Tiny Dancer Practices

Zoey started dance this fall and has done really well with it.  Next Saturday is her dance recital.  This week during class the parents were invited to come into class to watch them practice their routine.  I got a good recording of the class.

March Reading Challenge

Wow!  March flew by it seems.  For March, the topic was a book you have been meaning to read.  This could have been anything in my bookshelf really. I have so many books that I have purchased over the years and have not gotten to.  I choose the American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld.   I have read Sittenfeld's other book, Prep, years ago so I was familiar with her writing style of basing events off true findings.  I bought this shortly after it was published in 2008. Like so many other books, it has been sitting on my bookshelf since then.  I knew it was loosely based on the life of Laura Bush.  While this was fiction, it fits nicely into my currently favorite genera of biographies and autobiographies.  I enjoyed this greatly and want to read Laura Bush's biography now, to see which parts are true and which are not.  I did do some googling about her as I read the book when I got to parts I was really curious about.  If you enjoy fiction that is based on truth events or even just curious about Laura Bush, it's a great read that will make you want to read the non-fiction version to see what is truth or not!

February Reading Challenge

I'll be honest, I did not think I was going be able to complete this month's topic.  February's topic was a book you can finish in a day.  I waited till the last day; bad I know, but I thought I'll just pull out one of my old Ramona books or Super Fudge, but then I stumbled upon a book that was the February book in Barnes & Noble Serial Read series (part of a book each day is released for free for you to read).  I started reading it and got sucked in QUICKLY.  The book was Little Lost Girl by Brian McGilloway.  This was a thriller that had me captivated from the first chapter.  Of course it is part of a series; which means I'll have to add the rest to my list of books to read.  I was happy I was able to find a book that was not a children's book; I really thought I was going to have to choose one for this month.  

January Reading Challenge Book

I mention which book I read for January in the post where I shared I was doing a month by month reading challenge for the year, but I wanted to share each book in it's own post.

January challenge was a book published before you were born.  I choose The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis.  This book has been on my to read list for years.  I would never make the time for it, so this was perfect time for me to finally tackle it.  I love anything written by C.S. Lewis, he puts things into suck a perspective that you can see how it can relate to your.  If you have no read The Screwtape Letters, it is a satirical on how Satan tries to temp us and lead us astray from God.  When you stop to think about how in our everyday life Satan is using the little things to lead us away from God, it will hit home while reading it.  

I choose this book not only for it fitting the topic and for being on my list for so long, but due to it was something I was struggling with and was working on.  Trying to be closer to God and be more positive and less negative in my daily life.  I started late in the month reading it, but I did complete it on time!  Even if it meant I stayed up later than normal on January 31st.  

Surprising Zoey!

Back in November we surprised Zoey with a trip to Disney World!  We started planning it back in February.  It was hard and fun at the same time to keep the secret from her.  There was times when I wanted to tell her so we could do a countdown, but then I knew I wanted that element of surprise when we told her.

As soon as we decided we were going last year, I started working on her autograph book for meeting the characters.  Thankfully we do not use our dining room that much nor does she go in there because that came my station of mess for creating the book! I got the book done with a week to spare. :)  That's pretty good for me!  My sister helped me embellish it once I had all the character cut out and put together.

We left Sunday morning early to head to the airport.  Our flight left around 10:30 am from Memphis.  We got up early and told Zoey we were heading to get donuts.  Thankfully she cannot read yet! :)  She had no idea what her shirt said.  After getting donuts, she realized, hey wait a second.  We are not headed back to the house, she started asking to go back home. So we told her where we going instead.  I was hoping we might could get to the airport before we told her, but she wanted to go home.  I got it all on video! I love my sweet girl!

Zoey learning we are going to Disney World!