Nothing
Sunday, April 17, 2011 by Amy
I really have nothing to blog about. The weather has been cool and we really haven't gone anywhere interesting lately. Today it is supposed to be warm, but rainy (of course). Riley is on spring break, and it looks like the weather won't break the 60s the entire week. We'll find something to do, I hope. Or all go crazy. April showers bring May flowers. Repeat until I believe it...
Riley has started her new session of the Marvelous Improv Comedy Show. She still adores it. The group of children is much larger, which should make the shows a bit more interesting. Yesterday, as we were leaving rehearsal, there was a group of singers/musicians performing from Toronto, a high school group on a tour. They did some classical numbers and then some African songs and dances (okay, it was weird to see a bunch of white and Asian kids doing this, but whatever. Toronto.) At the end, they invited the children to come and dance in the middle of the circle. Riley was the only kid that would do it. She had a blast. The museum and the musical director for the Toronto school asked for permission to photograph her, as did many parents at the performance. Riley seriously never would have done this before improv. She just wouldn't have. She's not naturally outgoing, so it's nice to see her grow more comfortable in her own skin.
Ah, Easter. Funds are suffocatingly tight this month. Pretty much the girls will each get a Perler bead set, a Zooble, a few books, some clay, and a stuffed animal (all of which I bought in advance). Candy will be limited to the eggs, most likely. I find it funny that Borders coupons now say that they exclude toys, games, and stuffed animals. Some ass-hat must have been using them on $150 Lego sets ;) Since doing the Flat Stanley project for James' classroom, Riley has been interested in those books, so I got her one. She also has really been wanting the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Diary, so I picked that up a while ago. Avery is harder to find books for. She obviously can't read, but she doesn't like little-kid books either. She enjoys listening to chapter books, but likes them to be about animals and no humans LOL (although she enjoys the Ivy & Bean books. Go figure). I got her Tumtum and Nutmeg: The Rose Cottage Tales. Hopefully she enjoys it!
Speaking of books, we've had some disappointments lately. I tried reading A Wrinkle in Time to the girls. I mean, it's a classic and all, right? I just found it so poorly written and ridiculous. It is just a bear to read. The plot is so thin and nothing really compelling happens, nothing that makes you want to keep reading. And the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. We read the first one, The Capture, and I was hoping that that was the end of it. But I forgot that I had bought the second book, The Journey, for Riley's Christmas stocking. She recently found it on her bookshelf. Doh. The book is just strangely written. It is awkward to read aloud. I am a perfectly capable reader (says my English degree) but the tongue trips on the words when reading aloud. I really can't explain it. It just doesn't flow, which makes reading it a real chore. Darn, I'm picky! But seriously, I spend over an hour a day reading aloud to the kids, I deserve to enjoy the books too, right?
So, it looks like, thanks to Maine drivers, we are paying less for car insurance for the first time ever. People kept telling us that car insurance rates could go down after a move, but we'd never seen it. Ours went up from Maryland to Colorado, from Colorado to Montana, from Montana to Colorado, and finally went down. Hallelujah! We are paying about $30 less a month for more coverage. They added roadside assistance for my car (which wasn't even available in Colorado) and lowered the deductibles for my car and we're still paying less. It's strange, though, what laid-back Maine has done for my driving habits. I always go the speed limit, or thereabouts, without even trying. I don't worry when I see a cop any more LOL. Oh, wait, I do worry a little bit because we never got our cars the mandatory state inspections, so we lack the magic sticker. Oh well, I just am not comfortable fully on the good side of the law!
The girls have been playing outside today and when I went out to walk Lola I saw that they had managed to dig up a large chunk of the yard armed only with two ordinary soup spoons. Luckily, they dug up the area where I was planning to plant the tulips, so all is well. I finished the digging and Riley has her tulips planted. Avery fell asleep on the couch before planting hers, but hopefully she'll get them in the ground before dark.
