Beauty and the Beast, et al

Today BB, the children, and I drove the Alabama Shakespeare Festival to see Beauty and the Beast.  It was SO WELL DONE!  I probably watched the Disney movie 100 times when I was younger and this show follows the movie script to a T.  There are a few extra songs that I loved as well.  The actors were perfectly cast- such a treat to see great competence!

  

The grounds around the Shakespeare Festival are gorgeous!

On the way home we stopped by Bass Pro Shops and went to the restaurant inside.

The manager was so sweet that he gave us a private room with a view of the aquarium just for the children!  :)

Otherwise it's been a quiet week.  It's too hot to do too much besides swim and chillax.  :)  I've ordered 90% of our school books so we've enjoyed the daily mail deliveries with all the curriculum in it.  Tucker and Marc wanted to start their new math books right away. 

We finished the Jungle Book- we LOVED it.  I didn't realize that the Jungle Book had many stories including "Rikki Tikki Tavi" in it.  Rudyard Kipling is a treasure.  One of my only memories of 6th grade is having our teacher read us some of his Just So Stories. 

Last night for movie night we watched Song of the Sea.  It's made by the same people who made The Secret of the Kells, which we loved.  These movies are so soothing and beautiful.  (P.S. we watched it for free with Amazon Prime).

The artist is busy as usual. 

Tucker took Charlie's picture.  :) 

The Nativity-

Charlie's birthday party is tomorrow.  We already gave him his big gift- a new bike.  You may recall that he got his brother's old bike with a bow on it for Christmas.  Ha!  The chain broke on that one, and so he finally has his very own bike.  And it's "Capt'n 'Merica", which is his favorite "superhewo". 

I walked out to see the artist coloring all the packing peanuts that came with the science books.  No, as a matter of fact I didn't want all the packing peanuts colored with markers on the nice rug.   

It was for a game he played in Spanish class.  It was imperative that I not throw them away. 

He ran with me to the parent/teacher store yesterday and said, "we have to get this poster board so I can redo my weather chart!"  Done and done.

 

And new dry erase markers mean Charlie can draw scary volcanoes and such to his heart's content. 

P.S. We started going through the National Geographic 125 Years dvds.  They've enjoyed them more than I thought they would.   We watched one on the dyke system in Holland, called "Holland Against the Sea", on the way to the play today.