Harry Potter

Every night, after reading stories together, Bradyn listens to stories on CD.  Over the last few years we've gone from fairy tales to Read Along with books, and Geronimo Stilton to Magic Treehouse.  Thank God for the library.  

Bradyn's current obsession (other than Monster High) is listening to Harry Potter.  Bradyn will listen to the same disc 4 or 5 nights in a row because if she falls asleep during the story, she wants to play it over so she can hear the end.  Unfortunately, some nights she is awake WAY too late because she sneaks out of bed and puts in a second CD.

While listening to her stories, Bradyn finds things to do until she gets tired.... playing with her Lite-Brite, Barbies, Calico Critters, stuffed animals, you name it.  My favourite is when she draws, because when I go in to turn off the lights after she has fallen asleep, the pictures will be lined up on the floor for me to see.  Last Tuesday I went in and found this:

How awesome is that?  I love the detail of the red scar peeking out from under Harry's hair, and the magic sparks coming from the wand.  The best part was seeing the second page where she had obviously started, but decided she needed to practice before creating the final version.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.... I love Bradyn's artwork.


P.S. - I know, I know.... you loved this, but you're thinking "Where are all the Christmas pictures?"  As I'm sure you can imagine, I have been agonizing over which ones to post, and trying to cut the number down.  It was, after all, a 2-Christmas year - here and Onterrible.  As I continue to agonize, I thought I'd post this, and the next one, for you to enjoy in the meantime.  Who knows?  We may enjoy Christmas in July this year.

Snow

Way back on December 15th, we woke up to snow in the yard.  I cannot tell you how excited Bradyn was.  Even though we had to head off to swimming at 10:00, she wanted to go out and play in the snow first.  (Little did we know that we would get a MUCH bigger dump of snow on the 18th)

Here is Bradyn and her new Monster High doll, Draculaura.  Since she couldn't bear to have Draculaura be cold, Brady bundled her doll up in Barbie's coat (which is now vintage since it belonged to my Barbie).  To keep her head warm, we designed a hat by rolling up a dollar store mitten (the matching red Barbie hat was too small to fit over Draculaura's ponytails).

No romp in the snow would be complete without making snow angels.

  

I absolutely LOVE this picture.  The big smile, and the twinkle in her eyes.  This was one very happy little girl.