A True Midwestern Girl

Inspired by footage of Madeline's friend Addie enjoying corn on the cob a little while ago, we decided to give Madeline her first crack at it last night, instead of cutting the corn off the cob for her as we'd done in the past. Other than insisting that she have butter on hers, just like Mommy and Daddy did, it was an unqualified success! Once she figured out what she was supposed to do, she thoroughly enjoyed the process, and finished pretty much the whole ear of corn.
It made her Mommy proud--she's clearly got Midwestern blood running through her veins (even if the actual corn was imported from France...)!

Future Gymnast?

We've recently discovered a very fun new place to play. It's a gymnastics studio that opens two mornings a week for play sessions for toddlers. Madeline likes it very much, and so does her Mommy--it's an hour and a half that she doesn't have to be entertaining her, and she gets lots of good exercise! Well worth the money. Unfortunately, Madeline has SO much fun that it's very hard to get good pictures of her there--she's too busy playing to hold still for a picture, let alone smile for one. You'll just have to take my word for it that she's happy in all of these shots!!

Have Kitchen Sink, Will Travel

We have apparently entered the Pack Rat Phase of toddlerhood.

Here's a photo of Madeline, ready to walk to the store today for some quick errands. It's about a ten-minute walk at my pace, though nearly an hour if I let Madeline walk and "explore" along the way. Still, you'd think we were going for the day...



Needless to say, ALL of the things she wanted to bring (insisting, "I carry!") ended up in the stroller within about five minutes. Oh well. It's a good thing the stroller has a big basket underneath!!

Battle Proms

So, I was waiting to post this in the hopes of getting some better pictures from some of my friends, but I'd better just go ahead and make do with what I've got.

Saturday, July 12th, we went to Battle Proms with a bunch of the other ISEs. It was held at Burghley House, which is a stately house in Stamford, not far from Peterborough. For you Pride and Prejudice fans, it was used as the home of Darcy's aunt in the recent movie...



It sort of felt like a 4th of July celebration (there was even a real American flag there, courtesy of some other Americans who happened to be there--see photo below!), although to my knowledge there wasn't any particular national association to this celebration. We had a picnic supper, and there was music, cavalry demonstrations, a Spitfire plane that did some fancy flying, cannons, and of course, fireworks.



I was, admittedly, a bit hesitant to attempt an outing that started at suppertime and wouldn't end until 11pm or so with Madeline. But it went fine--she was actually really pretty good. It helped that she had friends to play with: especially her good friend Addie, and Addie's mom, my friend Corrina.

I didn't get any pictures of the cavalry or the plane (which Madeline LOVED) or the cannons (which she didn't) or the fireworks (which we sort of convinced her to like), but here's some general shots of the fun: