the movie clip above are more generic. The purple lines, by the way, represent a spider. I'm not sure if it is a good one or a bad one! Oh, and look for the one of all of us on a boat. That's a Disney boat, of course.
Today was a day of catching up, and a day of recovery. We were pretty tired as evidenced by:
1. Daddy lit the grill when the gas had been on a few seconds longer than needed. The end result was something like you'd see in "Backdraft," where a wall of flame shot out towards his head and singed every hair. Seriously, I had burnt hair all over. My face was coated in white - my eyelids singed shut, my eyebrows crusty, and every hair in the front tipped with an ashen point. Yikes!
2. We left the car door open last night. All last night. Wide open. We discovered it this morning. We must have been really zonked!
3. Daddy left his wallet in his jeans and it got washed. Normally not a tragedy, but in this case, there were lots and lots of receipts from the illustrated sermon inside. We actually had to put them out on the deck to dry out, and then carefully peel them off of one another. They look like the ancient Dead Sea scrolls, but we're thankful you can still read them.
We were tired, but Daddy still wanted to get something started, so he and Madison started to hang up the license plates in the garage. I'll have to show a picture here some time soon. Madison was at the table where the license plates were, acting as a salesperson. Each time Daddy got to the table to get the next one, she'd have it ready with two small nails. But, for a small charge: she would ask for imaginary money. Sometimes I'd have to pay three imaginary dollars, and other times ten. It would be different every time. These will be on the wall, hung up along the top, all next to each other like a wallpaper border in the garage. It should look pretty good when finished. What's neat is that Madison mostly picked out the ones to go where they go, so she can say she helped Daddy put them up.
How many license plates do we have, you ask? Probably close to a hundred, I suspect. We have one for every state - that was a collector's thing for Daddy a few years ago. It took a while to get at least one of each, but over the years we managed to find them all in different places, sometimes ordering online. We got some from a shop in Orlando, and one I remember getting from a kid in our children's ministry who knew I collected them. This kid knew I was missing a Rhode Island, and was going to visit his relatives there, and so he asked! Isn't that nice? Anyway, we got one of each over the years - even a few from the Bahamas. Nothing from China yet, though that might be a good one to get!
Why collect license plates? Blame Honeycombs. Do you know the cereal Honeycombs? They used to put a license plate inside every box of Honeycombs, one that you could put on the front of your bicycle. I wanted one of each. This would be nearly impossible, of course. You'd have to buy hundreds of boxes of Honeycombs to do that, which of course was the goal. I only wound up with seven (too bad I don't know where they are now!). But inside I was thinking it would be cool to have one of each for real. And so, about ten years ago, I got a few Georgia license plates and started collecting right then. They're only a few dollars each for the most part, so it isn't that big of a deal. But some are unique: Hawaii and Alaska are of course special, the former because it was the place where Mommy and Daddy had their honeymoon. There are a few great looking ones from Colorado. Also, the New Mexico and Wisconsin ones are pretty neat, and sort of symbolic. We have our own personal license plates up there - the one Mommy had on her car for years, when Daddy first met her. Also up there is Daddy's grandfather's license plate from New Jersey - that's Madison's great-grandfather. There's an Georgia Olympic one up there too - that's a special one. Madison was looking through them all today, and of course likes the ones with the pretty colors and pictures: Mississippi has a magnolia, and Alabama has a heart. Utah has a bright orange arch set against a blue sky. And yes, Hawaii has rainbow.
We didn't get them all hung up today, part of the reason being that Madison and Daddy were spending more time playing and looking.
Speaking of "playing," Madison used up another Mom-buck today, and we played an old game that I thought might be simple for Madison to play, especially after the Lego games. It was a two-player game, which made it one that Daddy and Madison can play together - and it was also really cheap! To add to all of this, Daddy plugged in a few cheat codes and made both characters extremely powerful. In fact, in Madison's case, a little too powerful! She would use this one super uber move over and over again and we'd both crack up as every robot villain on the screen would turn to ice and fall apart. Sure, we tried different moves here and there, and had to solve a few puzzles. But when it looked like there were too many villains around, Madison would just do that one move and destroy everything. We actually finished the game entirely, and very quickly. A comparison: we're still not completely done with the Lego Star Wars game which we got at Christmas. This one we finished in one night. Madison did enjoy it, and so did Daddy. We had fun playing games together.
We read from her Bible tonight before bed, and she actually had her Bible in her bed with her going to sleep. Daddy himself went to sleep pretty quickly again, as did Mommy: we're all still trying to catch up. But one thing has happened that might keep Mommy up later, and that's the release of the 1940 census data. Big news for genealogy fans!
"No matter how many times you save the world, it always manages to get back in jeopardy again. Sometimes I just want it to stay saved! You know, for a little bit? I feel like the maid; I just cleaned up this mess! Can we keep it clean for... for ten minutes!"
It's Palm Sunday again, as you can see by the palms Madison has made in the photo above. She had a long day at church this morning, actually getting up earlier than I believe she's ever gotten up before. That's because Mommy had to do so much with costumes at the children's ministry and for the illustrated sermon in the main sanctuary. Big day! But it's been good - later on - explaining the meaning behind Palm Sunday. To help illustrate this, she even colored in this worksheet below, which I think she did a great job with!
Today's service went off without a hitch - we had an audience of over 10,000, and that was just in the church alone. Beyond that was live streaming, where people from around the world saw us recreate the Last Supper Painting once more. It started pretty early for Daddy, who got to the church at 5:30 am. He and the other apostles were there for costuming, thanks to Mommy, and make-up, thanks to another woman that Daddy asked to be involved. Lots of work went into the day. Lots of work.
Which explains the completely worn out feeling we all have right now. We took a huge nap this afternoon, and then watched a movie together. Daddy is so pleased to see Madison carrying around a Bible, and carrying it around with a great deal of pride. It has pictures in it, and she wants Daddy to read the stories to her - which I'm happy to do. Obviously the story of Palm Sunday is there, and others too. It's been good watching her listen intently, and answering her questions. Daddy is very proud, but also currently a bit tired. Time to settle in for the night, content in the knowledge that we had a great day today!
Join us for afternoon tea as we discuss all the latest events on the social calendar over scones, crumpets and pastries. The Princess and even the Queen Mother herself are here, so do drop by and join us for a spot of tea.
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