Book Worms

Tonight we went out to dinner. The entire time we were at the restaurant, Kate didn’t say two words to us. And it was perfectly ok with me.

She had her nose in a book.

On the way to the grocery store… not a peep. She had her nose in a book.

At the grocery store, she sat inside the cart instead of walking beside me. She had her nose in a book.

It was Junie B. Jones, not a literary masterpiece, and while Junie B.’s grammar drives me bananas, I can’t really describe how good it made me feel to see her unable to tear herself away from the story.

I love, love, love to read. Books have been such a companion for me throughout my life, and even though I hope Kate continues to be less backward and shy than I always was (her outgoing personality still catches me off guard at times), I hope she will develop a passion for reading the way I did.

Just this weekend, I remembered how much I enjoy a good book. I hadn’t read anything for a while… I had been plodding my way through a less-than-compelling book for a couple months, but I finally put it aside and grabbed some fun books as we headed out on our road trip.

While we were gone, I read these books:

They’re by two of my favorite authors, and I loved them both (as I have everything else those two have written).

Now, much like Kate, I have the bug. I am back on the reading wagon, and I’m looking for recommendations. We’ve got a week at the beach coming up and I need a stock pile!

So… whaddya got? What’s on your summer reading list this year? I can’t wait to find out!

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Top Secret Info

On the last day of school, Kate brought this home:

It’s a journal she kept throughout the last semester of school, and it’s pretty much the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It has all kinds of information in it about what she had for dinner and what a great mom I am. (For real, it does. She hasn’t read this blog to find out the truth!). So I read it and got all teary and stowed it away in my nightstand so that someday when she’s an obnoxious teenager, I can remember what a cute kid she was. And hopefully refrain from strangling her. (Come to think of it, I had probably better keep that thing handy for like, tomorrow.)

But apparently Kate’s now some kind of angst-ridden almost-first-grader. Either that or she has a boyfriend. Because when I got home from work today, I found this where the journal had been:

Translation: Mom I took my journal to my room. Do not come and get it.

Unfortunately for her, she left the depository of all of her deepest secrets on the coffee table. But not before she changed the title to something much more grown up.

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Birthday Fun & Why Our Readers Rock

Last week, Kate turned 6. I wanted to get a craft table for her without breaking the bank, so I turned to all of you lovely people for advice.

And, like always, you came through!

Melissa left this comment, which I thought was brilliant:
Great idea for a gift for your daughter! Our kids LOVE arts and crafts as well, so we just did the same thing – in the most frugal way possible! Our table seats 6 kids, but a smaller table can serve the same purpose…
1. Scour Craigslist for a great table in the color that you want. Keep in mind that you can paint or stain it.
2. The table we found happened to be a little tall for our kids (all under 6), so my husband trimmed off a few inches to make it the perfect height.
3. We found great kids chairs on Craigslist as well – again, you can stain/paint to match. If you’re only getting a table for one, you might want to splurge on a cute chair at Ikea etc…
4. My husband is cutting 3 holes in the middle of the table, and I bought cute metal buckets in the Target $1.00 section to put in the holes to hold colored pencils, crayons and pencils.
5. You can get reasonably priced organizers (metal or otherwise) from Ikea or Lowe’s and attach them to the bottom of the table to hold paper, stickers, hole punches etc…These organizers are often found in the closet/kitchen organizing sections.
6. Buy a dowel rod and attach it to the bottom-side of the table for your role of paper
*voila*
There you have a perfect arts and craft area for your little one for a fraction of the price!

So, I had all these visions of finding the perfect old table and painting it multiple colors… I still can’t figure out what kind of tool would be required to cut a hole in a table top, so that part was going to have to be modified (although seriously, how cute would it be if you were handy enough to do that??). Re-purposing something old rather than buying something new – perfect! I looked on Craigslist and had plans to go to the local flea market… but it just didn’t happen.

Instead, I found myself by Big Butter Jesus on I-75 the next day, and thought of the comments Elizabeth and Jen left suggesting Ikea… so I quickly exited, dropped Kate off at the kids’ area, and Sam and I made a mad dash through the store. I only had an hour before I had to pick Kate up… and getting through Ikea in an hour is not an easy feat!

It turns out that they have an area where you can mix and match table legs and table tops in pretty much every conceivable material and style imaginable. The one I picked out was – are you ready for this? – $19.99. The legs were $4 each and the table top was $3.99. CRAZY. So, after getting that taken care of, we dashed through the the rest of the store, picking up organizers from the kitchen area and craft supplies from the kids area. By the time I got to the warehouse part where the boxes of furniture actually lives, I was pushing Sam in a cart with one hand, and a flat-bed cart with the table with the other. I was breaking a sweat! But I was turning over my credit card to the cashier at exactly the same time the buzzer sounded, signaling it was time to go back and get Kate, so it all worked out perfectly.

The table – with some help from my super-handy friend Jana – is awesome.


Kate was thrilled!

We had a great day with her – Andy and I took the day off so we could all spend it together. We went to school with her, and since her birthday is also Earth Day, we brought in dirt pudding as a snack.

She opened presents.

We went out to lunch and to the park.

And then we sent Daddy off to his tennis match and had a little girl time at the local nail salon.

I love that girl!

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