Lobster Claw

We were doing a bit of filming today - Madison was helping, as you can see above.  Or maybe she wasn't exactly helping with the filming.  But she looks great with Lobster Claws!

We were filming a short movie commercial for "Lobster Claw," a video with a hero named Lobster Claw.  Basically, he has no super power.  Just lobster claws for hands.  And yet, no one can recognize his secret identity.  Hopefully the gag will work, but in the meantime it makes for a nice picture of Madison with lobster claws for hands... sort of?

Anyway, it was a big work day today, and we had help from Madison.  She's been spending time organizing things for next week, but in her spare time, she's drawing all the logos and even characters from the upcoming superhero series next week.

It's a busy week, as said here over and over again throughout the years.  Madison's first week off of school is usually spent sleeping in a bit, and then heading into work to hang out all day.  She brings the personal device to watch streaming movies, or draws, or reads.  And of course, she helps out with all sorts of tasks.

She'll get her time the next few weeks, time where she has a whole lot of something to do.  Until then, it's a good week to sit back and sleep in, and she's not really spending too much time with a personal device in the corner at the office.  More or less, she spends most of the day interacting with Josh, watching him edit videos, or helping others put things away.  Today, she set up the entire kindergarten and first grade room for class tonight, all by herself.  So she's been a great helper while here, and there's value in that, value in serving.  Isn't that what a real hero is anyway?   Yes, she's a real hero... just minus the lobster claws.

Fish Slap Man

Madison has gotten to see a lot of filming over the week, as we add different videos to the SX17 collection.  Above, you can see Fish Slap Man, a random superhero video that we've made up.  The original idea was to have him on a team of superheroes somewhat like the Avengers or the Justice League.  Along with Fish Slap Man, there's Lobster Claw, and Super Nose.  All of them have lame powers - or are they?  Judge for yourself, with this screen capture of Fish Slap Man in action.

One of Madison's hobbies in between helping us out is weaving god's eyes, something she's made about four or five of today.  She's been blending different colors together, and pretty pleased with the results.

Tonight, we watched "The Avengers" again, although our movie watching is about to become amazingly limited given the amount of work that is ahead of us.  It was still good to sit down and watch a movie together, although yes, we just watched it a few weeks ago.  Madison really liked it, which of course is good.  Because we're Marvel Comics people, and not quite DC Comics people yet.    Although Wonder Woman may start to change that.  We'll see that next week, probably after Summer Xtreme.

When Madison wasn't doing weaving, she was coloring and making graphics for the upcoming week.  She has poster board, and wanted to make signs to hold up, talking about how great her team is.  She's excited about the Cyber Team.  This year, the fourth grade team are the "Cybers," which is a mix between Iron Man and Cyborg.  She's already getting into the spirt of things, ready to cheer her team on like a good little cybernetic cheerleader!

Memorial Day 2017

Each year we've been heading over to Nana and Ye-Ye's house for a Memorial Day feast, and today was no different.  Despite the craziness of the schedule, we were all able to stop and spend time with the family today, heading over to spend time together.  There was plenty of crab, corn, salads, and the usual summer holiday fare.  And it was great to see everyone again.  It was nice to spend time together at the house, and it was nice to head out together on the high seas after that, because yes, we went to see the Pirates movie again, "Dead Men Tell No Tales."  We haven't seen a movie twice in some time, but Madison wanted to see this one again, plus there was the added bonus of seeing it with the family.  So off to the high seas we went together, taking up a large portion of that back row and watching Jack Sparrow and company go on another adventure.

It was a relaxing day, although a very filling one - some of us ate too much!  Later on, Madison and Daddy were playing LEGO Avengers once again, so we weren't exactly productive.  And that's okay.

It's been an odd holiday the last decade or so.  We do remember the meaning of the holiday, but usually more significantly on Sundays, as we gear our messages and other aspects of the service towards what Memorial Day is all about.  Memorial Day itself, however, is a day where we generally don't do much at all.  It's probably fatigue, mixed with the task of spending time with family, which is of course important.  But the other things most people associate with the unofficial beginning of summer' are lost on us, as we just don't have time for them yet.  There is no time for going on the lake or trips to the mountains or picnics or whatever.  We'll do that later.  Memorial Day just means that we've got a busy, busy week ahead of us.

