KOTLC Quiz

Madeleine and Julia are both SUPER into the "Keeper of the Lost Cities" series by Shannon Messenger.  Julia has read all the current books and eagerly awaits the release of the newest book next fall.  Madeleine is on book 3 and, as she is wont to do with anything she's obsessed about, she is coming up with creative home projects related to the book series.  Today she created a quiz for the whole Rowe Household to take,  "What's Your Keeper of the Lost Cities (colloquially referenced as KOTLC) Special Ability?"

Here are my answers to the quiz:

And here are my results:

I mean, I'm pretty happy with my results, but Julia was a whole other story.  She found her results UNACCEPTABLE.  To the point that she refused to read her little blurb after she saw in capital letters what her Special Ability was.  She just DID NOT AGREE with the assessment of being a PyroKinetic.  And when she finally got over that and started to read her blurb, she took MAJOR EXCEPTION to it.

JULIA: Madeleine!  I do NOT like getting cozy and warm in summer.

I regularly reminded Julia that this is not an end-all, be-all quiz to determine her true life's course, and is, in fact, a quiz made up off the cuff by her fourth grade sister, but she still just couldn't handle it.  I guess I gotta tread carefully with Julia's anger, though, because next thing I know she might be setting me on fire with her mind.  Luckily, I'm am Empath, so I can sense when she starts to feel a little heated.

Blast Open the Door

Madeleine has not forgotten the song she "notified" a few days ago.  Here's a much more competent version of her singing/playing:





And she has even added to it:






Madeleine has intentions for this to become a total family band project.

MADELEINE: So, Mommy, should Julia's flute part be, like, the HARMONY?

I can only imagine how agreeable Julia is going to be about partaking in this project.


In case you can't hear the words clearly enough, here are the lyrics written out:

I believe I can sing, I can. 
I believe I can sing, I can.
I know I can sing all right tonight.
Can sing all right tonight.

(Piano interlude)

I can sing.  I can fly!
Like the rainbows touch the sky!
How you wonder what it'd be like
If I just blast open the door to my potential.
The potential hidden deep inside,
I need it, I need it, I need, I NEED I-IT TO COME OUT!!!
I gotta blast open the door.

I know I can sing and I can.
So why do you say I can't?  I can.
You say I can't, I can.

(Piano Interlude)

I can fly through the sky-y-y!
Higher than the stars in the sky-y!
How you wonder what it'd be like
If I'd just blast open the door to my potential!
The potential hidden deep inside!
I need it, I need it, I need it, I NEED I-IT TO COME OUT!!!
I gotta blast open the door.


Love the confidence!  She needs it, she needs it, she needs it, she NEEDS I-IT...I guess if Madeleine keeps persevering she can say she "GOT I-I-IT."

Age Group Championships

Sooooo...we got up at 5:30 this morning to drive up to New Hampshire so that this kid could compete in the 10 and Under Age Group Championships:

We were so lucky to have the head coach of our YMCA team ride up with us to be on deck with Madeleine.  This was a USA meet, not related to the Y, but our coach didn't want to leave Madeleine to navigate the ins and outs of the meet on her own as an "Unattached" swimmer without a coach.  Thank goodness he came, because I am pretty sure Madeleine would have been way in above her head trying to figure out what to swim when.  In fact, she pretty much stayed stationary in one spot on the pool deck unless her coach was lining her up to swim, despite the fact that a good friend from school was at the meet with her USA team.

ME: (after the meet) Madeleine, did you go over and try to hang out with Reagan at all?
MADELEINE: (eyes wide with terror, shaking her head)
ME: Why not?
MADELEINE: That would be TERRIFYING.
ME: Why?
MADELEINE: Trying to find your way around that crowded place?!?  How would you even know where you WERE?

I mean, it was a pool deck.  I don't think you'd get lost or forget which corner of the pool you started out at.  But I can clearly see that doing this solo with no adult to help her would have been too overwhelming.

Madeleine brought everything to the table and finished in the top half of every event, earning personal best times in everything she swam!  Considering this kid had been bed-ridden, staring listlessly at a spot on her wall all day on Monday, it was amazing to see her swim her absolute best. 

Now, while she has both brawn and brains, sometimes the brains exit the building.  After I helped Madeleine get showered and changed in the locker room, we went up to the lobby to meet Ethan and Julia.

ME: Has anyone seen Coach Bob?
ETHAN AND JULIA: Nope.
MADELEINE: (eyes widening) Oh!  Wait!  I know where he is!  I'm supposed to meet him outside the locker room after I change!

Good thing she remembered or he would have been there all day.

It was a great end to a very frustrating school break, what with being cooped up with the sick kids for most of the week.  Hopefully this is the last of the winter germs we face as we head towards spring!

