Time flies when you’re having fun. Evidently we’ve had a lot of it because I don’t know where the first 5 months of the year went.
Here’s what we’ve been up to.
1. Dancing. The last month has been filled with a dance competition, dance rehearsals and one stinking cute recital.
{After her dance competition. Her group received an “excellent” rating.}
{with Miss A before the recital}
{her class before going on stage for their ballet number} Their ballet was to “My Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music.
{in her tap costume}
{deigning to have her photograph made with her proud parents}
2. Gardening. We planted a little garden and have enjoyed watching it grow. (I haven’t enjoyed the chopping quite so much.)
{gotta love photography by a 5 year old}
{Avery had a little habit of pulling the plants back up after they were in the ground and giving them back to me. Most of them survived anyway.}
{Getting a little help on the chopping.} This picture was a couple weeks ago. Everything has grown a lot since then.
3. Graduating. My big girl graduated from preschool and is headed off to kindergarten in the fall.
4. Reading. I have been on a reading kick. If I had been reading a little less you may have gotten more frequent updates on the blog. I read all three Hunger Games books in 6 days.
I am in love. I wish I could forget them and start over again. So if you want to gab all things Hunger Games, feel free to hit up my inbox.
And now I’m reading everything by Jane Austen. I’ve read most of her books before but there were a couple I had not read so I thought, Why not just read them all again. Right now I’m on Emma. I’ve already re-read Pride & Prejudice, Lady Susan and Persuasion. I tried reading Love and Friendship and made it through the first set of letters but I put it aside. I love reading on the kindle app on my ipad.
I took the girls to the library last Friday for the first time. They loved it. We checked out 6 books and have been reading them over and over.
5. Nesting. Well, not us. But we found this adorable little bird nest in the big geranium on the front porch. The girls and I have enjoyed checking it daily to see how many eggs there were and watching for signs of their hatching. I have been careful to tell them not to touch the nest or eggs, lest the mama bird should abandon them.
The first day I noticed the nest, it was empty. The next day it the prettiest little blue and brown egg in there. For the next three days one more egg appeared each day.
And there you have it! We’ve also had a birthday party and a weekend getaway in there but I will save them for separate posts.
I too loved the Hunger Games trilogy, Amanda, and I have a rec for you in you have a hankering to read something similar but even better: the books of Kristen Cashore. They're very well-written feminist YA fantasy – the first one is called GRACELING, the second one (a sort of a prequel) is FIRE, and the most recent (which just came out) is BITTERBLUE, and is a more immediately sequel to GRACELING.
Meanwhile, I too have returned to Jane Austen in recent years, and it is just the most purely pleasurable, page-turning reading on earth. Have you see this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTchxR4suto
Dan and I love the pictures of your beautiful family! Hugs to all….
-Ariel
Oh Ariel! I am so glad to hear from you! It has been too long. I hope that you and Dan are both doing well!
I will certainly put the books you recommended on my list. I just watched the Youtube video. Thanks for sharing as I had not seen it before and it totally cracked me up. I "most ardently" love even a spoof of Mr. Darcy.
🙂 Amanda