WOW!!!

This is Madeline's latest canvas from art lessons. We are speechless. Wow!

Beauty & The Beast

Saturday we traveled to Huntsville to see the Beauty & The Beast show. MaMaw kept Matthew for us so he had a good time playing and terrorizing the cat. Madeline wanted to have her picture made with this beautiful chandelier in the concert hall.

Studying the program.

I think Madeline really enjoyed the show. I thought it was good, but no where near as FABULOUS as Mary Poppins was, or even The Lion King.

We met Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jason at Zaxby's in Madison for dinner.

Apple Friday

Today I got to go to Madeline's class and help with their apple activity. They divided up into 3 groups: yellow apples, red apples and green apples and were to wear the coordinating color today for their group.

Red Group made an apple pie, Yellow Group made apple crisp and Green Group made apple dumplings. Madeline got yellow group and was very excited as that is her favorite color. We had 4 moms there to help with the ingredients but the kids were to follow their recipes and mix the ingredients.

The lunchroom ladies baked the finished products and the kids sampled them all for afternoon snack (with ice cream of course). They voted on which they liked and made a bar graph to show the results.

Madeline mixing the apple crisp topping.

Sprinkling the topping over the apples.

They also had reading time with books about apples.

Group photos were nex.

Yellow Apple Group with the apple crisp:

Red Apple Group with the apple pie.

Green Apple Group with apple dumplings.

Madeline & one of her best friends Courtney.

Matthew Grew Today

Saturday With Belle

On Saturday we are heading up Huntsville way to take Madeline to see the touring Broadway Beauty & The Beast show. I need little Disney touches like this throughout the year to tide me over until our next trip to 'The World'. Madeline is excited, she loved the Mary Poppins show we saw in Atlanta last year and Belle is one of her favorite princesses (because of her puffy yellow gown). We're dropping Matthew off at MaMaw's to get some quality time with her (and terrorize poor Max).
Also in the works is a trip down to Orange Beach. Matthew has never 'put his toes in the sand' and Madeline and I are craving some good fried crab claws! Jeff's seafood allergy means he can't join in but he enjoys Scoops ice cream and the boiled peanuts! ha ha I"m already planning all the great beach pictures I'm going to get of the kiddos!
Lots of fun plans in the works- right up my alley!

First Sleepover

Friday night Madeline went to her first sleepover party. She's spent the night at Joyce's before but this was a sleepover birthday party for a little girl down the street. At the time I assumed it was a sleepover 'theme' and when I went to pick her up at 9pm I found out it was truly to be 9am the next morning. Madeline was none too pleased to see me there! ha ha
Much thanks to cousin Elizabeth who sent her the big M bag from Justice, it was perfect to pack sleepover stuff in and it is multi sequined all over- right up her alley! (Sequined beret is from MaMaw! ha ha)

Superman!

Matthew wanted to sleep in his Superman costume the other night. He loves super heroes!

Choc X 2

We made double chocolate chip cookies. Madeline did 100% of the measuring and adding to the bowl. Jeff gave me a mixer for Christmas which I love and the kids loved licking the beaters!

I didn't feel like rolling the dough into balls so we just made 'splats'! They tasted A-ok to us!

Oh Happy Day!

And what was waiting on me today in my mailbox??? TWO Netflix DVDs! Two at a time! Whoo whoo!! These little red envelopes make me a cheerful person! =)

I have much to add to the blog, but my SD camera card is at Wolf Camera having some videos transferred to DVD so I have no pictures to upload today. More to come soon regarding Madeline's first slumber party and miscellaneous pictures. So for today, here's another great snippet from the 1946 Your Manners Are Showing about how boys should open the car door for girls:

When Doug takes dates out for a spin,
He helps them out and helps them in.
He makes a very grand chauffeur
The sort of lad all gals prefer.

For Madeline

I picked this Disney guide book up for Madeline today (truth be told I was buying myself a new adult version one with color pictures). This one is geared towards the kid age reader as is full of tips on the parks by kids them selves. It has checklists of rides to do, polls to fill out and rate on you like and didn't like, run downs for fave foods/snacks, blank pages for character autographs, etc. She'll love this! And the reading will count on her school reading calendar.
If I can stand the excitement and not break down I'm going to try to hold onto it until Valentine's Day to give to her. =)

Our British Party

I am a die hard Anglophile and so very excited about Prince William and Kate Middleton's upcoming wedding! I have always loved the Royal Family, William and Diana in particular and I really like Kate! I snap up any magazine that she's is in and cannot wait to see her wedding gown!
To celebrate the wedding I'm recording it on the DVR to watch that evening and thought it would be fun to make British foods for dinner and eat while we watch. We are having tea, scones, bangers & mash, trifle, etc. So much fun! Now to find Union Jack plates/napkins! ha ha
Jeff is going along with my plan but not quite as enthusiastically as I am, when I say 'we' I mean 'me' as far as planning our little British party on 4/29/11. Isn't he so tolerant of my whims? =)
I remember watching Diana and Charles' wedding on tv when I was in first grade so I hope Madeline will enjoy watching this one and seeing Kate become a princess!

