Penguins Review By C

Penguins 2019

By C. (Unedited by Mom)

Akk! This silly movie is the best one I have ever seen.

This is a story about an Adelie penguin named Steve.

Steve is a loveable penguin who helps his chicks through a hard time.

One of the facts of the movie is a leopard seal can eat  100 penguins per day.

Steve almost gets eaten by a leopard seal!

From happy feet from penguins.

Happy Feet shows an emperor penguin called mumble.  

He has Adelie penguin friends.

Steve has emperor penguin friends.

Now let's go back to Penguins.  

Steve meets his match named Adeline.

I will name the chicks Bob and Fob because they don't tell us the names.

Steve has the best time being a first time father.

If it was on dvd or blue ray it would be cool!

April Showers

 Thursday night I had book club. I think it's well documented that I love to read right? Well... I didn't actually read the book. I know! I am the worst! But it was the new release Nicholas Sparks book and I never got off the library waiting list. But because it's a new release it's also expensive and I did NOT want to spend money on a book I knew I wasn't going to love. So... I read a bunch of Goodreads reviews and then mostly didn't talk about the book. It was okay.

I couldn't not go though, because they turned it into a surprise birthday party for my good friend. Anyway, it was raining on my drive but the sun was setting and it was so magical. I had to capture it. This was the best I got at a stop light that then turned green and I had to put it down.

Friday C had his first school field trip. And I 100% was the parent who drove to the field trip just to see them get off the bus. In my slightest, slightest defense of the crazy, it was actually a grocery store right by our house. And Kindergarten hasn't actually been the best experience so I was nervous. And I did restrain myself from "going grocery shopping" during the time they were there. 

It rained on Saturday and canceled M's soccer game. I was not one bit sad about that because the high was 42 and standing out in pouring rain in the cold sounded miserable. Especially for preschool soccer.

Yesterday, C decided to sit down and write a review for Penguins. It's so funny. He sees me writing reviews about shows so he wanted to as well. He typed the entire thing by himself and it took so long. But it's super cute. And he did a pretty good job with spelling. Only asked for help with "though."

I think he still has more to write but I will share it when he's done. 

He has a sight word test coming up soon and he was sick of just reading them to me so we had a little "sight word spelling test." Again, he surprised me with how well he could do. The only word he struggled with was "could." 

We've got to work on finger spacing a bit for still. I was impressed. 

Today it is pouring rain. And it's going to be that way until Friday. Oh well. Life moves on. Happy Monday!

Catch Up

This past week went so darn fast!! I have to write about it now before even more time passes.

So let's see, I left off with the Easter Bonnet Parade. Thursday night we found ourselves at Holy Thursday Mass.

Friday was a day off of school and we spent the day cleaning. Well, okay, I spent the day cleaning and the kids spent the day systematically making messes in areas of the house I wasn't in. That evening we went to Good Friday service.

Easter Saturday, as we waited for Vigil, we dyed our eggs.

Partly done. I obviously never took a picture of the fully completed eggs. 

My favorite part is making paper towel art. 

We also wrote letters to the Easter Bunny and made our traditional bunny butt cookies. 

Then we got ready to go to Vigil. It was the first time taking the kids to Vigil and all told they did a pretty bang up job. Especially considering they did the entire Triduum. And that is a lot of church in one weekend. One of M's teacher was baptized with her three children so it was very cool for her to see that! 

Pretty good picture for being up so late. About 4 minutes before this, C was crying because "This is the longest church ever!" And about 4 minutes after this, M cried because I wouldn't let her carry a gift bag with unknown contents because what if it was breakable? (It turns out it wasn't but still.) 

A before picture. We only took these of them in their fancy clothes. 

After the children were nestled snug in their beds, that tricky bunny came to visit. 

The bunny and Santa had a conference and decided that Christmas time in Iowa isn't a really good time to get a bike. (Nor is an October birthday.) So the bunny got the pleasure of bringing M a bike. C got a big kid scooter. The kids also got a Tiny Saint charm, a religious coloring book and a little bit of candy. 

It should be noted that in future Easters the bunny will most likely not be as generous. There was also no egg hunt this year in exchange. 

Monday was again a no school day and we relished it. C stayed in pajamas the entire day! We did have an errand to run at Walgreens and he asked if I could Google whether it was illegal to wear pajamas there. Then when I told him he could, he wanted me to double check and be sure. His pajamas look like coordinated shorts and a tee shirt. I imagine no one noticed at all that it wasn't clothes. And we were in there for maybe, maybe 5 minutes! 

Yesterday was busy. The daughter of family friends had open heart surgery. In order to help I was watching their 4-year-old. I also spent a great deal of time in our church praying for her, her parents and her medical team. 

The family did not want a lot of attention before the surgery so just yesterday we started collecting items for the patient. I included a signed copy of Erin's Ring by Laura Pearl. Laura was so sweet to even include a card! 

Here are the kiddos playing. G and A are a package set on Tuesdays and M was so happy to have them over. In this picture, G was calling his mom and dad to ask how the surgery was going. It was so stinking sweet. 

Later, M had soccer practice and got to wear her new soccer skirt. (Tennis skirts, soccer skirts, it's the same thing for preschoolers who would wear a dress or skirt above all else.) 

Oh, did I mention yesterday was also Husband's birthday?! It was. We celebrated him with Lemon Meringue Pie after soccer practice. We are going out to dinner tonight.  

