Sunbeams

Daddy was in school today to take some more candid pictures of kids for the yearbook, which by the way is changing around a bit.  Still a Dr. Seuss theme to it, but we've had to make adjustment on those intro pages.  Time is ticking, so we're up against some deadlines and it's starting to get down to the wire as we finalize the pages.  It'll all work out.  Anyway, on the wall was Madison's project that she worked on for her enrichment class after school.  It turned out really well, didn't it?

Today was ballet and jazz, a lengthy class as usual.  Mommy was working on costuming, while Daddy was busy trying to finish up this new series dedicated to the Incredibles.  We'll probably post that whole thing here, as the movies are coming up soon and Daddy likes to share from time to time.

We've been studying for vocabulary tests, but Madison seems to have all that down pretty well.  She did well on her poetry test - really good, in fact.  Also, math continues to be automatic pilot, pretty much. She's just naturally good with that.  She's naturally good at everything scholastically - it's not really much of a problem for her to retain some of the information she's gleaning from World War II to different stanzas of poetry to multiplying fractions.  Her big thing is organization, which is what we're focusing on a bit more lately, keeping her more accountable with what her various tasks are.  Today, however, is always a busy day.  She spends a lot of time getting to dance, dancing, and then getting home.  It's a big chunk of time.  Madison is currently still on course to retire from ballet at the end of this season, and she's okay with it.  She'll miss her friends, but she's ready to try out the karate at Edge Karate soon.  It's certainly bittersweet.  It's just that the next step in ballet is this much larger amount of time invested, not to mention the financial investment.  She's giving up quite a bit on Saturdays to be a part of the upcoming ballet production, including a roller skating event at KidPak that Daddy is going to.  We'll juggle all that on Saturday, but it's just a small example of the overreaching commitment levels that ballet is growing to be.  And if she's wanting to do this more and more, then it's fine of course.  We're asking her periodically (not nagging) if she's sure of this or that, and it does seem like this is what she wants to do with her life at this point:  move on.

It's all sunbeams from here, right?

Speaking of art, we've spotted a few things on the Quinlan Art schedule coming up, including a class for drawing comic book heroes starting in May.  That would be one Daddy would like to try too!

Tonight we went to bed with the usual readings from the devotional, and getting to the end of "The Thirteenth Pearl."  It's always good to see the bad guys go down!  This is the end of the first series of Nancy Drew books, number fifty-six.  We'll probably read number one next, just because Madison got that one for Christmas.  Madison enjoys the books - and truth be told, we do too.  We say our prayers each night, and the zerberts still go on, along with the accompanying blame for the sound effect, "You did that, Daddy!  You're Captain Von Pootstinker!"

Some day, these will be some pretty funny memories.  Most people just give a quick kiss on the cheek before bed...!