That which made me smile this weekend...

• Watching the Girl rediscover her love for basketball. She played in her first game of the season yesterday, and she started out slow - timid, not going for the ball, letting the other kids push her out of the way. As the game progressed, however, she started running, defending, and actually shooting once in a while. She made two baskets, some decent passes - and, best of all, had a really good time.
  
• Some time to sit in my craft area and actually finish a page. I haven't cropped in weeks, and I'm feeling the withdrawal. It was a much needed creative reprieve.

• I took the kids to see the new Harry Potter movie today. Admittedly, I'm feeling rather lukewarm about the movie. I think the Twilight series has destroyed the supernatural adolescent genre - I understand teenagers are balls of highstrung hormones, ok, especially teenagers who are being chased down by Deatheaters who are intent on destroying the world as they know it, but honestly, they spent way too much time staring at each other in tents and focusing on their feelings, and way too little time moving the story along. I swear they did not stare at each other this much in the books. And not every single moment had to be fraught with sexual tension. This may sound rather adolescent of me, but I really wanted to "avada kadavra" all their asses. Except Snape's, who was in this movie way too little. I do love me some Alan Rickman. Nobody, and I mean nobody, swishes a black cloak like Alan Rickman. Speaking of which, does this make you giggle or what?

• My Mother has introduced the Girl to her favorite movies - musicals. They have watched and loved Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, Music Man, Holiday Inn, etc. Tonight's chosen showering song? "Sisters", from White Christmas. It is truly delightful to hear my 8 year-old belt out such lyrics as "Lord help the sister, who comes between me and my maaaaaaan!