Around the Fire Pit, a Perimeter Create

The fire pit looks great today, as we added all kinds of mulch around the perimeter.  Or as Yoda would say, "Around the fire pit, a perimeter create." 

This is actually him looking down from our deck, directing us about the perimeter, because he knows so much about perimeters.  We did a good bit of yard work today, and things are looking nice.  Check out these beautiful flowers alongside our house.  

We had Team Edge this morning, and it was an early morning again over in Oakwood.  The students were doing a few trust exercises, working on timing and getting things together, because there may be a couple of performances this summer, not only at KidPak but at another camp as well.  

Getting home, Maddie had her school work and we had some yard work we were doing.  Mom made a ginormous brunch for us and it was delicious of course.  The four of us sat together in the dining area, enjoying all kinds of wonderful breakfast items, including this British import marmalade that I picked up a few weeks ago, and of course that Irish tea that I love so much.  

It was a quiet day.  I finally finished the script this morning for tomorrow's "Spy Games" launch, and this is one of the latest finishes I've had on it, but the cast should do well.  Tonight we once again watched the last two episodes of season five of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  The shock ending with Fitz and the bittersweet ending with Coulson all made for an ending that was packed with emotion, and it almost was their series ending for real - but thankfully two more seasons came along, and that actual season ending is just so much better.  We'll miss the actual Coulson though.  At least he got to go to Tahiti.  It's a magical place.

Tonight we continued reading from "The Mysterious Benedict Society," and it's hard to put down.  But it was late, and we had too!  We read, we prayed together, and then it was time for bed - we have a big day with Spy Games tomorrow.

Spy Camp

It was a fairly average day today, which is to say not as much happened outside of the usual activities:  taekwondo, school, work at the office, and a visit to the psychiatric ward.  Of course, that visit was just on the television - we were watching the next episode of "Moon Knight."  It's been an interesting show to follow, trying to comprehend and unravel as we move along with the episodes.  There are only six, but it pulls you along as you try to figure out what the heck is going on.

Taekwondo was another quality session, both leadership class and black belt work.  Maddie is breaking boards again, and she's getting learning some moves with the kamas.  

We read tonight, and Maddie has her plush posse with her to listen to the latest chapters.  The poop emoji stays with me, but the rest of the gang shows up each night and it's so large that I get to help carry them all back on a great caravan back to Maddie's room.  We still have the proper procedure for tucking in, and there's the custom of traded insults about smell, and then there's a few more moments of conversation about taekwondo or school or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or whatever.  The medication I'm on has me out cold not long afterwards.  The blood pressure seems to be going down, as the exercise is getting back into a rhythm.  Nevertheless, I get super tired at night, and we're all ready for bed rather quickly.

I'm writing our Spy Kids material for this weekend.  The idea though is to have our actors on stage in some sort of Spy Camp, which is a funny idea to me.  Going to a camp to learn how to do espionage on other countries and so on... just the thing certain other countries probably actually do have.

KidPak Adventures: Spy Games

Welcome to Spy Camp

 

CUE TRACK:  1 CLOAKED OPERATIONS (INSTRUMENTAL)

 

JEREMIAH, EZRA, NIA, MADDIE, and SKYLAR are at CENTER STAGE as lights turn on.

 

DAVID:  (entering)  “Welcome to the OSS Spy Kids Summer Camp!”

 

CAST cheers.

DAVID:  “You made it!  I spy some next level young recruits, ready to train for the OSS, the Organization for Super Spies!”

 

SKYLAR:  “I’m a little nervous about all this camp.  It’s kind of weird.”

 

DAVID:  “Don’t worry.  Even the greatest spies get a little nervous before a big mission.”

 

JEREMIAH:  (talking to his watch)  “Mission log:  Spy chief says it’s okay to be nervous.”

 

EZRA:  (to JEREMIAH) “What are you doing?”

 

JEREMIAH: “I’m talking to my watch.”

