Tomorrow's Poetry-- Just Let it Go!

The ward talent show at church was this past weekend. Allyson had a hard time deciding which of her many budding talents to put on display. Should she dance, sing, play the piano, read a book, tell jokes, recite poetry, hula hoop . . . . The possibilities were endless.

Cora also wanted to participate, but I was afraid she'd be too bashful and clam up once she got on stage. Ally decided she'd share the spotlight with Cora to give her a little more courage and help her if necessary. They had some artistic differences to overcome before finally settling on their act-- two days before the show.

So, without further ado, I present Annie and the Twirling Orphan. (Special thanks goes out to grandma for providing the trademark red hair.)

April is National Poetry month, and Ally really embraced the concept of reading and writing poems. A few weeks ago, the librarian at school asked her to make a morning announcement about "Poem in Your Pocket Day" and to read a poem over the PA system. (Keep in mind that the school has about 900 students.) Ally joyfully accepted that task, AND she chose to read an original poem. I went down to her classroom that morning to listen to her voice come over the loudspeakers, and was left grinning ear-to-ear with pride and amazement at the cuteness and confidence in her voice. When I got back up to the front office to congratulate Ally, I had to wait for her to finish signing autographs and getting her picture taken. She had blown the assistant principal and other staff away with her "performance".

With that experience fresh in her mind, Ally also opted to provide a poetry act for the talent show. Here she is presenting four short poems:

And one more video to finish this post out--
When Ally was trying to choose her act, the only constraint I made (and this was a big one) was the they couldn't do any performance involving Frozen. I figured there would be multiple Elsa, Anna, Olfa, and Sven-loving Reindeer songs; they needed to do something different, and I think they did their "something different" very well. If I had allowed Ally to go with her original idea however, it probably would've played out something like this:

Snow Daze

On Tuesday evening we got a phone call from Guilford County, announcing that all schools would be closed on Wednesday. (We have had a closing, a delay, or an early release at least once a week since before Christmas vacation.) I was happy they called at 8:30pm, instead of the usual 11:15pm or 5:00am. I hoped to be able to sleep in, but Cora wasn't going to let that happen. She woke up at 7:10am and declared, "Yay! I slept in!" Ally was awake and running shortly thereafter.

We looked out the window to find overcast skies but no snow. I checked the weather forecast, and the snow wasn't scheduled to hit us until 2pm. What do you do when you have a snow day with no snow? We took advantage of the free day by making waffles for breakfast and then heading out to the Greensboro Sciquarium.

No penguins for us :(

The waffles were great, but the Science Center was a bust. In preparation for the big snow, they never opened that morning. (Next time I'll be old school and call instead of just checking their website for any notices.) Not wanting to go home, we decided to do some window shopping far away from the last minute "I have to buy milk, bread, and eggs before the big storm" crazy crowd. We drove to Tuesday Morning and wandered around the almost vacant store before going next door to Great Clips.

This was Cora's first haircut, unless you count the one she got back in October when she and Ally used the paper scissors on their hair while playing unsupervised in our living room. (They didn't do too bad of a job; I didn't know about it until weeks later when my mom was visiting and asked about Cora's short/non-existent bangs. I need to be more observant!) I love how she had her ankles crossed the entire time and was sporting her ruby reds!

Ally also wanted a little trim, which was fine by me. Her last haircut was over a year ago. The lady ended up cutting off at least 2 inches of fuzzy split ends. Ally's hair is so long that the stylist sat in the chair while Ally stood in front of her. Ally was worried that her hair would end up being "too short", but it still hits just above her waist.

Not wanting to go home just yet, we next wandered across the street to CVS. While we were there, the snow finally started to fall. And it accumulated rather quickly. Within the hour, we had over an inch. Thankfully, Chris was released from work early, and we all went outside to play.

Within 2 hours, we had two to three inches of white fluffy stuff on the ground. The girls made snow angels and Daddy made a mini-snowman on the hood of my car. Then the family at the end of our cul-de-sac invited us to go sledding down their front yard. Amazing, Ally was all for it but Cora (our usual daredevil) would only sled down with me. We finished the day's adventures with a big bowl of fresh snow cream.

Crawling home through the snow.

While we were sleeping, the storm changed over to sleet and freezing rain, which melted/compressed our 7 inches of snow down to just a few inches. Chris' office was closed on Thursday, so he went out and played with the girls again before we got an additional 2 inches of fluff. Here's their snowman. Those strawberry eyes come with some awesome natural eyelashes!

Cora tried to make more snow angels, but she didn't weigh enough to make an imprint. (She is so light / the ice was so thick that she didn't even leave footprints as she walked.) Chris, however, did not have that same problem:

Friday (Day #3) was another cancelled school day. That's what happens when there aren't enough snowplows and salt trucks to go around. Chris was on a 2 hour delay for work, so we watched his car's tires spin out while he tried pulling out of the driveway. He was eventually successful and slowly made his way down our snowy street and out of sight.

The girls and I continued to be snowed in today. We spent our time reading, cleaning, dancing, cooking, watching the snowman melt (her head fell off!), and decorating Daddy's big card with stickers, markers, and glitter glue. We still have snow on the ground. It's been fun, but hopefully the remain white stuff will melt away tomorrow morning so we can resume our normal activities.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Recent Pictures

Hello, blogging world! My mom has been begging me for updates-- specifically pictures of her granddaughters. Her birthday is just around the corner, so I figure I'd better give her something. . .

Greensboro Christmas Parade

Jess' CNM graduation at Vandy

Manny's Deli at Myrtle Beach

Columbia, SC capitol tour

President Andrew Jackson's birthplace

Runaway Elephant at the Riverbanks Zoo

If we get snowed in this week, then maybe I'll find the time to upload more pictures with some commentary about our last 5 to 36 months of adventures. (But-- you know my track record-- don't hold your breath.)