Helping Hands

We have a busy calendar, so not much time to write lately.  Madison had speech therapy, and you can see the picture above used in advertising for a gofundme account to raise money for the Berry family.  We've been practicing the flight of drones around the office, and lamenting the fall of another "brick-and-mortar" classic company:  radio shack.  That's the kind of place you'd get a drone from.  Or a remote control car.  Or batteries or something.  Most of my Christmas presents from my grandfather in Georgia came from Radio Shack.  And yes, that's about as thrilling as it sounds.

Anyway, lots going on, so apologies for super short post here.

Jenga

Tonight we had a bit of Jenga going on - Daddy had the camera ready for this big plunge when it was Madison's turn. Yet Madison didn't go with the script! She was able to slide one last piece out and stack it on top - you can see her shock, joy and surprise when she was able to pull it all off. This tower was swaying so much you just knew it was going to topple. And then she puts the piece on top, puts her hand over her heart, and looks at Daddy and goes, "Your turn!"

It was a great moment - although a brief one for Daddy. It's his 'busy day,' with a message tonight that we did in small groups. The series is about board games, and tonight's message is about... you guessed it: Jenga. Here's a brief idea of things below:

"JENGA"

"You are a building that is built on the apostles and prophets. They are the foundation. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone in the building." Ephesians 2:20 12:12 NIrV

     The concept behind Jenga is simple: build a tower, and build it taller! The challenge about the game is not-so-simple: use only the pieces that are already on that tower! This is one of those games that takes nerves of steel. Each player takes a turn carefully sliding a piece of the tower out of its place, and then cautiously, slowly, balancing it on top again. How high can it go before everything starts toppling down? That's part of the fun - nobody knows!
     Here's a bit of strategy: leave the bottom alone. That's your foundation, and without it, obviously the entire tower will come toppling down around you. That may be a bit of common sense, but it's important to set up here how important that foundation is. It is the very thing that the entire game rests upon, and without it, everything comes crashing down right away!
We have a foundation in our lives that is just like that. His name is Jesus, a cornerstone, and the most important part of the building of the church. Everything rests on him, and without Jesus in your life, you guessed it: life comes crashing down all around you.
     As you grow, you will go farther and farther! You will go higher and higher, and it's going to be incredible. But you must be sure that you have that most important foundation, the One who your entire life needs to rest upon. His name is Jesus.


The evening was a huge success. Kids just love Jenga! There was such tension in the room, back and forth. So much celebrating when one side or the other was successful with their move! And of course, the message itself was pretty obvious, and pretty clear.

So it's raining again. Just in case you needed to know that. It's been essentially doing that all week long. Madison and Mommy went to ballet tonight, which wasn't a parent-viewing sort of evening, but Mommy was okay with that as she got a chance to do some grocery shopping.

One thing of note: Madison seems to have an increasing amount of homework lately. There is a growing amount of math, reading and comprehension. This week, she's been getting really good at reading this one passage about Paul Revere over and over again. Each time she reads it out loud, she gets better and better. She has one minute to go, and she's gotten further and further. But we're not as concerned about the amount of words she says - we're very pleased with how she says them. She's sounding great.

It's been a great day - a long one, but a great one.  Jenga!

LIFE, Lights, Lice, and Lash

Can you believe there are only two more weeks until the Fall Piano Recital?  True story!  We had piano class today, and Madison seems to be doing really well here, coming along nicely with her recital piece as well.  It's a lot more difficult at points, with two fingers going at once and with different rhythms... let's just say it would take Daddy a long time to master this one.  Madison will be playing this for everyone in the room in a few weeks, although next week she'll be playing it for the rest of the class.  She's marching along with it though - there were easier choices to play, but she went with this one for the challenge.

LIFE
Since we talked about the Game of LIFE on Sunday at KidPak, we had to actually play the game today, so that's what we did.  We set up the Pirates of the Caribbean version, and of course Madison won it in the end.  Daddy didn't throw the game either.  Madison was just a little more pirate than Daddy tonight, and sailed into the lead with some big treasure scores.

Lights
We made some reservations today for Callaway Gardens in a few weeks.  It's on the way down to Florida, so we thought we'd spend the night there, and maybe check out their Christmas lights as well.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate - it's been raining quite a bit lately.  The hotel rates are quite reasonable, and when you throw in the fact that there's admission to the Gardens, some place we've never been to, it should be something new and interesting for us all.

Lice
The school nurse gave Madison the all-clear to keep going to class.  These lice have been a serious nuisance all year, starting with week #1.  All the students keep facing them, and early trips home - it's just a constant threat.  Fortunately, Madison is doing well.  She was a little nervous to begin with, but the nurse said it was all okay.  Thanks go to Mommy for the shampoos, the lengthy checks, the combing through her hair.  It's a real trial.