 

EZRA:  “But that’s …just an ordinary watch.”

 

JEREMIAH:  “…or is it?”

NIA: (explaining to the others) “He thinks he’s really a spy.”

 

MADDIE:  “He could be a spy.  Let me take him down.”

 

DAVID:  “Hold on.  Let’s stay focused here.  (to SKLYAR) Now what’s there to be nervous about?”

 

SKYLAR:  “It’s a new experience, that’s all.  I don’t know what to expect.”

 

DAVID: “Well in that case, let me tell you a story about a spy that I know.  One that faced the unknown just like you.  (leading cast to steps at STAGE LEFT) Have a seat over here everyone.”

 

CUE TRACK:  2 MR. SPY GUY

 

DAVID:  “Once upon a time there was a super spy named Nerdo who was at his top secret headquarters in London.”

 

NERDO enters and stands in front of screen at STAGE RIGHT

 

NIA:  “Aw… I wanted him to be somewhere else.  Like Arendelle.”

 

CUE SLIDE:  ARENDELLE

 

DAVID:  “Arendelle?”

 

NIA:  “Yeah, with Elsa and Ana and Olaf.”

 

DAVID: “No, there was no Olaf.”

 

JEREMIAH:  “Then it was on the Death Star!  Make it on the Death Star!”

 

CUE SLIDE:  DEATH STAR

 

DAVID:  “No, not the Death Star!”

 

CUE SLIDE:  SPY GAMES

 

NERDO:  (clearing throat)  “Excuse me!  Can we get on with the story now?”

 

DAVID: “Yes.  Quite.  Anyway, our super spy was tasked with meeting someone important.”

 

SKYLAR:  “Was it Olaf?”

 

CAMILLE enters STAGE LEFT

 

DAVID:  “Yes.  (catching himself) Wait, no!  Not Olaf!  He was supposed to meet a fellow secret agent with a mission.  One named…”

 

MADDIE:  “Perry the Platypus!”

DAVID:  “No!  It was not Perry the Platypus.”

 

MADDIE:  “But he’s a secret agent super spy!”

 

SPY KIDS and NERDO:  “Please?”

 

DAVID:  “Oh, okay.  Fine.  He met with Perry the Platypus.”

 

CAMILLE races off and quickly gets into a Perry the Platypus onesie as DAVID sets her arrival up. NERDO paces back and forth.

 

DAVID:  “Yes, Nerdo was in the Tri-County area, and while he was there, he looked around for his contact.  He was supposed to get an assignment from none other than Agent P, a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of action.”

 

CUE TRACK:  3 PERRY THE PLATYPUS

 

CAMILLE enters STAGE RIGHT in a PERRY THE PLATYPUS ONESIE.

 

CUE TRACK:  1 CLOAKED OPERATIONS (INSTRUMENTAL)

 

CAMILLE: “Hello, Nerdo!”

 

JEREMIAH:  “Wait just a minute!  Perry the Platypus doesn’t talk.  He just makes a noise that sounds something like this.”

 

JEREMIAH makes a sound effect like PERRY THE PLATYPUS

 

DAVID looks over to CAMILLE who looks slightly worried and then attempts the sound effect herself.

 

CAMILLE hands a briefcase to NERDO, who opens it, and reads a message within.

 

DAVID: “The mission was to go to spy out the land of…”

NIA:  “Arendelle!  With Olaf!”

 

CUE SLIDE:  ARENDELLE

 

DAVID:  “No!  It wasn’t Arendelle!  What is it with you and Olaf?”

 

CUE SLIDE:  SPY GAMES

 

SPY KIDS:  “Olaf!  Olaf!  Olaf!”

 

NERDO:  “Look, can you just make it Olaf so we can get one with the story?  It seems like I’ve been standing up here for ten minutes doing absolutely nothing.”

 

EZRA:  “You’re right.  He hasn’t done anything yet.  That’s why it was at this moment … that Nerdo pooted.”

