Season of Mysteries

Tonight we continued reading "The Bungalow Mystery," another chapter down with another interesting Nancy Drew adventure.  There are lots of clues being dropped here, but what should we pay attention to?  And what should we disregard?  One thing is certain:  Mr. and Mrs. Aborn seem pretty suspicious.  With our "Get a Clue" series upcoming, it's a season of mysteries, something Madison enjoys.  You can see her making her guesses about "whodunnit" with each of these things we read, or with the dramas she sees.  She recently finished "The Westing Game," and didn't see the ending coming.  Which is something we talked about - that's the fun of these mysteries.  You sometimes can guess it or see it a mile away.  Other times, something surprises you, as it did with her.  Oddly enough, they made a movie based on "The Westing Game."  Its title was "Get a Clue."  That neatly ties things together now, doesn't it?  Our new series, "Get a Clue" starts this Sunday, so we've got a lot of work to do on that.  Here's one thing that we're working on currently:

It's a mystery we've drawn up ourselves, and it'll probably operate similar to the mystery game we did onboard the Disney Dream.  This version will helpfully draw parents and kids in, all of them working to solve the mystery and yes, find out whodunnit.  Meanwhile, we'll have an onstage drama as well.  It's a lot planned for this series!

We have tickets to an event this upcoming Saturday, a play about The Addams Family.  I think it's a musical version of "The Addams Family," which should be fun and seasonal to go to.  In order to prep Madison for that, as soon as we got home from ballet tonight, we watched a few episodes of "The Addams Family" season one.  Madison wanted to see the episode with Cousin Itt (episode 20), so we watched that one as well.  They're fun!  Of course, we'll see the movies soon enough.

As mentioned earlier, Madison had ballet tonight.  It was very sparse, as Hall County is having a Fall Break this week.  Lots of kids are out.  Madison had her Fall Break two weeks ago, so she's one of the few here this week.

Madison led a Parent Teacher Meeting today at about 12:45 pm.  It was a lot of good news, with reports about good behavior and testing - even today - to determine if she can go to the gifted program.  This is mostly for next year.  She's at a reading level that's already surpassed the eventual goal for this year, and her math skills are even greater at the moment.  She's doing well, and we're really proud of her!

Tonight before bed, Mommy and Daddy went back in time to October 31, 1980, where we watched the movie "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."  It was online, and we even got to see the original commercials and news segments that went with it.  Ronald McDonald was helping kids stay away from strangers, Rice Krispies were making noise in a monastery, and Mazola was made with real corn oil from real corn.  Interestingly, the election was just a few days away, and there was no hint of all-out war from the news media.  It was just "Carter said this" and "Reagan said that."  There was no hint of bias either way, which was simply amazing.  Wouldn't it be great to get news that way again?  Sadly, that is as in the past as Dick Butkus' acting career.  As for the movie itself, it was as corny as Mazola's oil, and perhaps as cheesy as anything Velveeta can make.  But it was fun, and of course Jeff Goldblum is perfect casting as Ichabod Crane.  It veered way off from the actual story, with Ichabod actually chasing around the Headless Horseman at the end, who at one point was chasing Brom Bones, perhaps.  We're not entirely sure.  Anyway, it was fun to watch though, a trip back in time.  In a few weeks, we'll see Jeff Goldblum again, this time in the next "Thor."  Hopefully by that time, he's done chasing the Headless Horseman around.