Alice In Wonderland

We recently took the girls to see the dress rehearsal for Alice In Wonderland. This high end ballet studio offers both school and homeschool groups the chance to see their dress rehearsals for only a dollar per student with tickets reserved ahead of time.

Many children sat on the wood floors to watch it while the adults sat in chairs around the edge of the  auditorium. This studio is known for its quality productions so it was a treat to be there and at such a great price.

Many dances, loosely based  on adventures that Alice could have had if she had taken a nap in Wonderland, were performed in fantastic costumes. The older students were en pointe and did pretty twirls and leaps to classical music. I took a picture at the final curtain call. Alice, The rabbit, and The Queen of Hearts are visible above.

At the end of each of their shows, the ballet students sit down to meet and greet the audience by introducing themselves and give their ages. The dancers seemed to enjoy performing and the young students watching were an attentive audience.

Ladybug Bibs

My little niece just celebrated her first birthday with a ladybug themed party. We wanted to make her something special and found this bright yellow fabric with ladybugs on it. Seeing it, we decided to make her a bib! We also picked up quilting material, polka-dotted ribbon, rick-rack, and ladybug buttons to accessorize it with.

Juby and I took a whole day together to sew and created our own pattern, figuring it out as we went along. The quilted material is inside the layers of fabric to add real protection from food while in use, and the zigzag rick-rack "quilts" the layers together.

The ladybug buttons are hand sewn onto the top corners where the ribbon for tying is inserted. We picked up a half yard of each fabric. When we got home, we were delighted to be able to make a bib for both my niece and my grand-daughter, and to put away two for gifts! If you are related to me and are expecting a baby girl (or might be!) watch for one of these coming your way soon!

Snake Savy

Our Homeschool CoOp  spent the day at The Arboretum which is another name for a "tree museum". An Arboretum is a place where tree varieties from all over the world are gathered and grown in one place. The younger children studied Snakes in the morning, and the older students took a class on Birds in the afternoon.

Five stations of hands-on exhibits were set up for the kids to touch and learn about. Different kinds of coverings are shown here, fur, feathers and a shell are pictured.

I liked these owl wings. At this point, our teacher was discussing vertebrates which is what snakes are.

She was so comfortable handling this non-poisonous snake that it crawled into the back of her shirt through her sleeve.

Outside, we looked through this window grate to observe a group of snakes sunning themselves. It was such a chilly, blustery day that we weren't able to walk around much to enjoy the trees, but we did take the driving tour and it looked very inviting for a pleasant walk when the weather warms up.

Engagement Party

We received an invitation to attend an Engagement Dinner Party to celebrate the upcoming wedding of my son and his lovely fiancee, hosted by one of their Bridesmaids.  Although I have heard of these occasions before, I had never attended one!

Drinks were served as well as a Prime Rib Dinner that was fantastic! We met many of the Bride's friends and  conversed with her family and our own in a very classy, yet relaxed atmosphere. Two long rows of tables were set up in a private third story room that looked out onto the Downtown area.

In addition to the great company, dinner, and plenty of beverages, this "Engagement Cake" was a show-stopper! It was a very moist spice cake in 5 layer pieces with fabulous buttercream frosting. A few of us thought that it was the best cake we had ever eaten!

We all had a great time and got a chance to know better many of the attendants and family members who will be at the Wedding. Many thanks to Martha and Brady who treated us all to an elegant evening out to  celebrate with this much loved couple.

Cutting Fresh Pineapple

It seems that any '"How To" question one has these days can be answered by looking at a You Tube Video. I've  wondered "Who thinks to film all this normal stuff they do in a day?" I recently was also meditating on the idea of skills that young people learn at work that come in handy later on in life. A friend of mine said that she used to work for a carpet repair shop as a teen and can now spot an expensive handmade carpet at a Thrift Shop and repair it herself.
When I grabbed my camera, it was along this train of thought that I was pondering. I had started to cut up this fresh pineapple. I learned how to cut pineapple while waitressing at a restaurant that served a fancy Sunday Brunch. In addition to pineapples, we also cut up many exotic melons on Sunday mornings. Not only cantaloupe and honeydew but also casaba, crenshaw and canary melons. You can be sure that these were imported as this restaurant was in Vermont!
There may be many ways to do this job, but how I do it is to first cut off the top of the pineapple, the green stalk. Next, slice the fruit into four quarters.

Remove the tough inner fibrous material (the core) by slicing horizontally across each quarter with a steak knife. These are delicious to nibble along the edges if the pineapple is ripe and sweet, then discard these pieces.

Use the sharp knife to slice along the bottom as close to the rind as possible to get every bit of the fruit possible. Once it is free on the bottom, slice along through the middle, and then make bite sized chunks by cutting through in the opposite direction.

I serve the pineapple chunks in a  bowl with a spoon for folks to take a serving but many people like to reach in to grab one piece at a time! Squeezing the rind over the bowl releases lots of sweet juice that otherwise would have been wasted. Fresh pineapple is a terrific addition to any meal or as a special stand alone snack. It takes no time to cut one up, once you know how!

