Best book ever

I started reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to C5 tognight. She couldn't get enough. It was lovely. She really enjoyed the first chapter, so I read the second. And she begged for a third, fourth, 30th, ALL THE CHAPTERS! I didn't but I think she might be reading ahead right now.

Possibly as a result of seeing "Spare Oom," while we were reading C5 started telling me how the British people didn't like the letter R. As she told me, they didn't hate it, they didn't LOATHE it, they just strongly disliked it. They didn't like to use it. I asked how she knew this, and she said because another character in another book (she told me, but I can't remember) called sneakers "Plimsolls" ... and that didn't have the letter R in it.

I went in later and she'd read a large part of chapter 3, and told me how Lucy's siblings didn't believe her, and that made her sad. And then Edmund found his way in, but didn't see Lucy there, but met somebody else (she didn't know who, yet). C5 thought maybe you could only go to Narnia once a day through the wardrobe. Could be, my dear. Could be.

Q4's Ponyo Party

It took a while, but Q3 (now Q4) finally settled on a birthday party theme. After running through zebra, princess, Disney Princess™, dog, and several other ideas, Q3 finally latched on to the idea of having a Ponyo party.

Turning to the Internet for various ideas/copyright violations, I got an idea from Happy Birdycake and made some Ponyo puppets to put in little buckets as a party favor. After that was figured out, the rest of it sort of fell into place ... a bit of construction paper, a lot of streamers, construction paper for Ponyo's sisters ... and the requested ice cream cake (non-Ponyo). C40 was tasked with figuring out party games; he managed to find one decent one (jellyfish jump), but M6, G5, and B6 helped think up a few other uses for the hula hoops and giant purple ball, keeping the kids occupied.

The ice-cream cake proved a big hit, not so much for the store-combined layers of vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake, but for the blue icing which had some ... interesting effects.

And so, without further ado, here are the pictures:

Just a day

C40 ordered some music for Q4 (the soundtrack to Les Triplettes de Belleville) and it came on her birthday. Here she is con the couch, wearing a new birthday outfit reading the liner notes.



But then she and C5 wanted to dance:

Q3 is now Q4

Her birthday came and went rather quietly, since I was burnt out from C40 being gone. But we made cupcakes to bring into school on Friday, and we opened presents.











Then we went out for dinner with friends whose daughters' birthdays are April 15 and April 18. So ... C5 was feeling a little left out, not having a birthday, but she handled herself despite the pain and sorrow. This is the same place I made her walk home from a couple of weeks ago because she couldn't hold it together then, so I reminded her of that possibility before we got there, so I think that helped.

Twirley skirt

Remember the twirley skirt?

Yes the one she wore for 30 days straight. And approximately every other day since then?

I went to mend a rip in a seem the otherday .... and found approximately 15 more rips. Either I did a very bad job (entirely possible) or she's worn this thing about 100 times since September and it is worn out.

Treasures

Today was the town-wide yard sale. We walked around the block and bought some treasures. We were given a plastic chair for free, we petted a chihuahua, and ...

C5 bought a horse puzzle, a block clock, a plastic pan-am collectible comb, and some barrettes. I don't know why she's flipping me the bird. Maybe because I wouldn't let her get the stuffies. Second-hand stuffies eeek me out.



Q3 got a GIANT horse, a block clock, a flower pin.


We were in search of books, but had to come back home for a bathroom stop then we never got back out. Oh, well. My favorite thing is the awesome block clocks. Q3's has the letter Q on it, and C5's has a U and a picture of a unicorn. So everybody is happy.

Spring?

C5 is NOT focusing on the French lessons today. Whoah. Totally unfocused and off topic.