Fall and Family

At the beginning of the month, Aunt Sharon (dad's youngest sister) and her friend, Peg, were in New England exploring, and they stopped by our place on a Saturday afternoon to visit for a while. Christopher (aunt Sharon's first grandchild and my second cousin) and his wife Kara came out too, they live on Staten Island. Christopher is in the Coast Guard.

It was so nice to see everyone!! We sat around and visited for a while, walked across the street for some good pizza, then Peg treated us all to a Dairy Queen dessert :) The time together was waaaaaaaaaayyyy too short, but I have already decided I am going to be better about going to see Chris and Kara on SIsland. Plus, I learned all I need to know about Dave Ramsey in just one afternoon!!!!!!! Thanks Aunt Sharon!

Last weekend, the kids were on my last nerve, so I did what I always do when that happens.....I sent them outside!

They decided they would gather up some of the leaves and make a big pile to jump in. They were so cute, they worked so hard.

I love it when they do stuff like that!!!

Then, this week, we were blessed by a visit with Chris's cousin Danielle and her sweet husband Stewy. They met and got married after we moved up here, so this was the first time we met Stewy; however, I think we all felt like we already knew each other :) He was so great with the kids.

And guess what the first thing was Jaron showed Danielle? Yep, one of his dinosaur books!!!

We took them to Princeton on Thursday....our first stop was yummy ice cream at The Bent Spoon. One of our new favorite places.....it is so awesome!

Then we walked around the campus......isn't this a great picture in front of Nassau Hall?

Thankfully the chapel was open and most of the stained glass was illuminated. As I took this picture, Chris reminded me we already have several like it. I don't care. I like the portrayal of Jesus....the Alpha and Omega.

After the chapel, Jaron wanted to show Danielle and Stewy the mummy in the art museum, so..............

that's where we went, and we asked a guy to take a picture of all of us....turned out really good!!!!!!

Silly Jaron got a ride from Dani! We went back home, ate some Chinese food and just had a great time being together.

We love and appreciate everyone that came to see us this month. We know it takes alot of time and money, and we enjoyed every minute we had with all of you. We pray God's blessings be poured out on your lives, and we look forward to the time when we get to be together again.

Don't Let the Knuffle Bunny Drive the Pigeon Bus

I have rediscovered many things about myself since we moved to New Jersey. The list is too long to record on this meager blog; however, I will tell you one thing I have added back to my life that I really missed.

READING.

I am not talking about reading just anything. I mean reading for pleasure. I used to read ALL the time as a kid. My copy of Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary literally fell apart because I read it so much. I read all of the Ramona books, multiple times. I read Judy Blume, I read and adored the Boxcar Children and the Babysitters Club. And how about The Little House series...one of the best in all creation. As I got older and had to read some of the classics for English class, I fell in love with Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights and Angel Clare in Tess of the d'Urbervilles. There were alot of stupid things that I read too.....anyone remember Beowulf? How about Paradise Lost? Those books did not deter me from reading, though. I just tried to find other things I liked.

Then I graduated from college...........and got married........and got a grown-up job.........and had two babies. All I had time to do was work, feed babies and wipe boogers (yes, Chris's too.). I couldn't even THINK about having time to just do something I enjoyed. I had to sleep when I got the chance!

Wow, I am totally rambling. To make a long story short, we moved here, I very fortunately got to take some time off from working (outside of the home), and I rediscovered literature...the really good, well-written, can't-put-it-down stuff. Harry, Ron and Hermione were there to welcome me back into this world of imagination that I didn't even realized I had missed. I love books....and I most DEFINITELY love children's picture books. My favorites will always be The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. Absolute gems. I am Peter and I am Max.

One of our favorite activities to do together on the weekends, during breaks from school and during the summer is taking a trip to the library. We cannot go without spending at least an hour and coming out with a couple of bags loaded down with books and movies.

My children, thankfully, love to read. They have their favorites, too. One author that we can't get enough of is Mo Willems. He wrote Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Knuffle Bunny, and Knuffle Bunny Too, and won the Caldecott Medal for all three of them. They are funny, and the pictures are timeless. We love Mo and Knuffle Bunny and the pigeon and Piggie and Gerald.

Last night we had the wonderful opportunity to go see Mo Willems at Barnes and Noble. He read his new book, Knuffle Bunny Free and signed books. IT WAS AWESOME. I cannot explain the excitement I felt over getting to meet an award winning author. It was so cool. The kids were super excited too, but not near as excited as me!


I had to work yesterday, so my wonderful, gracious, sweet, darling husband went to Barnes and Noble first thing in the morning to get us a wristband. We had to have it for the book signing. We didn't find out until we got there that evening that all people with a purple wristband not only got in line first for the book signing, they also got to have a seat. Thank you Chris for getting us our purple wristband!!!!!!

Our sweet friend Emma and her mom Robbie met us there.

Mo!!!!!! He read his new Piggie and Gerald book first....it was funny!

Then he delighted us with Knuffle Bunny Free.

I know the kids had a great time, but they probably won't realize until they get older how fortunate they were to meet such an interesting and talented writer.


He was so funny and so nice!!!

Mo took some questions before he did his signing. Jordan was one of the people who got to ask him a question!!! She was so brave and she spoke clearly and loudly....I was so proud of her! I would have been terrified to do something like that as a kid. She asked him, "Where do you get all of your ideas for your stories?" His answer:

I always have ideas. It's like a garden, where everything grows at a different rate. Some ideas are more developed than others, and at just the right time I harvest them.

BRILLIANT.