Game of Thrones starts tonight and I am all atwitter about it. This is the first book series that both Rudi and I have read, and now it's a series on HBO. Sweet! So it will also be the only television show that we have ever had in common. We both loved the books and hope HBO does it up nice! If only Avery would wake up from her nap so that I can be sure the kids will both be out of our hair by 9pm...
Riley has started her new session of the Marvelous Improv Comedy Show. She still adores it. The group of children is much larger, which should make the shows a bit more interesting. Yesterday, as we were leaving rehearsal, there was a group of singers/musicians performing from Toronto, a high school group on a tour. They did some classical numbers and then some African songs and dances (okay, it was weird to see a bunch of white and Asian kids doing this, but whatever. Toronto.) At the end, they invited the children to come and dance in the middle of the circle. Riley was the only kid that would do it. She had a blast. The museum and the musical director for the Toronto school asked for permission to photograph her, as did many parents at the performance. Riley seriously never would have done this before improv. She just wouldn't have. She's not naturally outgoing, so it's nice to see her grow more comfortable in her own skin.
Ah, Easter. Funds are suffocatingly tight this month. Pretty much the girls will each get a Perler bead set, a Zooble, a few books, some clay, and a stuffed animal (all of which I bought in advance). Candy will be limited to the eggs, most likely. I find it funny that Borders coupons now say that they exclude toys, games, and stuffed animals. Some ass-hat must have been using them on $150 Lego sets ;) Since doing the Flat Stanley project for James' classroom, Riley has been interested in those books, so I got her one. She also has really been wanting the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Diary, so I picked that up a while ago. Avery is harder to find books for. She obviously can't read, but she doesn't like little-kid books either. She enjoys listening to chapter books, but likes them to be about animals and no humans LOL (although she enjoys the Ivy & Bean books. Go figure). I got her Tumtum and Nutmeg: The Rose Cottage Tales. Hopefully she enjoys it!
Speaking of books, we've had some disappointments lately. I tried reading A Wrinkle in Time to the girls. I mean, it's a classic and all, right? I just found it so poorly written and ridiculous. It is just a bear to read. The plot is so thin and nothing really compelling happens, nothing that makes you want to keep reading. And the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. We read the first one, The Capture, and I was hoping that that was the end of it. But I forgot that I had bought the second book, The Journey, for Riley's Christmas stocking. She recently found it on her bookshelf. Doh. The book is just strangely written. It is awkward to read aloud. I am a perfectly capable reader (says my English degree) but the tongue trips on the words when reading aloud. I really can't explain it. It just doesn't flow, which makes reading it a real chore. Darn, I'm picky! But seriously, I spend over an hour a day reading aloud to the kids, I deserve to enjoy the books too, right?
So, it looks like, thanks to Maine drivers, we are paying less for car insurance for the first time ever. People kept telling us that car insurance rates could go down after a move, but we'd never seen it. Ours went up from Maryland to Colorado, from Colorado to Montana, from Montana to Colorado, and finally went down. Hallelujah! We are paying about $30 less a month for more coverage. They added roadside assistance for my car (which wasn't even available in Colorado) and lowered the deductibles for my car and we're still paying less. It's strange, though, what laid-back Maine has done for my driving habits. I always go the speed limit, or thereabouts, without even trying. I don't worry when I see a cop any more LOL. Oh, wait, I do worry a little bit because we never got our cars the mandatory state inspections, so we lack the magic sticker. Oh well, I just am not comfortable fully on the good side of the law!
The girls have been playing outside today and when I went out to walk Lola I saw that they had managed to dig up a large chunk of the yard armed only with two ordinary soup spoons. Luckily, they dug up the area where I was planning to plant the tulips, so all is well. I finished the digging and Riley has her tulips planted. Avery fell asleep on the couch before planting hers, but hopefully she'll get them in the ground before dark.
Game of Thrones starts tonight and I am all atwitter about it. This is the first book series that both Rudi and I have read, and now it's a series on HBO. Sweet! So it will also be the only television show that we have ever had in common. We both loved the books and hope HBO does it up nice! If only Avery would wake up from her nap so that I can be sure the kids will both be out of our hair by 9pm...