Kidgits

The Mall has a new playland for kids that is very colorful and pleasant to visit.

The furniture, carpeting and equipment is all bright and new.

After accomplishing our errands, we enjoyed sitting down to watch the kids play and interact with other wee folks.

Shenandoah Caverns

Although housework and laundry loudly beckoned, we treated ourselves to a wonderful family trip to Shenandoah Caverns to see all of the four attractions that it offered for one price.

These Caverns were found by two boys who used a rope to scale down over two hundred feet through a dark hole they found on their father's farm! Many improvements have been made since then. The elevator that we took down to the cavern has been in continuous use for over eighty years!

We all had a great time on the guided tour and became fast friends with another family on the tour with us. We traversed a great distance, over a mile, and saw many interesting sights. The temperature is a steady 55 degrees inside. At one point our guide turned off all the lights and we were able to experience "Cave Darkness" where one cannot see one's hand placed directly in front of one's face!

This formation is a stalagmite and a stalactite growing toward each other. They are just one water drop apart from each other.

The next exhibit, Main Street of Yesteryear, was comprised of old storefront window displays of whimsical animated figures that still move!

This is a fantasy land of fairy tales like Cinderella having the shoe put on her foot above.

Hansel and Gretel at the Gingerbread House.

Next we enjoyed the farm animals outside. This fancy chicken is the occupant of a very beautiful coop!

The Yellow Barn is the third exhibition at this family attraction. This gorgeous space is part museum and part country store. Many different types of old wheeled carriages having been lovingly restored are on display here. They are well painted and outfitted with props from the time period. The Ideal Bread cart delivered bakery goods to homes and was pulled through the streets by a pony when it was originally in use.

This giant woodland creature decoration was at least two stories high. This finished and gorgeously decorated warehouse-sized space is rented out for concerts and wedding receptions.

The most exciting part of our trip, was having Sam get STUCK in a children's hippopotamus. He crawled in backwards and wound up getting his hips and knees held tight because of the angles. He was in pain briefly because of the pinching and became claustrophobic and justifiably concerned! He was beginning to freak out as we all tried to figure out how to get him out of there! I was praying aloud while Larry wondered if we were going to have to buy the Hippo! Jon decided to get the cameras rolling because this problem took some time to solve! Sam was able to calm himself and realized that his phone in his pocket was hanging things up.

We were all trying not to laugh because it was so funny but also sooo scary! After he threw his phone out in front of him (which Patience grabbed in a heartbeat!), he changed some angles and was finally able to wiggle free! Whew, that was a close one!!! I really thought that we would need to cut the hippo up to get him out. Thank you, Lord!

We continued to laugh about this part of our adventure for hours!

The wooden beams over top in the building supported working trains that traveled around. You can see the train on the second beam back.

This old fashioned Barber Shop display caught my eye.

The fourth exhibit that came with our admission was "America on Parade". In this additional fully finished warehouse, massive parade floats previously used in The Rose Bowl and Inaugural Parades are on display.

I was overwhelmed with admiration for the father and son team, Earl Hargrove Jr and Sr, who are responsible for collecting and restoring all of these fascinating pieces of Americana. I am amazed at their talent and the generosity, passion and commitment to excellence evident in assembling and maintaining this spectacular display. What a hobby!!! The entire Shenandoah Caverns is their own work and it is filled with their exquisitely restored collections which they share with the public. What a great use of time, talent and treasure!

This display was of definite interest to me because of the great honor our extended family member has received in being invited to be present when the 68th anniversary of Iowa Jima is celebrated next month in Japan. Imagine my astonishment when I got home from seeing this that evening to read in the paper that it was on this exact day that the flag was raised by five Marines and a Navy corpsman on the island of Iowa Jima. This image is an icon of World War Two. In 1945, it took  more than a month to secure the island in a brutal fight to the death. The United States did win through the valiant efforts of our heroic forces, 27 of whom received the Medal of Honor for their bravery there.

This was a most wonderful day filled with interesting, beautiful and inspirational sights. I would recommend this destination to any family or couple looking to spend the day together. It was worth every penny paid!

We were able to top our day off with a fabulous meal of homemade bacon cheeseburgers and terrific fries at a family owned Diner located 5 miles down the road.
Thank you, Lord ,for a safe trip and a lovely day to remember!

Egg Salad

My grandson surprised us by offering to manage the making of egg salad on a recent Friday in Lent. We boiled at least a dozen eggs which he helped to peel.

I was impressed that he could slice the egg with this wonderful Kitchen Aid slicer.  What amazed me was the way he was able to pick up the sliced egg in one hand and turn it around at a 90 degree angle on the tool. Then he could reslice it in a different direction making the pieces smaller.

One by one, he dropped the sectioned eggs into the bowl to which we added mayo, salt, pepper and mustard which made it great!

They say that kids will eat better if they help to prepare the meal.

That was certainly the case here and the egg salad was outstanding!

Our Bishop has asked that all Catholics refrain from eating meat on every Friday during this Year of Faith. That will be no sacrifice with fresh delicious egg salad available, prepared by this capable four year old, delighted to help!