30 days of books - color! (and other books you maybe didn't know existed)

i've been slacking off on the book recommendations of late. which is horrid, as i have SO MANY to share! ah well, we may have to sneak a few into april, or make this a weekly thing... or something.
at any rate, todays books are awesome. and a little obscure. woo hoo! i love finding awesome books i never knew existed. (as well as awesome music, art, movies... food... it's all good.)


for the little ones, today's pick is My Many Colored Days, by (you'll never believe this...) Dr. Seuss!! 

maybe i've just been under a rock for the last 30 years, but i had never heard of this particular volume of Seuss fiction before. but it's a good read. like so many of his books, it looks at serious childhood (and - who are we kidding - adult) issues though the lens of playful understanding. (and now i'm wondering how many other amazing seuss-books there are out there that i haven't yet read...) 


plus, it's a spectacular springboard to a study in color for young children! having just turned two, naomi is at the perfect age to start learning to distinguish and name her colors, and even annika, at age four, still sometimes confuses green and yellow. 


so we created the RAINBOW JAR PROJECT!!
i tend to save things that i think i can reuse (either practically, or for art-project goings-on) and noticed recently that i have almost an entire drawer full of empty glass jars. (pickle, spaghetti sauce, olives... you get the point) 
and so, in an attempt to both work with the girls on their colors, and clean out my over-full drawer, we made these. 

for the labels, i just grabbed some notebook paper and colored in a square for each color of the rainbow. (you could make these labels a lot cuter, or more fancy, but we were trying to get these made quick, so we could get to the fun! and they ended up looking like squares on the candyland board, as annika observed. which was fun for her.) 


so the game works like this:
(of course, feel free to change the rules to suit your house / time schedule / personality etc. this is what works for us... at least, it did today.)
we read the book together (really, any color-themed book would do) and then i showed the girls the jars. we said the color names together as we pointed to each jar. then i explained the rules. throughout the day, and entirely without warning, i - the color fairy - will blow my whistle three times. when i do, the girls have to choose a color and run around the room in search of some small object of that color that can fit inside the jar. (note, they do NOT take the jar with them. two-year olds running around with glass jars is not the goal here.) 


it worked so much better than i had hoped. they LOVED the game, and kept asking me when the color fairy was going to blow the whistle. (note, the mischievous color fairy enjoys blowing it at inopportune moments. such as: during dinner, while the girls are in the bath, when they're outside playing... etc. the expression on their faces when they hear it blowing is AWESOME. i wish i had my camera handy when we were doing this, but alas, it was not to be found. ((we did find it later, fortunately, in a coat pocket. ugh.)) ) 


anyway, after a day of color-fair whistle-blowing (bell ringing would also work well, i think, and be slightly less stridently loud...) this is what we have collected:

not bad, girls. and thanks for the fun day!




*****


for the middle-sized kids, today's pick is Mr. Pudgins by Ruth Christoffer-Carlsen 

i loved this book, growing up. Mr. Pudgins is the unlikely babysitter for a family of interesting kids. He makes all sorts of wonderful things happen. flying bathtubs, faucets that run soda, a visiting DoDo bird... it's whimsical and delightful, and broken into stand-alone chapters that can be easily read in one sitting. 

*****


and for the grown-ups, a fantastic read  you might not have heard of, today's pick is The History of Love by Nicole Krauss.

this book manages to be both honestly funny, and sweepingly romantic. 

read what the critics wrote:

The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. Leo Gursky is a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping SS officers in his native Poland, only to spend the last stage of his life terrified that no one will notice when he dies. ("I try to make a point of being seen. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll buy a juice even though I'm not thirsty.") Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer vacillates between wanting to memorialize her dead father and finding a way to lift her mother's veil of depression. At the same time, she's trying to save her brother Bird, who is convinced he may be the Messiah, from becoming a 10-year-old social pariah. As the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along with the potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed.
The poetry of her prose, along with an uncanny ability to embody two completely original characters, is what makes Krauss an expert at her craft. But in the end, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes this novel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold. --Gisele Toueg --





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30 days of books - Treasure Hunt Party

my baby girl turned two last week. 
it's a common thing that it doesn't seem possible. but common or not... it doesn't seem possible. 


isn't that the way of things. 


so before we go into the book. and the party. and all the fun.. here's a thing or two about the kid. she's pretty terrific. 