Lash
So tonight we read to Madison from her devotional, and from "The Isle of the Lost."  She's really into that book, and will be for another week or so - it's a longer one.  After that, Daddy wants to hit a few classics.  We actually got a few abridged versions of "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn."  Also, a copy of "Swiss Family Robinson."  Those will be fun to read, particularly if we head back to the Magic Kingdom any time soon.  So after reading and prayers, Mommy and Daddy were off to watch "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." for 'date night.'  And yes, this is the episode where we learn who the character Lash is.  We won't spoil it here, but Mommy and Daddy had suspected this earlier.  Not to say we're terribly smart at predicting things on the show - it's quite unpredictable at times.  But there you have it.  Hindsight will be fun when reading this, and looking back upon an old episode of a television series.  The 'right now' moment is that we were a bit surprised.

So there you have it:  LIFE, Lights, Lice and Lash.  Not a bad day at all!

Ballerina

I've determined that there are few things more beautiful than the sight of your own daughter doing ballet.  The music, the grace, and of course the love of your own daughter - all of these things make the parent-viewing process a real privilege and pleasure.  Tonight we all filed in, all the parents lining up along one wall to watch the children do their various positions and ballet maneuvers.

It was in this session more than anything that we saw some amazing growth in her learning.  Her form was much improved, her knowledge of each position called out was right on, and her attention span was fantastic.  We were so incredibly proud of her today.

There's just that one moment where you see everything click, and this was it.  We were extremely pleased with her education here - it wasn't just showing up and imitating the teacher.  Here, Madison has been learning the basics, and learning some things further than her Mommy actually learned when she was training under classes further north.  For an hour and fifteen minutes, we watched Madison and the other girls do their basic moves, with all the parents flashing cameras and taking videos with their cell phones.  Daddy brought the camera along this time, and that worked out - we got a few nice pictures of Madison in motion, or in the case above, goofing around!

We had a busy day today, with lots of piano, lots of homework too.  She has a new reading assignment where she reads out loud for one minute, and sees how far she can get.  It's a fluency drill, and oddly enough, the writing assignment is all about Paul Revere.  He seems to be the American hero of the moment!

We had only just enough time after that - in fact, we made time by extending bedtime a bit.  Madison watched the next episode of Spider-Man with us, and by that time was over with, we were all kind of ready for bed to be honest.  Part of this reason was the tail end of Daylight Saving Time, which started yesterday.  It's great in the morning, where we all feel like we're sleeping in an extra hour - and there's actual daylight around.  But at night, it seems later of course.

It was a rainy day today - big surprise.  The forecast is similar for the rest of the week, actually.  Our county among others is under a flood warning once again, although I think we're okay where we are at the house.  The big thing is the constant rain that pours down - it's been so frequent and gray and cooler.  But we'll give thanks for the rain while we have it regardless.  And that's what this month is all about, actually:  finding things to give thanks about.

That's all year round, of course.  But Madison has made sure we all have come up with something to be thankful for each day so far.  We're not sure where she got the idea for that this year - it might be something she remembers from last year.  Regardless, it's a pretty healthy habit.  She's been thankful for the house, and for family.  And of course, we're thankful for her too, our lovely little ballerina.

Día de Muertos

After church today, we headed over to the library to have a bit of fun with Dia de Muertos, the Day of the Dead.  It's a holiday celebrated in Mexico, for those of you who don't know, one where relatives celebrate their ancestors of the past.  It sounds like All Saints Day, where someone said, "Why do we have to remember just the saints?  What about "All Souls Day?"  Which sounded good for a while, so that was printed on a few calendars, and then someone else brought up the fact that this Halloween holiday is really taking off, so why not call "All Souls Day" the "Day of the Dead," with happy skeletons and lots of colors and so forth?  And so it came to pass that we have this remarkably odd mixture of remembrance with brightly colored skulls and candies.  But don't think for a moment that we're passing judment here - we're fully aware of the fact that somehow here in America a ginormous rabbit comes each Easter, the day we remember Jesus' resurrection.  And mixed in with the story of Jesus' birth, we have a jolly man on a flying sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer, plus one with a bioluminescent nose.  So we're not making fun of anyone's holiday at all here.

In fact, it was a great time making crafts for Dia de Muertos.  We made this intricate flower pattern with colored tissue paper and glue, almost like Rose Bowl Parade workers the night before the big day.  We were sitting there, laboring on and on, gluing each flower down to make a final product that looked pretty good.  And then there were the skulls, which you can see above.  We decorated our own skulls, sort of paying hoage to the cultural styles of the day itself.  It's a fun look, certainly gaining a lot of popularity in recent years.

It just so happened that "Book of Life" was available at the library, so we checked that movie out - it's all about Dia de Muertos, as the movie takes place that day.  It's also a wildly imaginative movie, with a lot to learn about the culture of Mexico on that day.  We watched that tonight, completing our Dia de Muertos Tour de Force.  Yes, I'm aware that last part was French.

In between these two events was a whole lot of piano.  With all that's been going on lately, there hasn't been time for piano so much.  So we did some catching up this afternoon.  And oh,by the way, it rained today.  Yeah, it rained a lot.  Once again, the timing of this was perfect for us.  That's thing number one we listed for Madison being thankful.  Madison reminded us that in November, we all make a point of listing things we're thankful for each day.  Mommy mentioned fireplaces and cozy blankets.  Madison said her family.  Daddy talked about all the great times we've had together recently.