Regardless of that looming notion, when the cares and stresses related are tossed aside, the day itself was enjoyable.  Madison certainly loved it - how can you not love a day full of family and pirates?

It was a good day for us, and as a bonus, we all went to bed early.  It's now the first week of summer vacation for Madison, and this one will be somewhat dull compared to the later ones.  It's a week of xtreme preparations, one where she'll be helping around the office.  But it's also one where there are no piano practices, ballet classes, homework assignments or ringing alarms at 6:00 am.  She'll love that!

Titanium Parent Meeting

It's getting real now!  This afternoon we had our Parent Meeting, which is capitalized because this was the Parent Meeting to talk about the expectations and plans for Summer Xtreme!  Here's a picture of Pastor Lance discussing our vision for the week to the parents below:

It's a short meeting, but we have to go over "the rules," and a little of what to expect for parents.  It also is a time when they pick up their t-shirts for the kids and other items.  Madison got her green t-shirt this morning, plus a few other little items.  She's all ready to go, and can't wait!

Today's service was a special message from... Daddy.  This morning, I preached a message about putting others first, a rather simple message with some great illustrations that were given to me.  It is Memorial Day weekend, so there wasn't much time for a huge service, especially given that we showed part four of our four-part superhero series from last Summer Xtreme.  That video alone was 14 minutes long.  Tack that on to the end of a longer worship set, and the only thing we had time for left was Daddy's message.  And it was a good one, probably one of the best messages I've given.  Sometimes you walk away kicking yourself about this or that, but this wasn't one of those times!

The rest of the day we were working for a while.  Although we did go home at a reasonable time.  This week, we're in the middle of watching all the Marvel movies back to back.  So tonight's movie of choice was "Captain America:  The First Avenger."  Madison wanted to watch this again, mainly to see Peggy Carter in action.  We might have to pick up that season one eventually.  Madison plays this LEGO Avengers game now, and she chooses Agent Carter to play frequently.

Anyway, tomorrow is Memorial Day, and we'll shut down the engines for a bit.  But after that, it's full steam ahead as we plan for a week most Xtreme!

Dead Me Tell No Tales

We have a long and glorious history of dressing up as pirates to go see the "Pirates" movies, and that continued today.  Although Daddy was not necessarily in full garb (hat, pirate shirt, and pirate socks only today), Madison was in her full Angelica costume for the big event.  Angelica was not in this movie though.

We saw the 11:00 am showing today, opting to watch the movie before setting out on the day, and it was a good choice.  The theater was as full as later showings, although there were a surprisingly large amount of people there.  Yes, we were the only pirates to show up.  Madison even brought some of her change from the Tooth Fairy's pirate visit the other day.

Anyway, the three of us enjoyed the movie, even despite the fact that we knew what was coming for a bit of it.  Reading the book ahead of time actually enhanced some of the characters somewhat.  It was just good to see all the pirates back in action again, even a few that missed the last movie.  The theory about pirate movies is simply this:  add two points to your rating score if the movie involves pirates.  Therefore, if you rate the movie a seven out of ten, if there are pirates involved, suddenly the movie becomes a nine.  That being said, the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie gets a rating of twelve out of ten.  This movie gets a ten out of ten.  We were happy to see resolution to the whole Will and Elizabeth thing, after a decade of pirate misery.  Finally, closure!  It was a little late, but better late than never.

Sure, there's the whole post-credits thing that suggests there's something more.  And the thought of it involving Davy Jones made us laugh out loud.  But even if there isn't another movie, we have our closure about Will and Elizabeth, about the Black Pearl too.