she loves to color and read books (especially my books. the big ones with no pictures) and sing the abc's. whenever she sees me writing something she points to it and says 'ay, ee, ay, ah, oh.' 

she can do 'head, shoulders, knees, and toes' as well as 'ring around the rosie' like a pro. plus, she has the longest, prettiest eyelashes EVER.

she plays music on her toy piano with intense consentration, then looks at me and asks , 'like it?' she's great at taking turns, and she cracks herself up playing peek-a-boo.

she's great at helping me clean up, dancing with her brothers, riding her rocking horse; and she loves, loves, LOVES tangerines.

ok. 'nuff mom-gushing. 

so we had a little (emphasis on little - just two friends) party, and used the Klutz, Treasure Hunt Book  as inspiration. 

the book is awesome. it has pages of punch-out cards, for different treasure-hunt variations. there are SO MANY different ones to do!! 

some are geared for younger kids, (like the ones we used at the party) and use pictures or colors (the color-themed hunt is a great way to teach colors. kind of like eye-spy), and others are more complex. some use clues, others have different types of code, and my kids (all of them!) love playing detective and and finding all the clues. normally, the prize is a snack, but as this was a birthday treasure hunt, the prize was the presents for Naomi and the goodies for the guests. 

here are some of the photos i managed to take as they were all jumping and running around the house looking for clues. 

this one was on the clock.

figuring out where to go next.

find the hairbrush! find the hairbrush!

consulting with her peers.

Naomi's best buddy. this was his first treasure hunt. he handled it expertly. 

we did it! we found the TREASURE!!!! 

the prizes were opened, and another round of hunting began. this time the treasure was ...

CAKE!!

there were balloons, 

and car races

and general silliness

and then it was nap time and everyone went home.

so Naomi thought it would be a great opportunity to 

crawl up on the table...

... eat a pickle...

... and sack out. 

all in all, a simple, fun, manageable day for everyone. 

it may have something to do with having to cover 7 birthdays every year, but low-key parties always seem the most fun to me. fewer kids, neat decorations, an engaging activity or craft... and cake, of course. 

what do you think? does a birthday party need to be a huge blow-out to count?

30 days of books - let's go on a journey

i've been taking some long walks and a few medium-length runs recently (yay!) and had cause to think how much i love books about long trips. books where the journey is in the journey. there are so many, really. i've had a hard time limiting it to only three. (just a warning, an extra one might slip in... i honestly don't think i can help it.)

for the little ones - and what little kid is not enamored of the idea of setting off on a long journey to a far-off magical place - is Where the Wild Things Are, by the incomparable Maurice Sendak. 

i know this book isn't anything new, and we've all read it a billion times, and they just made a movie of it and yadda yadda yadda... but let's face it, this is a terrific story. 

Sendak had such a genius for storytelling, and for the flow and cadence of words. 

when you read (ok, well, when I read anyway) the page that goes, 

"and he sailed off through night and day, and in and out of weeks and almost over a year"

it's like poetry. 

and when the narrator tells how the wild things

"roared their terrible roars, and gnashed their terrible teeth, and rolled their terrible eyes, and showed their terrible claws"

the repetition is mesmerizing and intense. 

and of course, who can help but whoop along with Max when he cries, 

"let the wild rumpus start!"

and all this is to say nothing of the illustrations. talk about capturing your child's imagination. Sendak's wild things are iconic and vibrant. 

and there is something so warm in the ending, when Max sails back home and there, in his room is his supper, still warm. it carries a perfect sort of understated grace. 

because i love this book so much, and especially because i love reading it aloud so much, i thought this would be the perfect time to try out a new activity i had in mind. 

it's nothing new or splendidly original, but perhaps something we as parents (or aunts and uncles, or teachers or grandparents... ) ought to actually sit down and do. 

a friend of mine's mother in law sends tapes every month to my friend's children which are recordings of her reading them stories. they love the tapes and listen to them over and over. she lives half a continent away and isn't able to see them often, and i've always thought it was a particularly beautiful way for her to be part of their lives. i've been wanting to do this for a long time. not because i live far away from my kids, or because i don't read to them all the time anyway, but because in this way, we could keep something. something special. 

and so today's activity is a recording of me reading Where the Wild Things Are for my kids. 

(note: i hate being on camera... which is why i haven't done this already... but stupid vanity aside, i'm giving it a go. be kind.)

depending on your computer's settings, you might need to turn up your sound. everyone else was still sleeping and we were trying to be quiet. 