Creativity Abounds

Today, Madeleine wrote a brand new song.  Not only did she write the melody and lyrics herself, she actually used staff paper to write out the notes.

MADELEINE: I'm a REAL musician!
ME: Yup.  You are.
MADELEINE: I notified music!
ME: You notated music.  That's the term for it.

Here's her notified music:

And here is a totally polished, absolutely masterful performance of this song:






In other news, Madeleine is also working on a new story and has been busy illustrating the main character:

She is SO proud of all she has accomplished today.

MADELEINE: I'm just CREATING today!  What should I do next?  Dance? (beginning to dance around, then sagging into a chair) Uh, I don't really feel like dancing.


She decided to continue working on her Siloreah book instead.  Creativity abounds!

Madeleine's New Class

Madeleine became the teacher of a new class today:

Mrs. Polly Ticks Class 2020

As you can see, Madeleine has such high-profile students as Elizabeth "Lizzie W" Warren, Donald "Don T" Trump, and Hillary "Hillie C" Clinton.  I guess Madeleine, aka Mrs. Polly Ticks, realized her class was a bit imbalanced, however, once it was time for a group activity.

MADELEINE: Uh, Mommy?  Was Bernie Sanders, like...did he ever used to be a Republican?

ME: I don't think so.  You can look it up.

MADELEINE: Well...I think I need MORE Republicans.  Because I'm having them do a DEBATE, but...there's only 2 Republicans.  So can you tell me some other ones?

I managed to help her fill her class roster a bit more, and now she's got Susie C., Lee M., and Marc R. to take part on the Republican side of the debate:

I hope Mrs. Ticks was able to keep her classroom atmosphere more civil than that of the Senate and House lately.  Maybe the actual real members of Congress can learn a thing or two from Tully G, Petey B, Teddy C, Bern S, and the rest of Mrs. Polly Ticks' class.

The Coughing House

The kids have been SO SICK.  Like, I'm pretty sure they've had the flu.  It didn't feel worth the hefty co-pay cost to bring them in for an official test, but they have been down and out with fevers, cough, chills, the works.

Julia came down sick in the middle of the school week and wound up missing the last three days of school before school vacation.  Madeleine came down sick right after the last day of school and wound up missing both swim meets this weekend.  Ethan and I have been cooped up in the house with sick kids with the soundtrack of hacking coughs filling the air.

Julia was up and about before Madeleine, but yesterday seemed to be the first day they were both back on solid feet.

ETHAN: (checking on Madeleine after he got out of bed) Madeleine, how are you doing?
MADELEINE: (delivering two excited thumbs up)
ETHAN: Oh, good
MADELEINE: I'm so HAPPY!!!


As you can see, they've reached the end of their rope being cooped up for so long.  We've hit the borderline manic break point:




Yeah, it's time to get these kiddos out of the house.

Thankfulness

Madeleine recently brought home her Thanksgiving project from school, on which she listed various things for which she is thankful:

Julia was put out by the fact that neither she nor Ethan made the cut.  Somehow, I managed to make it into the elite group of things Madeleine is thankful for.  I have to say, I feel *pretty* special being included among such special things as learning about paragraphs, salted caramel gelato, and Madeleine's sweatshirt.  It's a miracle I even made it onto the list at all with those things in contention!

Singapore

Julia was talking about an old elementary school friend of hers who moved a few years back, and Madeleine chimed in partway through the conversation.

MADELEINE: Yeah!  What HAPPENED to her?  She just completely disappeared!
ME: She moved to Indonesia.
JULIA: No, she moved to Singapore.
MADELEINE: Is Singapore a country?
JULIA: Yes.  It's in Asia.
ME: And its capital is Singapore.
ETHAN: It's a city-state.
ME: It's an island.

Madeleine decided to show how much she knows about Singapore, too.

MADELEINE: I used to think Singapore was in Pennsylvania.
US: (silence)
MADELEINE: Because Pennsylvania is where Manhattan is, right?

Okay, one of us doesn't really know much about Singapore, nor about Pennsylvania, I guess.

Going Green

Madeleine's got some new guidelines for the Rowe household:

Why?  "Because we're Rowes, and ROWES GO GREEN!"


I have a few questions about the endangered animals:

1.) Is Madeleine going to become a VSCO girl with her campaign to save sea turtles?
2.) Why is the "s" crossed out on "Tigers" when all the other animals are listed in plural?  Is there only one endangered tiger and the rest are in normal supply?
3.) Is "Soalas" supposed to be "Saolas," or is there some sort of snake/koala hybrid I haven't heard of?


Questions aside, I'm all in, because I'm a Rowe, and ROWES GO GREEN!