We're Off to See the Wizard!`

Hannah has recently become quite enthralled with the book "The Wizard of OZ." While thumbing through the books at our local second hand store I found a modified version of the Wizard that still contains most of the scary details (like the tinman chopping off the wolves heads, the bees attacking them, etc) and is about 20 chapters long. It's not just a story book version of the popular movie. It truly is a vocabulary adapted version of the original. I thought she'd probably not be interested in it since its very long and it's scary and there is only a single pencil drawn illustration per event, but she's sucked so far into the book that I have to laugh. She begs for more and more chapters to be read to her at bedtime, choosing it above getting 4 picture books which is a big deal. The NUMBER of books really matters to her. It doesn't matter that one book might be longer than all four of her picture books or easy readers, she has a hard time letting go of any books. Four is the standard and four she wants. The Wiz has rose above that need though. She truly enjoys listening to the story even though I don't think she fully understands everything that's going on. I'm quite excited about this because I LOVED The Wizard of OZ as a kid. I loved the book, the movie, and all the characters. My grandmother had a set of Franklin Mint plates that depicted scenes from the movie showing each character and I adored them. I would spend lots of time in her dining room gazing up at them hanging on the wall. When she grew older and made the decision to leave her house she began giving away some of her things to her children and grandchildren for their Christmas gifts. She wanted everyone to get the things they loved BEFORE she died, not fight about them later after she had died. Why wait to enjoy them was her thought. To me she gave the full set of the Wizard of OZ plates. I was shocked. Those plates are worth a lot of money to a collector. She had all the original boxes and everything. I thought for sure they would go to one of her children. Still, she knew I would enjoy them because I had always loved them and that I wouldn't be interested in selling them. Since we've moved they've been packed away in their boxes and I'm pretty sure Hannah doesn't even remember them, but I'm looking forward to getting them back out and hanging them up someday so that she can enjoy them as much as I did.

Hannah also has birthday party fever right now. She's attended several of her classmates parties over the last two months and that has her really thinking about her own birthday. She even requested that it be held in a certain venue instead of our house. Her choice made me cringe as it's one of my least favorite places to be, but she does love it and she actually put in the request. It's hard not to take her wishes into account so her party is now booked for the ever fabulous Chuck E Cheese. UGH! That place drives me crazy, but like I said, Hannah adores it. She asks to go there almost weekly and we very rarely go. We've been maybe 5 times in the year we've lived here. Even though her birthday isn't until July 6th she's been making a guest list, carefully considering which of her classmates she'd like to invite (unfortunately with a party somewhere we have to pay we just can't afford to invite the whole class), and discussing with me what exactly they will all do at Chuck E Cheese. I'm not sure I can handle this intensity for another month and a half. Wish me luck.

Sorry, no photos on the post today. My computer is acting up so I'm having to use Kyle's computer and all my pictures on are my computer. If things get straightened out soon I'll go back and add some later.

Edited to add: Here are some photos for you. The first two are from a birthday party Hannah attended at the beginning of the month. That girl really loves her bounce houses! The last picture was when she and Kyle came to visit me while I was doing photos at a horse show. Gotta love that skirt and hoodie!