Moving on, we enjoyed the movie together.  And then we were off to work!  Daddy was preparing his message for tomorrow, and there were plenty of other things to do, such as writing these scripts for Summer Xtreme.  We spent much of the rest of the day doing just that, ordering costumes, making costumes, writing scripts, creating images on keynotes, finding musical tracks, creating printed items to hand out, and so on.  Our Parent Meeting for Summer Xtreme is tomorrow, and we wanted to have that all set up as well, with bags for each child filled with t-shirts, information sheets, treats and a wrist band.  That wrist band gets you into places, gets you food and so forth.  Madison will be wearing it all week, plus the t-shirt.  There's plenty to do, which explains the repetitive nature of this blog this week.  Work, work, work.  It's going to be a great week though, and today certainly started out well with one more voyage with Captain Jack Sparrow.

Last Day of Fourth Grade

What a fun moment!  Daddy came home from work just long enough to join the ambush of the school  bus.  All the kids got off, and immediately faced the onslaught of water balloons and squirt gun fire.  Mommy was up there in the lead, as all the neighborhood parents filled buckets with water balloons, ready to pelt anyone who dared step off that bus!

Madison and a few other kids made a break for it, but nobody could avoid it all.  And they didn't want to either - it quickly escalated to an all-out battle, with everyone getting soaked.

It was a fun idea one of the other parents had, and a great way to celebrate the last day of school.  We have a lot of kids getting off the bus, and every day most of the parents wait here to walk back home with them.  Here's a group shot of the neighborhood kids, after all the water balloons were launched.

As it was the last day, we did have a report card today - it was amazing.  Madison did so well this year, and we're so very proud of her.  She got all A's, of course, winding up on the honor roll again.  And her grades were all solid:  she even wound up with a 100 average in Language Arts.  She studies hard, and really tries to do the best she can.  And yeah, it helps that she's naturally a pretty smart girl. We're again very proud of her.

Tonight's flick was "Iron Man 2," which Madison has not seen before.  Now she knows about Whiplash, and the first appearance of Black Widow in the movies, as well as War Machine too.  It's a better movie than it gets credit for, which can be said for all of the sequel Marvel movies, if you think about it.  Lots of Easter eggs in there.  Madison enjoyed the movie, especially with a bit of popcorn on the side.

For now, it's time for bed.  We have lots of things going on, all Summer Xtreme for the time being.  The first week of June is that week you just try to brace yourself for - we do so much, and try to plan for all kinds of worst case scenarios.  Of course, you pray as well.  We've got a prayer meeting coming up, and it's going to be all about having the best SX17 possible.  I believe it will be.

End of the School Year Party

Perhaps in honor of the upcoming pirate movie, the Tooth Fairy did a pirate-themed thing last night.  When Madison woke up, there was a dotted line (that you can see above), one that led from her bed, out her bedroom and to the X that marked the spot.  It was there that she found a small bag with coins from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride, along with a few other coins.  She was pretty excited about that, because this week, it's all about the big movie coming out soon.

Only two days left of Fourth Grade.  Today was the End of the School Year Party, which had this big Harry Potter theme to it.  The kids had snacks, and Daddy came along to take pictures as well.  Here's Madison and a few others watching the slide show that has pictures from earlier in the year in it.

It was so good, all the kids wanted to watch it again:

Daddy manned a Photo Booth set up against one wall of the classroom, and took pictures of all the kids in Madison's class, each wearing different Harry Potter-themed items.  Here are three of them, including Madison of course.

Yes, Daddy took individual shots of all the students.  Here's Madison's picture by herself.  She chose a wand and a broom.

From there, Daddy left the school - and Madison went off to lunch, and then a few other assemblies where the kids watched parts of a movie, I think it was a Harry Potter movie too.  But Daddy had to go off to Madison's cousin's graduation:

Jonathan graduated today, and that required a trek down to the Gwinnett Arena once more.  Yes, it was a full day.  Ray and Valerie came down from Kentucky, and it was a great time for everyone to get together.  Mommy couldn't make it because someone had to be there when Madison got off the school bus.  But the graduation went well, and now we have two of Aunt Shain's kids out of school.  Jonathan is probably going to UNG this fall.  That's in Dahlonega, what we used to call North Georgia College.  It's now Dahlonega University of Georgia, or DUNG for short.

Yeah, that's not exactly the best acronym.