 

CUE RUDE NOISE

 

CAMILLE is grossed out, and runs off STAGE RIGHT

 

NERDO:  “Stoppit!  I did not!”

 

DAVID:  “Nerdo decided to read the message.  It said not to worry because he would have back-up.  He was supposed to go and check out the land that his people were going to take.  He was going to…

 

SKLYAR:  “Arendelle!”

 

DAVID:  (sigh) “Yes.  Arendelle.”

 

CUE SLIDE:  ARENDELLE

 

DAVID:  “And there, he saw a land flowing with all kinds of things.”

 

JEREMIAH:  “Like cheese spray!”

 

CAMILLE walks out STAGE RIGHT with cheese spray, holding it out on display, exiting STAGE RIGHT.

 

DAVID:  “What?”

 

EZRA:  “And cow tails!”

 

CAMILLE walks out STAGE RIGHT with whoopee pies, holding it out on display, exiting STAGE RIGHT.

 

MADDIE:  “And ginormous cans of Beanie Weenies!”

 

CUE SLIDE:  “BEANIE WEENIES”

 

NERDO:  (racing over to screen to look)  “This place is incredible!”

 

CUE SLIDE:  SPY GAMES

 

DAVID: “ But that’s when he saw some other enemy spies nearby.  And these two were big.  And one was dressed as…”

NIA:  “Olaf!  He was dressed as Olaf!”

 

CUE TRACK:  4 PERILOUS LOOKOUT

 

TY and TY enter STAGE RIGHT, one of them dressed as OLAF.  Both look ready to fight with NERDO.

 

DAVID:  “Yes, fine.  Olaf.  Agent Nerdo was excited about this new place, but he was also terrified of these giant people.”

 

NERDO:  “I’m terrified of these giant people!”

 

DAVID: “Especially because they had the most terrifying weapons imaginable…”

 

JEREMIAH:  “Foam noodles!”

 

TY and TY go to get foam noodles.

 

DAVID:  “Foam…noodles?  Yes, they had foam noodles.  And then, well, they suddenly attacked!”

 

TY and TY start hitting each other with foam noodles.

 

DAVID:  “No!  You’re not supposed to hit each other.”

 

TY and TY stop hitting each other, look at each other, and then attack SPY KIDS.

 

DAVID:  “No!  They were going to attack Nerdo!”

 

TY and TY turn towards NERDO, and do a slow menacing march towards him.

 

NERDO:  (looking at TY and TY)  “You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you?”

 

DAVID:  “But rather than run away in fear, Nerdo stood his ground.  He remembered that he was told to come here, and that he would have back-up.”

 

NERDO:  “So where’s the back-up?”

 

CAMILLE enters, holding a random painted Nerf gun.

 

MADDIE:  “Perry the Platypus!”

 

DAVID:  “That’s when Agent P returned, and handed him a weapon so scary, that the two henchmen screamed in terror.”

 

CAMILLE hands NERDO the weapon, and races off STAGE LEFT.

 

TY and TY scream in terror.

 

TY and TY:  “Not that!”

 

NERDO:  “What does it do?”

 

SKYLAR:  “Whoever gets zapped by that will act like Barney the Dinosaur.”

 

DAVID:  “Wait, what?”

TY and TY:  “NOOOOOOOO!”

 

DAVID: “Nerdo zapped the two henchmen!”

 

NERDO:  “ZAP!”

 

CUE TRACK: 5 BARNEY THEME SONG

 

TY and TY act supremely goofy, using T-Rex arms, reminding everyone to say please and thank you, singing “I love you, you love me,” and eventually waddling off STAGE RIGHT.

 

CUT TRACK

 

DAVID:  “And the day was saved.”

 

MADDIE:  “And that’s when Nerdo did a victory dance!”

 

CUE TRACK: 6 WE LIKE TO PARTY (start at 0:27)

 

NERDO does a dance for just a moment until the music completely stops.

