An interesting performance

Today, I took Justin to his first theatre production - other than a couple of puppet shows. (One spectacular! The other, not so great.) He was ENTRANCED. The play "Brilliant" is about dark vs. light: you go to bed and everything's dark but your imagination runs wild and everything around you becomes light. It was so brilliantly done that, at one point, Justin was reaching for the rays of light surrounding us. He thoroughly enjoyed it and I loved having some one-on-one time with my son.

On the way home we talked about his upcoming birthday and had the following interesting conversation:

M: "So what are we going to do when you turn four?"

J: "Maybe I can sew with you."

M: "Sew, huh? You mean like on my sewing machine?"

J: "Yes."

M: "What would we make?"

J: "Maybe another blanket for me. I want a yellow blanket."

M: "Okay. And maybe we can make you another towel, with a hood."

J: "And straps."

M: "Straps?"

J: "Yea, so you can strap me in to get dry and unstrap me when I need to get out."

M: "Oh, you mean something more like a robe?"

J: "No, I mean a very interesting towel. That's what I want."

The wheels in my head are spinning . . . Any suggestions?

The Globe

Alex and I saw Timon of Athens at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre last night. I can't say that it was my favorite play, but the venue was incredible! The wooden replica has three galleries, a concrete floor, is open to the sky and sits, romantically, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original playhouse was built 400+ years ago, but you can be sure we had some true-to-life "special effects" with only the occasional breeze to provide a breath of fresh air! I will truly miss all the historic treasures right at our fingertips!!

London Transport Museum

Tuesday, I took the kids to "the train museum." All I can say is, why didn't we we discover this earlier?! Justin was thrilled and kept running from exhibit to exhibit shouting, "Whoa, look at that!" They had everything from "sedan chairs" to horse-drawn carriages, buses and trams of all sorts and sizes, steam trains and electrical trains - Justin was in heaven! These are some of our favorites:

The play area was just as exciting. There were several wooden vehicles with steering wheels and tv screens with actual driving footage. Justin climbed in one of the buses an sat there for a few minutes before I asked him if he was going to drive. He said he was picking up his passengers. I checked out the tv screen and, sure enough, he was pulled up to the curb. Once the bus started to pull into traffic, he flew into action!

Afterward, we walked around and watched a few street performers.

All is Well

The toilet and the washing machine are fixed!! It's so nice to be back to normal . . .

Ducks

I spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday (I'm not sure if it was my new-to-the-ward talk or my farewell talk . . . ). The topic was eternal families and it reminded me of how blessed I am to have my husband and children sealed to me forever. I now have two favorite quotes about parenting: "A mother's heart is a child's schoolroom" by Harold B. Lee and "Sometimes having a two year old is like being pecked to death by a duck!" (Values Parenting)

Boy, do I love my ducks!