*****

For middle sized kids (along with the Sendak.. because that one's for everybody), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which can now be purchased with or without the N-word, depending on your personal preference and what you think your child can handle) by the king of deadpan humor, Mark Twain. 

join Huck on his unforgettable journey as he flees from Pap, fakes his own death, helps Jim escape, and navigates the dangers, both watery and human in nature, of the mighty, muddy Mississippi River. 

*****

and for the grown-ups, a book that will always hold a special place in my heart, Cormac McCarthy's, The Road.

i can't say enough about this author. i haven't quite read EVERYTHING he's written, but everything i have read, has been glorious. this story in particular of a father and his young son travelling south in a danger-riddled post-apocolyptic world, is moving and powerful, both in scope, in character, and in the absolutely haunting beauty of his sparse but elegant prose. 

if you've never read anything by McCarthy. this is your book. 

...

alright. and because i have another favorite road-themed book... this one is a bonus. i won't even talk about it too much. 

Jack Kerouac's book that defined a generation, On the Road.

where mccarthy is sparse, kerouac is effusive. where cormac says it three words, jack uses thirty-seven. his prose is lyrical and relentless and it will eat at your mind and get into your blood until the only sentences you'll find to use will be run-ons, and you'll be seeing everything through the eyes of a genius, mid-century rail-hopping, jazz-digging, beat. 

seriously. if you've never read this... today's the day. 

{image}

go out today. breathe the air, find a road, take a step. and then another. 

make today all about the journey. 

- shawnacy

30 days of books - poetry day!

Three quick book recommendations today, all from the too-often overlooked genre of poetry. 


i am especially fond of poetry, and ESPECIALLY especially fond of sharing poems with kids. they really respond to the rhythms and repetitions and rhymes that poetry offers. 


so we'll start off with some nursery rhymes for the little ones. the repetition of rhymes and songs to little ears is crucial to language and literacy development. we love to experiment with the stories of other cultures (more on that soon), but always seem to come back to our Mother Goose. The edition we have is My Very First Mother Goose, with captivating illustrations by Rosemary Wells.

This book contains all of the usual Mother Goose staples, and a few of the lesser-known rhymes as well. 

take some time out with your little one to savor the sounds of the words, sing the songs, memorize the stories, or engage in some fun finger play. (click HERE for some links to great finger play rhymes and songs) kids love to get their whole bodies into the action!

*****

Middle sized kids love a funny poem. something with silly words or a twist ending. we've been reading A Pizza the Size of the Sun by Jack Pretlusky. 

(click HERE to enter his awesome animated site! see his other books, and check out great classroom and home activities) 

and if you're in a silly poetry mood, you can never go wrong with Shel Silverstein. Falling Up, A Light in the Attic, or any of the Tons of Other Amazing Books  he's written. (click on these links, to hear Shel himself reading some of his poems!)

The illustrations are fun and engaging, and ... just to whet your appetite, here's a quick sample of what you'll see inside

after all that reading, sit down and write a poem of your own! don't forget the illustrations!

*****

and because we grown-ups have poetry in our souls as well, today's recommendation is Thirst, by the always brilliant (and Pulitzer Prize winning!) Mary Oliver. i was recently given this book by a dear friend of mine, and was speechless and moved at the beauty of the images and sense of peaceful wonder (even in the face of wrenching grief, and sorrow) created in her  work.

 and just in case, you still think poetry's not for you... 

from page 22:

A Pretty Song

From the complications of loving you

I think there is no end or return.

No answer, no coming out of it.

Which is the only way to love, isn't it?

This isn't a playground, this is

earth, our heaven, for a while. 

Therefore I have given precedence

to all of my sudden, sullen, dark moods

that hold you in the center of my world.

And I say to my body: grow thinner still.

And I say to my fingers: type me a pretty song.

And I say to my heart: rave on. 

and so say i, 

to you, today, in whatever place you find yourself

in joys radiant, or in quiet sorrow

... rave on.

-shawnacy

30 days of books - cloudy with a chance of meatballs... play with your food and build a stale-bread lifeboat!

Happy Saturday everyone! 
i'm so excited today to be a part of the Read-Along 







hosted by the lovely Polly from Helping Little Hands. Hi to all of you who are stopping by today. Welcome to the hullabaloo!
Today's book is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi Barrett.

This was, hands down, my FAVORITE book as a young child. 

The illustrations are enchantingly line-drawn and detailed, 

and the story is imaginative and whimsical, a frame-story told in a wonderfully deadpan tone. 