When Daddy got home, we played some games for a bit - Pirates of the Caribbean, of course.  She's excited about the movie.  She was Jack Sparrow, and Daddy was Davy Jones.  We spent the night trying to shoot at each other from long distances, and then it was off to bed for a devotional entry, prayers, and a good night's rest!

Another tooth?

Yes, Madison lost another tooth today.  They just keep popping out!  We'll have to see what the Tooth Fairy brings her tomorrow - it seems she's been to this house for quite a few visits!

Daddy came home today to visit Nana and Ba-Ba one last time before they left to go home, and together we had dinner together.  Daddy had soup, which seems to be one of the last few foods left on this earth that doesn't turn his stomach upside down.  Madison has been having a great week, with all that's going on.  Daddy, in the meantime, was working on SX17 and tonight's Superman message, which went really well in class.  We showed clips from "Superman Returns," which make you want to go back and watch the "Superman" movies with Christopher Reeve.  Surely nostalgia paints these as better movies than they really are, but perhaps not - we'll go back and check them out.

The weather is cooler this week, ironically again because Ba-Ba and Nana are here from Florida without any cooler weather wear.  The last time they were up here, this happened.  There was a dip in the temperature, and everyone was a bit shocked.  Here we are in late May, and it is happening again, where the high temperature is in the low 70's.  It's actually just right if you ask me!

Last Piano Class

And here we are on the last piano class with the Funderful World of Music.  Technically, it is.  We may have a year's worth of post-graduate classes to come.  At least, that's the hope of the students involved.  But today was a day to celebrate, as this group had come through quite a few years of classes.  Madison's first appearance in this room was way back during a music camp on June 28, 2010.  And now here we are at the end of the journey. 

     There were still things to learn, and still lessons to share before going on to the fun stuff.  Mrs. Pam was showing the students about major scales and finger spacing.  And soon after that, they went to the room next door to do an obstacle course themed after Aladdin's adventures.

This is Madison on a "flying carpet."  There was a Cave of Wonders to roll through, and plenty of other music-related puzzles to solve before getting to the end.  It was fun for all the kids, a traditional little party to celebrate the end of the year.  They all couldn't wait to have fun.  But then at the end, there's this bittersweet moment where they realize it is the end.  The class handed a picture to Mrs. Pam, a group photo from the last recital, one where all the children signed their names on the white matting around the photo.  We said our thank-you's, and we said our goodbyes as well.  And just like that, we were off and away.  Madison is hoping, as are all the others, that this is just a goodbye for the summer.  Each has a song they must learn over the summer - Madison chose from "Amazing Grace" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," so soon she'll hear from Mrs. Pam as to which one to play.

We went home today, and it was Taco Tuesday of course.  Daddy is working towards Summer Xtreme, and all the other aspects of our services as well.  We have videos to film and a ton of other activities to plan.  One step at a time.

Later on tonight when Daddy got home, the whole family sat down for several rounds of dominoes.  This is becoming a mandatory tradition.  Madison loved it.  She was so excited to play dominoes, especially the round she won.

     We went to bed a little later tonight, but it was fun.  Nana and Ba-Ba will be with us one more day, and we're glad they came up for the ballet recital.  It's been raining a lot since they've gotten here, including a massive storm that just came through tonight.  We need the rain, that's for sure.

No more mandatory television to watch tonight.  It would be smart to get some rest.  The next few weeks are going to be crazy busy...!

Science Project!

It was a time for celebration tonight?  Why?  Madison did her science project.  Okay, it was also a bit of a belated Mother's Day celebration for Nana as well.  And it's been one of our traditions of late whenever we get together with Nana and Ba-Ba.  We got there tonight and had our usual bits, including lots of peanuts for Madison, plus the rolls that she loves so much.  As usual, you have to struggle to get her to actually eat meat at a roadhouse, but there it is.  At least she plugged in her usual fifteen requests at the jukebox in front.  Madison presses all kinds of buttons just based on different titles, although Daddy is attempting to teach her the basics about country music. 

This morning - thank you Lord for holding back the rain - we got Madison's science project into the school, which was somewhat of an ordeal.  But the trip was easy, and Madison did well presenting it today with her small index cards. 