Blocks Are Best

These were the blocks and basket that Mother kept from when we were little. Matthew LOVES these. I keep them up in the spare closet to try to keep them all 'together' rather than scattered but he goes in there and gets them and takes them all over. This was him lugging them up the stairs.

This is the most wonderful book! My grandmother read this to me all the time when I was little. I have it on my shelf with my all time favorite books. I saw this online with antique books. This is from 1946 and has pictures with poems about good manners and proper behavior. One of my faves from the book was:
You're out with Tad and up comes Nan
But even if she'd like your man
Politely say, "Nan, this is Tad."
Name lad to gal, not gal to lad.

Isn't that just the best??!! I think I'll sprinkle this blog with some jewels from this book from time to time just to share!

Disney!

Trying out our new Disney tee shirts for the upcoming trip!

First Fire

We are enjoying our fireplace this year. Last year I was too nervous to use it around Matthew. We've even been using it to purge tons of old paperwork rather than shredding it all. I love the way a real wood fire smells!

The lengths he'll go to

for chocolate! This block of dipping chocolate was in the pantry and Little Man was going in there, climbing up on the shelves to reach it and getting a bite. He'd put it back and come back again for another bite. Jeff moved it to the cabinet so he can't get it now.

Excuse the mess, but he was standing on that brown hot chocolate container on the floor to get a leg up and pulling up on the shelves to reach it. Very funny!

McGyver

Madeline is a McGyver Jr. This is a musical instrument set that she made out of cardboard, rubber bands, electrical tape, toilet paper rolls and a Kool Whip container. Oh, and the plates are glued together with macaroni noodles inside for a tamborine. ha ha Everything in here makes some sort of 'noise' that she says can be an 'instrument'. What an imagination.

A Night Of Developments

Last night was a big night! Matthew poopied on the potty! Not sure if this will continue or if he even knows what he did but he was proud when he saw it! =)

Secondly, Madeline drops the bomb that Courtney in her class said that her older brother set a video camera up in his room to catch the Tooth Fairy! But when she and her brother watched the tape they saw his mother come in, get the tooth, leave the money and throw the tooth away. She wanted to know if that was true that their mother was the Tooth Fairy. Eeek.
I asked her if she really thought a mommy would throw their child's tooth away and also reminded her that Tinkerbell came to our Disney hotel room while we were all sleeping when she lost her last tooth and how could I have done that when Madeline knew I was sleeping right there with her. Jeff reminded her that he was sleeping in the tent with her too when she lost her first tooth during camping.
She seems appeased but we'll see how long until more questions arise.....
(Please let me get through 1 last Christmas of believing!!)

House Of Anubis

Madeline has entered into the preteen world of the television series. We have graduated from icarly (thank the Lord) to House Of Anubis. It's a new show on Nickelodeon for the 7-12 age bracket. A British show about kids in a mysterious London boarding school. Kind of Harry Potter meets Scooby Doo. She's really into it and it was very funny when the first episode ended and she got upset because it wasn't over. Jeff explained that was what a series was, it never really ended and you had to keep watching it to find out what happened. ha ha

This Makes Me Happy

I found this mini insulated backpack on clearance for $2! This makes me happy because I bought it to use for our next Disney trip. I pick up odds and ends for our Disney trips all through the year before we go. This will be fabulous to use as a small backpack and will fit our snacks, Keys To The World, drinks, camera, etc. Much 'cooler' than a fannypack. It makes me smile when I see it because it is the very first thing I have picked up for the trip and makes it seem more real even though I have not booked the trip yet. =)

This is my 'Sack 'O Disney Wonder' hidden in my closet. When our local Disney store closed I stocked up on Disney toys to use on our trips. I always have a new toy for the kids as a surprise the first night we check into the resort. This cuts down on the 'gimmies' from the kids while we are in the parks and it was all on clearance! This bag makes me happy as well!

WAR EAGLE!

War Eagle! Auburn is the 2011 National Champs! It was a very stressful game but we made it! We all (minus Jeff who just refuses to get onboard) wore our orange and blue today! Madeline slept in her Auburn cheerleader outfit last night. Now to find a National Championship tee shirt.....

Ice Day- no school

Monday morning Ms. Astorbilt awoke at 11:00 and requested breakfast in bed- on a tray! She enjoyed her ice day home from school.

Playing with the ice on the deck.

Don't be fooled, this is not snow- it's all ice!