 

CUT TRACK

 

NERDO is left on stage for a moment in quiet, looks around and sees everyone looking at him, and then awkwardly runs off STAGE RIGHT.

 

CUE TRACK:  7 MISSION BRIEFING

 

DAVID:  “Right.  And so you might be wondering what the point of this story was.”

 

EZRA:  “That’s easy.  We can see all God has for us in front of us.”

NIA:  “And we don’t have to be afraid.”

 

JEREMIAH:  “Because we’ll always have someone to back us up.”

 

SKYLAR:  “That’s right.  God will always be with us, no matter what.”

 

DAVID:  (rising and escorting SPY KIDS to CENTER STAGE)  “Not bad.  I think you’ve got learned lesson number one.”

 

MADDIE:  “Awesome!  What’s lesson two?”

 

DAVID:  “Taquitos.”

 

OFFSTAGE:  “Hey, taquitos!”

 

DAVID:  “It’s time for a lunch break!”

 

CAST cheer as they exit STAGE RIGHT

 

FADE LIGHTS 

 

CUE SERMON INTRO VIDEO

 

 

Anyway, it was a good day today.  We're ready for sleep though!

National Superhero Day

 Summer Xtreme Nights will make another return this summer, and we're doing an Asian theme to it again, in the spirit of our "Kung Pow" series that we did some time ago.  We've got a lot of work to go on this one, and it will be here pretty soon.  But it's going to be another big event like last year's "Thunderstruck."  I just need to find the energy to get it done - I'm floundering big time right now and struggling to find that.  I still take nine pills a day or so, and a lot of these have to do with slowing down blood flow and so on, so it stands to reason that I should be wiped out so often, just a few moments away from falling asleep.  

Nevertheless, the show must go on, right?  We're building up for a new Spy Games series this weekend, and we've just found out that it will actually have to go on for two months now, and that our next planned KidPak series won't actually start until some time in August.  We have to figure out what to do with our set until then, and part of that decision was extending the spy theme a month longer.  Which is crazy, because I wasn't ready for the first month of it.  Now all of the sudden we're in full spy mode.  Tonight we were pretty close to watching one movie, but Mom reminded me about "Spy Kids 2," so we continued that trilogy, and I was reminded how much I love that movie.  That trilogy is so much fun!

Maddie had her small group tonight, and I made up a superhero trivia game that I thought would be unlikely for Maddie to straight up win at.  She knows a whole lot more trivia than the other girls, as she's really, really into Marvel characters.  So I went with some more challenging trivia, and hopefully the girls liked that.   I know it wasn't as awesome as "Yellow Bat Day," which is so left field.  Obviously, small group is more than just a little game - a lot more.  She had a great time with small group tonight, and after that she was busy with her homework, a lot of it.  It was enough to keep her away from the television tonight, but she was responsible and ready for bed a little earlier tonight.

So we began "The Mysterious Benedict Society" series today, and the first book is fairly thick.  But Mom was up there with us for the reading, and we began with about fifteen pages or so.  There are five or six books in this series.  Maybe more?  Anyway, we started tonight, and here we go with another one that we'll be reading.  No doubt we'll be watching the show again soon, but until then, we're reading the story behind the show, comparing things and enjoying the characters.  

It was a good day.  We said our prayers afterwards, and we got to sleep fairly quickly after that.  I'm super tired!

New Level, New Luau

They had a "gaming truck" tonight at Free Chapel Youth, and it was a pretty cool way to wrap up their series, "New Level."  Of course there was a message tonight, and a full service as well, and all the pizza too.  Maddie was more interested in the volleyball outside though, as she's been more athletically inclined of late.  And that's just fine - she's really fit and it's great to see her branch out to try new things with some others.  

She had a luau today, or at least a party with a Hawaiian theme at the school on the football field.  It was a ticketed event, and it took place at the end of the school day.  Maddie went outside with her friends, got some Hawaiian leis, got some ice cream, and had a good time relaxing this afternoon.  They'll have all kinds of testing coming up, so relaxing was definitely a good thing on the menu.