This side was all about the "Food Web," or what we used to call a "Food Chain."  Not sure why they call it a food "web" now, when a web is simply something sticky used to capture insect prey, whereas a chain is a connecting thing.  All kidding aside, you can see here above how she found the food web, plus we found pictures of Crush the Turtle, and his little dude Squirt.  Also, pictures of the Sargasso Sea, which we all learned was a place where the turtles like to go and hang out.

Here is the place where Madison showed the various types of turtles, and the turtle life cycle.  We ordered some plastic turtles to illustrate these different points.  Also, you can see the turtles that have the QR codes on them, each one leading to a different internet destination.  

This section is about all the garbage that goes into the ocean, and how it is damaging to the turtles.  It's basically showing why plastic bags are bad, among other things.  We found some stuff we could put on the board, and of course you can see where Madison cut out images she found and printed on our printer.  But below is the coolest thing we made:

It isn't necessarily scientific, but we go this jar at Michael's Craft Shop, and we went to the PetSmart next door to get the aquarium gravel and plastic plants.  Mommy suspended the turtle on a fishing wire, and we made something that looked like a miniature aquarium.  It turned out really good.

Anyway, Madison did well today with her science project.  We all worked on it together for quite some time, and are really, really glad it's all over with.  But it's a contented sort of relief, as Madison is quite proud of what she did.  We're proud of her too!

See You Down the Road

Today was the big wrap-up for our recitals, the yearly Spring Recital for the dancers.  There are so many dancers that they have a few different performances.  Madison's was today at 2:00.  Nana and Ba-Ba came up to see her dance with jazz, and as you can see above, watch her dance ballet.

These pictures were actually taken during the dress rehearsal, but they came out very nice.  You can't take pictures or video during the recital itself, as it obviously is a distraction to the dancers.  But they let you take all the photos you want during the recital, which is nice, because we usually get some nice photos.  See yesterday's for an example, or the ones we took during the rehearsals of "Into Grimm's Woods."

We'll actually have a video of the recital soon enough, one we purchased today.  Roughly four weeks from now, they'll have that ready so that we can watch the performance again.  But for now, it was perfect getting to sit in our usual seats in the balcony, watching our lovely ballerina perform once more.  This time, twice!

She did really well!  They all did, of course.  They're getting older, and one thing the parents always do is keep an eye on the eldest students to see where our own little girls are heading in regards to talent and ability.  These girls have quite a ways to go in that respect, as the older girls are very well trained, and of course gifted as well.  But Madison wants to stick with this, and that's of course a delight to Mommy.  And Daddy too.  

Next year, Madison is now leaning more against doing "The Nutcracker," which should free up more time for her elsewhere.  She enjoys it, but there's a feeling she's doing too much at the moment, and with fifth grade approaching, you never know what kind of commitments are coming ahead in regards to homework and other areas.  Plus, there may be a church performance at Christmas that she can be involved in.  

Regardless, she still has her three or four hours of dance practice each week, on Mondays for an hour and fifteen minutes, and then on Thursdays for two and a half hours.  Thursday nights next year - those are the long ones.  And that's a lot of dancing per week, for now.  Especially when you factor in piano class and practices, and then all the other assignments related to fifth grade.  We don't want to wear her out!

But for today, none of that conversation took place.  Parents smiled at one another, congratulating each other for the long tour of duty, with a farewells of "See you next year!"  The children hugged each other.  Madison was bittersweet, which is a different sort of flavor to her usual feelings in May.  Typically, she's more saddened by the passing of another year.  But the idea of rest, vacations, and the fun of summer is calling to her, and she's really looking forward to that enough to counteract the sadness of saying goodbye.

Speaking of "goodbye," we bid a fond farewell to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Circus tonight.  The final circus of their 146-year run was tonight.  Consider that:  146 years ago, this circus started.  It has been much-chronicled here the shows that Madison has seen, and the ones that Mommy and Daddy even saw back in Madison Square Garden.  We've done the amazing circus theme at KidPak, and watched all those circus movies, including "The Greatest Show on Earth, " which of course takes place within the world of Ringling Brothers.  So anyway, it's a long and storied history we have with this circus.  And it's a long and storied history many, many others have with this circus.  So we simply had to watch tonight's live broadcast of the circus.  It was on the computer, and not on any network.  We watched it together, the whole family (and the grandparents!), while sitting on the couch in the living room with popcorn and snacks.  Daddy didn't have any cotton candy or programs - should have thought of that!