... and it all but begs every red-blooded kid to dig in, and... 

Play with your food!!

and so, naturally, we did. 

over a period of four days, we ate a quantity of GIGANTIC food (inviting some of our favorite toys to join in the fun), and undertook one intriguing, boat-building craft. (apologies if this post is somewhat long... i had planned to divide it into four parts, but with so many great books to look at this month, we just had to pack it all in!)


take a look!

we started the week off with a 

Giant Pancake Breakfast.

our first attempts were... less than perfectly successful.

but we caught on quickly enough (use two spatulas to flip!), and soon the skillet-sized cakes were ready and the table was set, with a special friend sitting at each spot. 

maple syrup, powdered sugar and some homemade strawberry syrup (water, sugar and strawberry preserves boiled together for about 10 minutes) are some of our favorite toppings. 

The stack.

Before the feasting commenced, everyone set up their guys that the full effect of the enormous pancakes might be felt.

dig in!

the aftermath. 

these were a total hit.

and so, after the success of the giant breakfast, a giant dinner was planned.

SuperSized Pizza

we used a homemade pizza crust recipe which can be found HERE, and added a bunch of yummy toppings. 

we rolled out the dough so that what would have been enough for a whole pizza, was shaped into one giant slice. (which looked even bigger when sprinkled with mini pepperoni!)

everyone loaded on their favorite toppings...

and all were sufficiently astounded at the gargantuan results. 

Big, remarkable, and delicious. What could be better?

how about.... 

A Giant Donut 

for dessert!!

For this, we used a special, secret recipe of my grandmother's (which i will share with you at the bottom of the post :)

and baked it all in a formspring pan.

when it was finished, we cut out the center and shaped the rest into a more donut-like form. it didn't take long for that donut hole to disappear. 

We warmed some basic chocolate frosting in a pan, and poured it over the cake. (we might have gone a little overboard on the glaze... but only a little.) A smattering of colorful sprinkles were the final touch. 

and with a giant, donut-cake sitting around, it wasn't long before the lego guys made an appearance... 

running in terror from a delicious chocolaty doom. 

...and if the boys get to play, you can be sure annika can't be far behind. 

Strawberry Shortcake looks out her window at the elephantine confection, with surprise and delight. 

this cake is AMAZING. but aside from being large enough to crush an entire (miniature) village, it is also SUPER rich. Consume at your own risk. 

*****

With the food digested, and out of the way, a craft project was in order! We decided to build escape-boats out of stale bread, just like they did in the book. 

We rounded up some bread that had been sitting out for a few hours, and some other supplies,

and set to work.

Mortaring the slices together with peanut butter,

adding masts made of carrots or green beans, cheese-slice sails, and some trisket details.

Here's owen's lifeboat. 

And annika's. It has a happy rudder. 

Max's was apparently irresistible. 

The Fleet

and because we can't do much in this house without it turning into a science experiment...

we decided they must be tested for efficacy in an actual flotation experience... i.e.: let's put 'em in the bathtub and see if they float!

They did not. 

Not even a little. 

So, the hypothesis was formed that perhaps they would float better if we were to substitute toasted bread for the mere 'slightly stale' bread that we had used before. 

New boats were fashioned.

And with high hopes, the toasted fleet was launched.

Disastrously. 

Even with the masts removed for the sake of balance, these floated for approximately four seconds before succumbing to the deep. 

Moral of the story (of a most beloved and superbly crafted story)... don't build a lifeboat out of stale bread. 

(although, I heard owen and max later, discussing how they could waterproof the bread boats... there may be more boat-building in our future.) 

*****

and in case these activities weren't enough, and you've a hankering for more 'Meatballs' fun, check out these other great ideas!

Make Giant Chocolate Kisses with Dollhouse Bakeshop

or a super-fun Spaghetti and Meatball Hat 

Whatever you do, be sure to hop over to Helping Little Hands and see what everyone else has been reading.

and finally, As promised, The divine triple chocolate semi-homemade chocolate cake recipe
Ingredients:1 Devil's Food Cake mix1 3oz package chocolate instant pudding mix4 eggs1/2 cup vegetable oil.1 1/2 cup sour cream1/2 cup strong coffee1 cup (or more!) semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Preheat oven to 350 degreesCombine all ingredients, Pour into well-greased pan,Bake for 55 minutes to one hour. 
enjoy!


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