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!
Growing up I lived on a very idyllic cul-de-sac with a very idyllic name, “Silverbell Court”. There were about ten houses on our little street, everyone had young kids, and no cars ever really cruised down it, so we could just run all over the place and safely play. And all summer long, that’s what we did. We went barefoot until the pavement burned our feet and then we either went in for shoes or switched to playing in the grass. We cut through each other’s back yards and we climbed trees in the one place in the ‘hood with trees tall enough to climb – a hill that backed up to several of the backyards (not mine, but my BFF Erin’s) on our court. On this hill, and in one other yard on our street, there were wonderful, productive mulberry trees. So, burned into my memory of a childhood summer is the sweet taste of fresh mulberries.
We’d hunt for the berries that were ripest, taste-testing to decide which color was best, daring each other to eat the ones we knew weren’t quite ready. The juice stained our fingers and our teeth and our tongues and we savored every bite. The mulberries were not quite public domain, but we thought they were. So you may say those sweet berry-filled moments were semi-stolen.
These days, if I want any sweet berry-filled moments to myself, they have to be completely stolen. Like “hiding-from-my-kids” stolen. Which is why you might sometimes catch me in the corner of the kitchen with the gate closed, leaning up against the window, or heck even hiding in the bathroom if I’m really desperate, having a little snack in the afternoon. Like a chocolately-fruity kind of snack.
What do you do when you need a sweet, quiet moment alone? The folks at Pepperidge Farm, maker of my favorite cookie, the Milano, want to know! They’re celebrating the release of their brand-new Strawberry Milano cookie (which is so FANTASTICALLY amazing, by the way) with a super-fun sweepstakes – all you have to do is tell them what you do for a “Milano Moment” and you could win a BUSHEL of the new Strawberry Milano cookies!
Emily and I are “Milano Mavens” helping to spread the word about this new faboo Strawberry Milano cookie (why yes, we DO blog for cookies! See our pretty faces in that pretty Milano widget on our sidebar??) and we couldn’t be prouder to be a part of it. So head on over to The Pepperidge Farm Milano Facebook page where you can “like” Milanos, enter the sweepstakes to win a bushel of Strawberry Milano goodness, and download a 55-cent off Milano coupon! (You all KNOW how I feel about coupons!)
And while you’re at it, tell me my dears, what lengths do YOU go to in order to get a “Milano moment” alone?
We travel to St. Louis at least twice a year to visit Andy’s grandpa – once right after Christmas and then again on the fourth of July, which is his birthday. I think Kate has been there 15 or 16 times in her six years of life! So during all these trips, we’ve had a lot of opportunities to see what the city has to offer.
It is a fantastic place for families. Admission is free (yes, free) at the St. Louis Zoo, the Science Center, Grant’s Farm and the Budweiser Brewery tour (which is oddly very interesting, even for a non-beer drinker like me). Other must-sees on our list include the Magic House, the Butterfly House, and the Gateway Arch (which I enjoy viewing with two feet planted firmly on the ground. No way am I going up in that thing!).
Of course, we always catch a Cards game.
This past weekend, we went to the City Museum. It’s been on our “to-do” list for a long time, but Andy went there with a friend a few months ago, and loved it so much that he couldn’t wait to take us all there.
It was amazing.
Here’s an excerpt from their website: Housed in the 600,000 square-foot former International Shoe Company, the museum is an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects. The brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Bob Cassilly, a classically trained sculptor and serial entrepreneur, the museum opened for visitors in 1997 to the riotous approval of young and old alike.
Cassilly and his longtime crew of 20 artisans have constructed the museum from the very stuff of the city; and, as a result, it has urban roots deeper than any other institutions’. Reaching no farther than municipal borders for its reclaimed building materials, CITY MUSEUM boasts features such as old chimneys, salvaged bridges, construction cranes, miles of tile, and even two abandoned planes!
“CITY MUSEUM makes you want to know,” says Cassilly. “The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, ‘Wow, that’s wonderful.’ And if it’s wonderful, it’s worth preserving.”
It is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life. There is so much to see and do – it’s a seemingly endless maze of caves, tunnels and slides. I can’t do it justice trying to describe it, so here are some pictures!
Sammy had a ball in Toddler Town
The Monster Slide was awesome – it’s about three stories tall. Here’s Kate coming down for the 10th time!
We could hardly get Sammy out of the ball pit!
There’s an outside area that has millions of catwalks and slides and all kinds of craziness…
Photo by MHowry on Flickr
Here’s Kate inside an airplane from the last picture.
See this? I crawled through it! Me! I am soooo afraid of heights… but apparently my daughter isn’t. She started through it and I had no choice but to follow!
Photo by Landschaft on Flickr
It was so. much. fun. I want to go back today. I’m certain it will be a stop on every trip we take to STL from this point forward. It was just amazing.
But here’s the real reason we went to St. Louis – for Kate to hang out with her great-grandpa on his 101st birthday.
I’m linking this to Fun Mom Friday at Please Pass the Salt. Check it out to see what fun things everyone did with their kids this week!
