Meadowood Mall

August 22, 2011

For today's adventure I used the three-choice strategy -- candle-making, the mall, or swimming. To my surprise, and only after a little hesitation to think about it, she chose the mall. I thought for sure we were going swimming again. She ran and got her wallet and we headed to the Meadowood Mall. We hit Macy’s first (I had to return something quickly) and then the rest of the evening was directed by her. After 90 minutes or so I was starting to fade -- it was time for me to eat -- so we headed towards the food court for dinner. We barely got a chance to see our choices when we were offered a sample of mango chicken (I must admit it was pretty good) and that’s what she decided she wanted. After eating and having some water I was rejuvenated and ready for round two. We continued around the mall until about 8:00 and then it was time to go. We each made a purchase -- me, a keychain at the accessory store for us to share; she, a stuffed version of Dot from A Bug’s Life at the Disney Store. She only wanted to spend one dollar of her own money but couldn't find anything for a dollar or less. She decided she could up it to $3 and asked the lady at the store if they had anything for $3. We were led to the clearance shelves where Dot was waiting to be taken home. On the way out we did a quick photo shoot with Justin Bieber --he was at Macy's advertising his new perfume, Someday.

Explaining the Phineas and Ferb characters to me at the Disney Store.

My "big" purchase of the evening.

Trying on belts at a store where the clothes were waaaay to big for her.

JB photo shoot.

 Until our next adventure . . . 

Even More Swimming!

August 16, 2011


My plan was to give L three choices for today’s adventure, crafts at the library, swimming, or candle-making at Flicker. When I picked her up, she asked what we were going to do, and I answered her question with a question (abandoning the three choice-strategy knowing she was going to choose swimming). “What do you want to do?” SWIMMING!!! is what she yelled, and she promptly ran to her room to get her suit and mask. She decided she wanted to swim first and eat dinner later, but we still had to go to my house so I could change and get towels, etc. I gave her some pens and paper to keep her busy for a few minutes while I got ready.

A note for G. 

 


We swam for about an hour (with a quick stop beforehand at the game room), had a quick pasta dinner at home, and then had to call it an evening.

 

Until our next adventure . . .

Young Shakespeare

August 8, 2011

Tonight we attended a free performance of Twelfth Night (or What You Will) by the D. G. Menchetti Young Shakespeare Program at Bartley Ranch. When I picked up L she had her heart set on going swimming again, but I already had the reservation for the show, so promised her next time would be swimming. We had dinner at Mimi’s Cafe before heading to the show. Now I have to admit that I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan, but it was free and I want to expose Lacee to as much culture Reno can offer. I did learn a bit of Shakespeare in college during a literature class called Comic Spirit (we read and dissected a couple of comedies), and I do love the movies Shakespeare in Love and Romeo and Juliet (Leonardo Dicaprio/Claire Danes version), but unfortunately watching this performance was pretty excruciating. I did have high hopes at the beginning because the half-hour or so of pre-show entertainment by a few of the actors was really engaging and fun. We practiced the audience participation parts of the show, and they brought several kids on stage and played guitar and sang about them. They even brought out all of the actors beforehand and introduced each of the characters and explained the story so it would be easier to follow along. But when the show started...total snooze fest. It was difficult to hear the actors (the weren’t individually miked) and I don’t think L paid attention to the show for more than 2-3 minute intervals. From her seat she picked flowers in the flower bed behind us, and within 15 minutes the flowers were torn apart and she was smashing the center of a daisy into a rock and writing with it on the ground. She rearranged the blanket in her seat every which way and at one point was completely wrapped up in it.

We left half-way through the show after a duck flew overhead and decided to lighten its load right onto our blanket and L (she had unwrapped herself by this point). We stopped at the bathroom first to clean her shirt and on the way out spotted a trail. She wanted to go find more flowers to pick and we ended up walking the trails of Bartley Ranch for the rest of the evening. That was more both of our styles. We got back to the car as it started getting dark and the show was still going on. We made it out of the parking lot before it ended and avoided the crowds and traffic which was kind of nice (I forgot to mention that the amphitheater was packed with adults and kids of all ages). Not sure that we’ll attend next year’s Young Shakespeare performance but glad we at least tried it.

Until our next adventure . . .

More Swimming!

August 2, 2011

There is not much to say except that we had another fun evening together. When I picked L up she asked me what we're going to do tonight. I said, "Remember what you wanted to do last week and I said, no, we'll do that next time?" She yelled, "Oh!" and immediately ran away to her room. Her Mom looked at me and said, "Does she remember?" and I said that I thought so, last week she wanted to go swimming.  She came back in record time with her swimsuit on. We had a spaghetti dinner at my house before heading to the pool. L headed straight for the water when we got there and went on the slide 5 of 6 times in a row while I took her picture as she came down.

She brought her mask this time and had an easier time swimming under water, showing me her front somersaults and practicing her back somersaults. By the end of the evening she had mastered the back somersault. After a bit of negotiating -- 30 more minutes in the pool and no Yogurt Beach or 10 more minutes in the pool and Yogurt Beach -- we went to Yogurt Beach on the way to taking her home.

Until our next adventure . . .