Tonight before bedtime, we finally finished the Kingdom Keepers.  Not only did the Keepers save Disney, they also brought a few characters back to life, including Wayne and even Dillard.  Not only are they still alive, but Disney is saved and the Overtakers are never created.  This creates a time paradox of sorts, as the entire team was put together to defeat the Overtakers, and if the Overtakers were never created then the team never gets together... but then again, perhaps this is the sort of time travel story that you need to just relax about, and just let it go.  Right?  Anyway, we've enjoyed this series for over a year now, and had there not been "supply chain issues," we'd be reading the next book in the new trilogy that was due to come out this month.  Unfortunately, those supply chain issues have caused the release date of the book to be some time in August.  We'll no doubt get that, but we'll probably be involved in our next series, while we'll talk about tomorrow.

It's been a great time reading, and the longest series we've read thus far, with twelve books total (seven original, a trilogy afterwards, and two other books in between).  Super fun, and it's a bittersweet moment getting to the end - something Maddie couldn't wait to get to the end of and yet sad that it's all over with now. 

We said our prayers tonight, and then we were off to sleep pretty quickly after that.  My blood pressure is going down somewhat, but I need more rest.  That said... goodnight!

Cardinal and Chipmunk

The canopy is up now and the birds don't seem to have a problem adjusting to this new thing on the back deck.  And now the chipmunk seems to be quite happy to be there as well.  It's such a journey up the back deck for this little one, up two flights of stairs and back down again, each time hauling seeds and anything else it can cram into its little cheeks.  Mom and Nana were sitting, watching it make the journey up and then down and then up and then down again.  We've had all kinds of visitors at our deck today.

And they visit our bedroom window at about 7am each morning too.  That's the bluebirds, these two birds hanging on the screen there, super interested in their own reflections.  It's so noisy each morning, like an alarm clock, right at 6:30 or 7:00 or so.  

We were off today off to another nursery looking around for some new items to put into the ground in our backyard.  We're enjoying these little trips to various nurseries to look around.  While out, we were looking for spy wear, different items for our upcoming "Spy Games" series.  The goal is to have the young ones look like Spy Kids.  

Speaking of which, we were watching "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." again tonight, of course, racing through season five.  Gravitonium has been a big part of the series since the first season, and it's certainly got a big part to play here.  

We were reading tonight, and we prayed after that.  It was a decent day, but there's a lot going on - it's hard to keep up with the blog lately, as there's so much to do lately.  But we're doing our best...

A Passel of Possums

We did all kinds of shopping today while Maddie was in taekwondo, so I kind of missed a lot of that.  But while I was there, I was getting a box of "Oops All Berries," in preparation for "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." tonight, and yes, it was that episode with Phil Coulson and the Captain Crunch.  It's not exactly "health food," but it sure does taste good!  Of course I was diving into it tonight before bed.  

 

Maddie is winding down the school year, and it's been a fun year for her, this very first year of East Forsyth High School.  We're certainly not done yet, but things are wrapping up for sure, with some pretty big tests coming up.  

This morning I was speaking to the college students again, and I think that should be about it for my speaking to the college students for the school year.  I've done it frequently, and this time was sort of a surprise, as I didn't remember until last night or so, and I was glad to have prepared for about an hour's worth of speaking.  Maddie may be in the college at one point, although she may go to another college just as easily - we'll see how things wind up in a few years, but we're inching closer to that point.  To emphasize this point, I sent out this email to graduating seniors and parents to honor them in our Free Chapel recognition service.  It dawned on me that I'll be doing just this very thing in only three years.  Crazy, huh?  How long ago we started this blog and how tiny she was, and how big she's grown and how mature and smart she's become.

I got the canopy up in the back, and it's just a pleasant place to be in the shade there, with the birds coming up.  Of course the squirrels have been here, and now there are chipmunks making the epic journey up the two flights of stairs to be on the back deck too.  And yes, we've got opossums there too each night, sometimes a posse of possums.  Actually, I think the word is a passel of possums.  