Today M and I went to Target and the highlight of the trip was that she finally earned her Elsa Barbie. 

She was delighted. Anna and Elsa joined us for school Mass this afternoon even. And with that, you are caught up! 

Easter Bonnet Parade

"In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, you'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade."

Our school has a tradition where the three-year-old preschool has an Easter Bonnet Parade just before Easter and today was M's turn. We had been collecting things for weeks to make her bonnet lovely. And I was really excited.

This morning at drop off I took a before picture. Then I hightailed it to Target for some last minute supplies! 

We got only a half hour to create our hats and it was a race. There was a slight snafu when the power strip three of us were plugged into wasn't working, but we all switched and soon we were able to hot glue our bonnets to the delight of everyone. 

And here is the finished look: 

From the back:

And a picture of the whole class so you can see the scope of the looks. I have to say that M's was one of the classier hats, but it also lit up which kept the whimsy in there. 

The children sang us some songs and then we went on a parade to 8 classes and the school office. It was fun to go to the big school and we even got to go to C's room! It was so exciting for everyone. 

And I loved every second of the experience! M was slightly less into the fun and one of her friends was the kid who refused to wear the bonnet at all. (There's always one right?) 

Anyway, with this I will sign off to experience the Triduum with my family. We are trying something new where tomorrow we are putting all the technology into the tomb at 3:00 until Sunday morning. I hope you have a blessed Easter weekend!

Steve Day

Today was a very exciting day. First up, it was warm enough for this kid to wear shorts to school for the first time!

Admittedly, tomorrow it will be straight back to pants but nevertheless, it was still a good little milestone. But that really wasn't what made the day so exciting.

Today Disneynature's Penguins was released. We bought our tickets on March 27 so we have been excited for a long time. We even had a countdown!

After school, we all changed into penguin clothes. C in one of his penguin shirts and socks. I wore black and white with penguin socks. M wore black. Husband wore gray, he went as an Emperor chick.

We headed out to the theater!

We buy a big popcorn and split it into ziplocs so the kids don't have to feel like they're sharing. A bonus is any leftover comes home easily and without spilling everywhere. 

I don't think I've been to an opening day movie since the last Hunger Games movie maybe? So it was kind of a hoot to go on opening day. Back when we were all watching Katniss the movie was packed, but for Penguins we were 4 out of 11 people in the giant IMAX theatre. 

Watching my guy watch the movie was a hoot. He was on the edge of his seat, literally and so so excited! If you haven't read any reviews of the movie, let me be the one to tell you that Penguins was wonderful. 

With just enough intrigue to keep you guessing without being scary, this movie is a must-see for all penguin lovers. There is quite an excellent soundtrack to go with it too. (Think 80s power ballads.) Since the Adelie penguin's journey is different from the Emperors, even if you've seen March of The Penguins or Penguins: Spy in the Huddle, this is worth a watch. There's a narrative that makes it much more romantic comedy than pure documentary. 

I think Antarctica is one of the most beautiful places on the earth and some of the shots Disneynature captured are just stunning. They filmed for 900 days to get this 72-minute movie but it's amazing. C especially enjoyed watching some of the behind-the-scenes footage as the credits rolled.

As we exited the theater C said "I am going to miss Steve until we get the DVD." So... he was a fan!

Monday Monday

I spent the weekend (Thursday-Sunday) away with some friends and it was so good. There was this old tree on the property and it spoke to me. 

We have entered into Holy Week and I can't even believe it. This week will be a busy one for us! So there are some posts on the horizon for this week before Easter. Happy Monday!

Flowers!

I am just dropping in to say that OUR DAFFODILS have bloomed! Praise everything good you guys it is finally Spring!

This weekend it got up to 71 and M had a soccer game so we were able to enjoy it. And yesterday was pretty warm too. Today it is going to be 75 and we are heading to a big park playdate. Hallelujah!

Sunshine and warmth are doing big things for my soul today! Happy Monday!

Lite-Brite

Some moms have letter boards at their house. Those trendy fun moms. I, however, have taken to making my kids a sign on Lite-Brite. I don't really have a good reason. Wednesday night I just thought it would be fun. 

And they liked it. So I made one for today! 

It was the end of the 3rd quarter today. Thus the 2 hour early out. Only 40 days left! (I am 100% counting down.) 

Spring Life

Today is pretty gloomy. But on the upside, there's no rain expected so we can have soccer practice before Saturday's first game. (And no snow. I don't take that for granted. No snow is the best.) After preschool, we went to The Dollar Tree because M needs some special supplies for school. (Future post in the making. Stay tuned.) 

But we also picked up some Easter-y window clings and she has had a dandy time moving them around the windows on the porch. So much fun. I know Lent and keeping the Easter decorations away but... whatever. 

Here is a snippet of life in our house. 

A Play in One Scene

M is afflicted with a canker sore.

M: My mouth hurts! 

Husband: Well the best thing for canker sores is to gargling salt water. Do you want to try that?

M: No! 

C: (earnestly) No! She should laugh! Because laughter is the best medicine!

Husband and I: (Laughter. Lots of laughter.)

C: You two are using the best medicine. 

The End

So Happy Tuesday. Have a good one! We'll be over here eating peanut butter rollups and rearranging window clings if you need us.