As for the show itself, it was fun as always.  It was a much different theme to the one we saw in person a few months ago.  This one had an outer space theme, which was a lot of fun.  And the acts were creative, while others were more traditional, using all the things you'd expect from this circus.  We watched until the very end, which was honestly a sad thing to watch.  Think of it.  146 years this circus ran.  It made it through the Great Depression.  But it couldn't survive the last few years.  We're grateful that we could let Madison experience the traditional circus before it was gone.  And perhaps it will show up again in one way or another, somewhere down the road.  That's the way they say it in the circus, because they don't like saying "goodbye."  They say, "See you down the road."

We certainly hope so.

All that Jazz

Madison was dancing today, doing dress rehearsals for her jazz and ballet performances tomorrow.  This is the perfect time to take pictures of your dancing children, where you can sit anywhere in the audience and snap photos.  First, let's talk about the costuming:  Madison and the children love these dresses, to the point that they are all actually somewhat occasionally distracted by the shimmering material.

But the performance went well.  Madison and her team went over the routine a few times on stage at Pearce Auditorium, which is rapidly becoming our home away from home.  How many performances have we seen in this theater? 

Here the girls are in the seats, awaiting their chance to dance.  They're a good group of girls, and then enjoy hanging around each other.  This is good to see, good to see friendships developing.  And they all love dancing of course.

Here's Madison doing her shoulder thing.  The girls have all these new movies that are clearly not ballet, and in some cases it isn't quite the natural movement that they are accustomed to.  But it's a joy nevertheless.  Madison practices some of these moves at home, and it's fun to watch.

So this year of jazz is coming to a close, and it's been an extra hour or so each Monday for Madison and her friends.  She hasn't had an opportunity to do anything in a recital, so tomorrow should be a big deal for them.  It's all new, but she really likes it a lot.

The make-up and hair are a big deal, especially because right after this she has to do the ballet dance, which requires her hair up completely.  All the dancers have this back-and-forth thing they have to do, and it's pretty crazy.  But they've been practicing for quite some time, so the choreography at least is settled.

Obviously, today was a new stage for them to do the jazz.  They've been practicing in a smaller area all this time, so the idea of having all this space on stage was new.  Within about three attempts, the girls seem to have it all together.  I think they're ready for tomorrow.  Madison said it herself that she was ready too - it's nothing as complicated as the piano recital!

The song was "We Got the Beat" by the Go-Go's, and yes, that song is now stuck in all of our heads.  This might be a good album to get for Madison some time soon - the Go-Go's Greatest Hits or something like that.  

They spent a good time today waiting for their next performance, watching the other dancers perform or run through drills.  

But when it was showtime, the girls marched up on stage, and were ready to go-go!  It was a pretty long session though, as ballet followed soon after, which required all the girls to become quick-change artists, getting their hair up and getting into those tutus.

We'll post those pictures tomorrow, but for today, things were busy at Brenau.  Daddy took to the balcony to shoot some photos from up there, sharing them with other parents as well.  And soon enough, we were off and running for the rest of our day.  Madison looks ready for the big recital tomorrow.

Although it's bittersweet, of course.  She's saying goodbye to friends for a season.  But at the same time, she is ready for a bit of rest.  With all these recitals and science projects going on, the pace has been dizzying lately.  For Daddy, it's just building up to Summer Xtreme again, so our estimation is that by the end of that first week of Summer Xtreme, we'll finally catch a breather of sorts.  Until then, it's a busy season.  To prove this point, we spent a really big part of the rest of today working on Madison's science project.  It's coming along nicely, although there are some details that need to be finished up tomorrow.  