They were actually there tonight as we were sitting, watching television tonight.  We all peek out the window, watching these little guys waddle up a few feet away.  

But soon afterwards, it was time for bed, for reading, and for prayers.  It was a good day - got a lot done today!

Newsies Finale

Here we are again at the eve of a new series, and there's a sentimental feeling about this one.  It was a spring bonus series that we pushed to make happen rather than just have filler for these four weeks while the Easter production was going on.  But it turned out really well with fun games, great skits, and super good messages like the one we had this morning.  It was another solid morning at KidPak, a really good one with a great message of good news!

We spent the day chilling out today, finding the last of the props from Easter and then going on home.  I sat on the front porch reading my latest history book, this one about Ronald Reagan and the end of the Cold War, just relaxing in the shade with this beautiful weather outside.  Mom had cooked up a delicious fish dinner for us all, and afterwards, Maddie took a shower while I hit the treadmill to do a virtual walk through Vienna.  It was a quiet day - we did get a visitor though.  A chipmunk got super interested in our seeds on the porch, made the journey up, and just decided to come on into the house to visit with us in there too!  This critter was there about fifteen minutes or so before we were able to encourage it to go on outside where there was more seed on a plate.  Mom almost did the standard "trail of seeds" trick to lure the chipmunk outside.  Quite an adventure for this little rodent!

 

Tonight we were watching a few episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. again, and after that we wanted to get to bed early.  We're back in school tomorrow, and I'm even a guest speaker at the college tomorrow, so there's that too.  We read from our book again tonight, and things are really moving along at a brisk pace towards the final conclusion.  We have a sense that the bad guys in the past have been dealt with, but is there a terrible cost to that?  And meanwhile, what of the present, where Overtakers are wreaking havoc upon Disneyland?  We'll have to find out this week how it all winds up, but it will wind up this week after reading this series for over a year now.  Maddie's really enjoyed the series.  

We said our prayers tonight, and after that, we were asleep of course.  It was a good weekend, a calmer one than the last one of course, but a good one nonetheless.

Oklahoma!

We had a play to attend this afternoon, the high school's showing of "Oklahoma!"  In preparation of that, I had the vinyl record out this morning, the soundtrack of the movie playing as we ate ourselves a huge breakfast that Mom put together on a skillet.  We had all kinds of good food in there, and we had some toast to go with the new marmalade we got from the British import shop we returned from last week.  

The play itself was really well done.  The kids did a great job with their roles on stage with the choreography and songs, and everything in between.  We know the songs by heart, of course.  I remember going on a spring break trip to Oklahoma of all places, and all the college kids with me were singing the title song at the top of our lungs as we crossed over the state line.  It was a fun trip to Tulsa and around the area there.  This morning, I did my virtual walk through downtown Tulsa while on my treadmill, sort of keeping with the theme.  

We got home after the play, and just didn't have the energy to do the other production that I wanted to see from Praise in Motion, but we did get out to pick up a few things in town:  mulch, extra frozen pizza for Maddie, and some Boba tea of course.  Maddie loves that stuff.

Hoppy Hollow is packed away and the Easter eggs are down from the tree, and a new season is here now.  The weather is nice and warm, and already our pumpkin seeds are sprouting into plants in our container.  We'll have to transfer them to the ground soon, and figure out how to deal with the possums as well.  Can't have vegetables and possums, I don't think.  Or, at least we can't actually have the vegetables for ourselves if the possums are around.

Anyway, tonight we were watching a few episodes of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  We're going through season five, getting towards the end of that one, and the binge-watching is likely to continue on that one until we get to the very end of season seven.

It was a good day today, and yes, we're all singing various songs from "Oklahoma!"  We read tonight, and we said our prayers afterwards, getting ready for sleep, and a nice morning at church tomorrow.

Real or Fake News?