This morning, we started our new series, "Game On."  It went well, particularly the second service.  Our theme was the Game of Life, which had a great message behind it.  But the skit we did had a lot of Candy Land in it as well.  Plus we showed some videos that turned out well.  Our new books came out today, and here we are, starting a new series once more.  This one has never been done before, and there's a lot of excitement in the air over the idea of getting together and playing some board games.  Ironically, we didn't have time for that today, but you can be sure we'll be doing that a lot this month.  It's all about getting together as a family, and enjoying each other's company.  And this month, we'll be sure to do that.

A Fairy Good Halloween

This is easily one of my favorite pictures of Madison.  She's about to go out trick-or-treating here, all dressed up as a blue fairy.  Not a butterfly, she'd correct you.  She's a fairy, made obvious by the fact that she's carrying that wand there.  It glows in the dark, a little gift from Mommy before going out on the night's adventure.

Note the pumpkin to the left.  Madison's was slightly rotting from a week ago, and Daddy's "Linus" pumpkin didn't make it even to Wednesday.  That said, we had an extra pumpkin to carve, so Daddy did a carving of a Minion that turned out pretty decent.  You'll see that as the sun goes down a bit.

In the meantime, let's go do some trick-or-treating!

Aunt Shain and Nana came along for the trip this year, and it was lots of fun.  It was chilly outside, but that's exactly what October is supposed to feel like, isn't it?  The thing is, it was supposed to be raining. Again, we find that it was supposed to be raining, and again we find that the weather held out long enough for the kids to go and do their thing... and then it rained.  And yes, it poured through the night.

So we marched along, getting farther this time than we have in previous years.  Madison was quite eager to go from house to house, and this year, the neighborhood was absolutely packed with people.  Streets were filled with trick-or-treaters, and we pitied anyone who actually lived on that main strip who actually wanted to drive anywhere, because there were so many cars in the road, all moving along slowly for one reason or another.  That never bothered us, as we did everything on foot.  We're blessed to live in Spook Central, where we just walk out and do our trick-or-treating without having to go anywhere elaborate.

And the decorations on each house were so amazing this year.  Look at this one - this picture only captures part of the yard:

There were several large Halloween-themed inflatables on the other side of this yard.  And they were all over the neighborhood too, along with plenty of decorative orange lights.  The lights were a bit more tasteful, but there were plenty of houses that had makeshift cemeteries in their front yards, the kind with skeletons emerging from the ground, reaching for those trick-or-treaters that are lagging behind.

Here's that Minion pumpkin we made, the one waiting for us when we arrived home.  Mommy was there, along with Nana, who returned a bit earlier.  Both were seated on the porch, serving up sweets to trick-or-treaters along the way.  Not as many come down our stretch of road, but there were still quite a few.  Most of the parents in this neighborhood were outside with bonfires and music playing, seated in lawn chairs waiting for costumed kids to come by.  Madison was in her element!

It was a great night, of course.  And again, it didn't rain, despite the threat of it doing so time and again. All week long for our various events, there was the dire forecast.  And in each case, the clouds refused to release any precipitation until the festivities were over with.  It was just plain awesome.

Earlier today, after Daddy got home from work, there was a bit of celebrating to do.  After all, today is is birthday.  The cousins, Aunt Shain, Nana and Ye-Ye all arrived with a birthday cake and some presents and cards - it was nice to see everyone drop by.  We talked for a while, ate cake and in the cousins' case, played zombie video games.  That's the sort of thing you do on Halloween.

It was a very nice day, all said and done.  And looking back on the last two weeks, we've certainly filled them with fun for the whole family.  It's been wonderful as always.  Today wrapped it all up, a great birthday to end a great month!

Trunk or Treat

Never one to shy away from yet another chance to go and dress up and do something fun, we went tonight to visit Edge ATA Karate, which is a local place run by a very nice couple that come to our church.  They helped us out a lot with our "Kung Pow" series, and have been huge in volunteering with KidPak ever since.  Tonight, they had a 'trunk or treat' event, which is something Madison hasn't been to yet.  The concept is fun:  go from decorated car to decorated car, and get some candy from each trunk!

Which was fun!  There were many cars there, all decorated and lined up for Madison to come visit.  There was a TNMT car, a 'Minions' car, and plenty more.  It was a lot of fun for all the kids, and once again, the weather was perfect.  But there was one more thing for Madison to do tonight:

Madison has always wanted to do this, she said.  She broke one board with a punch with her hand, and then did this mighty kick, showing that little meddlesome little board a thing or two!

This was one of those things on her "to do list," one that she had always wanted to do.  She was quite proud of herself, so much so that she has those two boards with her at the house now!

It was a great night for the whole family.  We did a bit of work earlier, stuff setting up for the weekend's new series at KidPak.  Madison had off of school, and did a lot of piano practice, although there was a bit of Minecraft thrown in for good measure.  It was a great day for everyone, ending with another chance to dress up and get more free candy!


And break boards too...!