The big news today is the return of Nana and Ba-Ba to North Georgia, bringing with them strangely enough cooler and wetter weather.  Yes, it's true:  the last time they came, we had a cold snap and rain.  And here we go again this week, with yet another unusually cooler forecast.  We need the rain, of course.  The drive up for them was miserable.  They didn't go the Athens route, and after today I think they've sworn off I-75 through the Atlanta area, just as we have.  You may have good fortune getting through that area quickly, but the odds are usually against you.  It's just too much.

Anyway, we all got a good night's rest tonight, especially Madison.  She's got her recital tomorrow, and of course there's KidPak.  So good night from everyone here, because sleep should come easy tonight.

Turtle Research

Madison's science project is getting out of hand!  Not really, but today we had to spend a good deal of time laying the thing out on poster boards.  Madison is the one who is doing all the research - she filled out all these note cards today to help her with her presentation, although she could tell you everything she knows by heart.  She knows more about sea turtles than the average human being, a real regular marine biologist.  Seriously, she's been watching a lot of videos, and we even made a video too:

This is a turtle Madison drew, and what we did was put a QR code on the turtle's shell that can be scanned.  Go ahead and try it! 

We'll have about six or seven of these turtles with different QR codes on them, each leading the science project visitor to a different video about sea turtles, about the Washed Ashore project, about the size of leatherback turtles, about turning lights down at night on the beach, and other things that are related to the project.

You'll see the finished product soon enough.  The slide show that the QR code above leads you to was from a visit last summer at Daytona Shores, when once again, Madison got to watch sea turtles crawl out of their nest, and march to the ocean.

So today was mostly this.  It'll take a few more days to wrap up the project, but it's due on Monday, and that will be that.  This is the last big thing that Madison has to do as far as homework goes.  It's a bit of fun, but it's also a bit of work:  we'll be glad when it is over.

One more week of fourth grade.  Wow.

Arabian Nights Recital

Here we are in the car on the way to the piano recital tonight.  It was a wonderful affair, a really nice performance for all the kids who worked so hard on their pieces of music.

Here they are, all lined up for the opening song they sung together, "Arabian Nights."  Madison does not like this song!  We have no idea why!  It's that opening song from "Aladdin," although the wording is somewhat edited to be a bit more pleasant.  Still, she soldiered on and practiced this, the big group number, and of course her "Pachelbel Canon in D" over and over again.  She was so tired of practicing this song, and yet she'd do it again and again, trying to get it just right.

She did very well tonight, and we're very, very proud of her.  She had poise and grace, and sat quietly on her bench, starting nearly right away.  She was nervous, but it didn't show.  She did so well!

Here some of the kids are in the "dugout," the place where they are waiting to play next.  We were right there along the side, and you can see here how everyone is dressed.  Madison has a special outfit just for today, and we loaned a lot of costuming to Mrs. Pam for the others as well.  In fact, Daddy even loaned a fez to one of the kids in the picture at the top.  Fez!

Mrs. Pam, as usual, had the place decorated in a wonderful way.  There was a marketplace feel to one side, and even a flying carpet on the other side.  Fruit, baskets, brass, and carpets - they were all placed throughout the display, and it was as if we were transported to a place where the caravan camels roam, where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense - it's barbaric, but hey, it's home!

Anyway, they all played wonderfully.  This was Madison's hardest challenge yet.  And this was the last recital of the program too.  After five years, we've been taking Madison each Tuesday to piano, and we've been watching as she's grown in her skills.  She's never really complained too much at all about practice, although we've always tried to throw out different motivational rewards for completing this or that.  Still, it's tough and I can imagine during those tricky moments to step away from it a bit.  Nevertheless, she stays with the piano, and keeps on trying to get better with it.  And yes, she is.  Far better than Mommy and Daddy are, for sure.  But a huge part of it is Mrs. Pam's class, and how fun she makes it.  The kids really enjoy the class, a mixture of learning, fun, and of course increasing their skills.  It's been a good run!

But it isn't over yet, we don't think.  The kids have petitioned for a post-graduate year, and Mrs. Pam was asked a few times by the kids themselves tonight:  "Can we have one more year?"  Her answer so far seems to suggest that there might in fact be another year, as there are enough interested kids - begging kids, really - to make having another year a reality.  We hope so, for sure, because this has been a most 'funderful' period of our lives.