 Today is Earth Day, and we really didn't do much to celebrate that, other than play Wordle this morning, which I got in two guesses.  In case you don't know, that's really good.  The final word was "PLANT," which made the tie-in to Earth Day make sense.  

Anyway, it was Friday and it was a beautiful day, which we didn't let get away.  I was doing a lot of work towards our final service of "Good News, which has a great segment I have prepared:  Real or Fake News?  The kids will have two headlines, and have to figure out which one is real.

It should be fun!  We'll also have one more skit, and a really good message that has been on my mind for over a year now.  

Maddie had taekwondo again tonight, and we were a little late to that, but she caught up very quickly.  I think we were just ten minutes late.  Anyway, we were there watching as she was training again, first with her leadership class and then with her black belt class.  

We got home and we finally got to see the latest episode of "Moon Knight" once again, which had a creepy part with Egyptian mummies and canopic jars, which make me wonder what is up with these Egyptians?  I mean seriously.  That's super gross, and I have no idea why you need to have canopic jars.  Ew.  There was a definite Tomb Raider vibe to the episode, that is, until the mental hospital portion.  It's a pretty unusual series thus far.

We read tonight, and Disneyland is under attack in our book.  The Overtakers are looking to uh... overtake, and things look bad for Disney.  Which isn't that far from real life, currently.  Hopefully, there are some real-life Kingdom Keepers around to stop all this craziness that's going on with Disney at the moment, because they are currently making decisions that aren't sitting well with a lot of people.  And it's costing them.

Anyway, it's been a good day today.  We're still trying to catch up from Easter, but we're getting there.  The good news is that everyone can sleep in tomorrow, and that sounds simply wonderful.

National Yellow Bat Day

Maddie's online small group has moved to Thursday nights now, and it was a good showing tonight, despite the move.  The schedules are just getting busy and conflicting, but the girls got together again with Camille and Lauren hosting, and it was a nice night.  I've been helping frequently by putting together little games for the night, and it's usually related to whatever random holiday the day itself is.  Sometimes the days are stronger and sometimes there just aren't any really interesting things to celebrate, and you sort of have to give the day a little spin.  Today was one of those days - it was National Tea Day, which we can all get behind.  But that wasn't as interesting as this other day we spotted, "National Yellow Bat Day."  At first, we thought this was just celebrating the yellow bat, which was odd enough.  But in fact, it's a day to celebrate a special division of the military.  Nevertheless, we liked celebrating a yellow bat instead, because honestly, neither of us had ever heard of a yellow bat before. 

Folks in the military probably won't like our take on this day.  We made this graphic, and then I did this simple online game where players had to guess which yellow bat got adopted:

It was so completely random!  But I think the girls enjoyed it.  We were laughing making this because it was so weird.  And then, at the very end of the game, there was this heartfelt plea:

Of course, you can't adopt a yellow bat.  And of course, this is not what National Yellow Bat Day is supposed to be all about.  It was just something for a girls small group game, so my apologies.  Maddie won the game, by the way...

Today we had taekwondo tonight as well, so it was a somewhat busy night.  We were off to taekwondo, and then back home in time for small groups.  While Maddie was in small groups upstairs, the rest of us were watching an old gem of a movie, "Spy Kids."  I actually still enjoy this movie!  We were watching it because we'll be visiting the KidPak series "Spy Games" again soon, and I'm thinking about having our younger cast members as spy trainees.  Obviously, the other "Spy Kids" sequels will come soon enough.  But I also watched the first episode of "Kim Possible," which is the first time I've actually ever seen an episode of that.  You can tell we're heading in the direction of espionage this month.

The blood pressure is lowering, and that's good. This morning I was on the treadmill in Zion National Park, and it was gorgeous.  Wow.  I'm also trying to not eat all the Easter candy myself, but it is so tempting!  While Maddie was in taekwondo today, Nana and I went out together a jamocha milkshake, because she was hankering for that.  The two of us were playing corn hole outside while Maddie was practicing inside with her fellow students.  It was a beautiful day outside. 

