Michaelmas

Today was Michaelmas so we all gathered at Carolyn and Scott's to celebrate. I still don't quite understand the holiday, except that is when the kids get their boffer swords out and spend an evening whacking each other with them. It has something to do with St. George slaying the dragon and the harvest and the kids make dragon bread and Carolyn makes stuffed mushrooms and apple pie.

Well, this year, Carolyn had the kids do a skit about the slaying of the dragon. Maddy was not thrilled about it and said she wouldn't do it, but when I told her it was like a play she was more interested. She has wanted to be in a play since Ash was in Joseph. She was so excited about being in a play that she even let me brush her hair! She asked for make-up too and we compromised with a little lipstick.

The skit was spectacular. Maddy was the princess. Soren and Sven were knights and Carl was the dragon.

Of course, Maddy had to take a turn at being the knight too. That's our self-rescuing princess!!

Bonus footage tonight comes courtesy of the skit:

Even Leif joined in the fun.

Girl (Scouts) Night Out

We had a Girl Scout night with Maddy's friend, Sarah tonight. She is also a Girl Scout and we invited her to help with one of Maddy's patches.

Tonight, we talked about respecting ourselves and others and what better way to respect yourself than by having a hair and nails night.

Maddy and Sarah did my nails.

Then I helped with Maddy's and Sarah's. We all looked pretty good when we were done.

Then we had a great time doing hair. I did Sarah's...

And Maddy did mom's.

Then mom did Maddy's hair and she was so entranced by it that she spent five minutes rolling around on the floor and staring at herself in a mirror. I wish I had gotten a picture of that!

Maybe next time.

Maddy bites a lemon

Why, you may ask, would Maddy bite a lemon...

Because she likes the laughs. She makes the best faces though!

All About Maddy

 I am seriously loving going to Girl Scout meetings with Maddy. I love just sitting in the back of the room and watching her interact with the other girls. I am always amazed at how much she is growing up and I love her responses to some things.

In her troop, there are two girls named Maddy, so last week they told my Maddy that they should call her something else so they wouldn't get the two girls confused. My Maddy was like, oh you should call me Skittles because that is what my mom calls me. They looked at her kind of funny and asked why I call her that and I was totally ready to jump in with an explanation, but Maddy just smiled and said, "It's because I am fast." That's true. She always seems to skitter across the floor at top speed and so I call her Skittles. The girls all loved it though and, this week, they were all calling her Skittles.

Tonight for Girl Scouts, Maddy had to bring 3 things that represent her. It was cool watching her think about things that she loves and would want to show to other people. She ended up going with a puppet, a bag of Skittles, and a swing. We all know how much she loves to swing. The trick was finding small items though. The puppets are small and we found fun size bags of Skittles, but I could not figure out how to do the swing. I finally just put Ash and Maddy in charge of that while I went to work this afternoon.

This is what they came up with...

So Skittles was a hit tonight at Girl Scouts with her puppet sized swing set and her bags of Skittles that she handed out to everyone and she came home completely jazzed and talking a mile a minute. I am so glad she is having fun.

Maddy Speaks

Maddy has co-op tomorrow with Aunt Carolyn and the boys. It's actually a cool program for the home school kids Once every two weeks, the kids get together with other kids and do art and science, and they have a retoric (speech) class. That also means that once every two weeks, Maddy is supposed to prepare a speech to present to the class.

Well this week, we kind of forgot about it, so last night we wrote the speech while taking a walk, which only left tonight to practice it. Much like Kung Fu Panda though, Maddy is motivated by food. So tonight, she earned skittles for every line that she read.

She did a lot of reading...

Seriously! She practiced her speech at least 10 times tonight. I think I will have to keep a bag of Skittles in the house more often.

Working on Girl Scouts

Thought this might be a fun post. Maddy has been working on her Girl Scout patches again. This patch was about being responsible for what you say and do. Maddy had to do a skit about being responsible so, of course, we used the puppets.

This is Shiny trying to be responsible. He had to "take 2" because he forgot the first time and he needed a re-do. (We left out the part about him throwing a tantrum when he had to actually go to school. That was not so responsible.)

Take 2 is now the new fun game to play with the puppets.

Maddy takes off!!

Ash has been building gliders for him and Maddy for about a year now. The first plane lasted for quite a few months actually and that was with heavy use. It finally broke apart though and Ash built a second flyer for Maddy.
 
Well today, he finally added some weight to the nose to balance it and Maddy is back in business.

We had to go in the backyard, because the wind kept catching it and flying it into the street in the front yard. That little plane gets some hang time!!
 
By the way, the tie-dye shirt Maddy is wearing was made by her at the co-op group that Carolyn takes the kids too. I love that she is getting out and having experiences!

Girl Scouts

OK, so this is not the best picture, but Maddy's Girl Scout troop started meeting again tonight after taking a break for the summer.

Maddy is the little girl in the blue vest with the pink sleeves on the left. She is looking through a pile of stuff that her leaders gave them to use while they work on their Journey patches this year. Madddy does love stuff.


So she came home with a pile of badges she had earned during the summer and was feeling quite pleased with herself and way jazzed for the coming year! I guess I better go so some badges on now.

Because puppets

Alright, it's time to get back to daily Maddy posts. Tonight, Maddy told me to sit down on the couch to watch a puppet "movie" in which she made the puppets move and talk. This is actually huge for her. Normally she just reacts to what I make the puppets do, but I love that she is taking charge of the puppets now.

Here Maddy is assisting Shiney (the villain) build a mountain that is calling Krakatoa.

 

Then Shiney made the mountain explode!

She is such a goof.