Earlier in the day, Mom and Nana were putting out mulch along the side of the house, following a path way towards the back yard.  It's looking nice.  Nana and I got about six more bags of mulch tonight to add to the pathway.  The back yard is an ongoing project, one that's coming along nicely.

We read tonight, of course, and after that we prayed.  And after that, bedtime.  It was a pleasant day.

Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi, and Bowser

Maddie was loving this recent game the youth played tonight - it's a vacation of the "Princess, Knight, Horse" game where the players and their partners have to get into one of three poses as quickly as possible.  As this series is called "New Level," it has a video game theme to it, so the game was adjusted to be called "Princess Peach, Mario and Luigi, and Bowser."  Above you can see Maddie as Princess Peach, her partner as Mario.  The Mario and Luigi was just a aerial high five, and below you can see Bowser...

It's Maddie as Bowser's turtle shell!  It was hysterical, but perhaps the funnier one was the high five, because Maddie missed her partner's hand and with all the adrenaline going, she instead slapped her partner's face!  The hosts of the game show were cracking up at this one!

It was a fun night, and of course a great theme to things.  Who doesn't love Mario, right?  The students had pizza, games, music, worship, the message, and the usual fun of four-square and other games afterwards.  Maddie did well with four-square again, getting one of the boys out and hearing all the cheers from the watching crowd.

Meanwhile at home, Mom, Nana and I were watching the last episode of "The Chosen," at least for now.  This was the end of season two, and this has been such an impressive show.  I actually got two Bible costumes together for two people who appeared at the end of the episode, but as it is a scene from the Sermon on the Mount, it's of course hard to see them - there's so many people in that scene.  We'll be watching this series again soon, next time with Maddie.  It's so good.

It was another good day.  Maddie was at school again, which again I don't know much about so there's nothing to type here on that so much.  I do know she likes her Spanish teacher a lot and is enjoying that class.  I also know there was a quiet moment in math where she and her friend looked up to see why all the sudden it got so eerily quiet... and then they both cracked up.

Tonight we read from our book again.  We prayed.  And I got to sleep early.  The blood pressure issue has been troubling this week.  I think I overdid it the last few weeks, and I'm trying to get things back in line this week with exercise, eating, and sleep.  So to that end, thanks for reading and ... goodnight!

The Mulligan

We were off to the movie theater tonight to see "The Mulligan," a new movie that came out and was playing at the Mall of Georgia.  It featured Pat Boone as a character, the "Old Pro," and actually wasn't that bad of a movie.  We were seeing it because our pastor has a cameo in the movie, and all the Bible college students were down there, along with other church members, filling up the entire theater.  

Maddie was with us, seated next to Camille as you can see here.  Nana came along too, and everyone enjoyed the movie quite a bit.  It was like a church service - everyone there was from our church, so the atmosphere was pretty different and pretty fun.  Of course we got the big thing of popcorn and a drink to last us through the movie.

The rest of the day was a bit slower-paced, certainly compared to the recent days running around and getting costumes and blood and props and so on.  We're doing one more Newsies skit for this weekend, and then we revisit an old series "Spy Games" once more, mainly because we used up all our styrofoam on the set for the Easter production and we still need to stay with this old school set.  But "Spy Games" might be fun if we're just using the younger cast members on stage - I can see us doing something like a "Spy Kids" sort of story, which might mean I have to watch those movies again, which isn't a bad thing.

Anyway, we said our prayers tonight, and we're still reading this "Kingdom Keepers" book.  It has somewhere between 400-500 pages, so it's a longer one.  But we're getting there, getting closer to the ending, one day at a time here.  Maddie's also reading her Bible each day, and she's currently at 1 Samuel, I think.  Super proud of her for going through the whole Bible like this.

Okay, it's time for sleep now.  Blood pressure has been up this week, and I think my heart needs another Mulligan!