book faves

I'm so glad both my little guys like to settle onto my lap for a good story, any time, any place. Especially when the weather bounces between blustery and icy, or sloshy and mucky and we are bound indoors. A current favorite for all of us is Tikki Tikki Tembo. Pretty illustrations, a clever little story, a funny name to tongue twist over and over.

we are also fans of audio stories on CD. Hooray for audible.com and .99 downloads.

pretty books

swooning over these pretty books from anthropologie. discovered via delightful. i sorta have a thing for pretty books. (still wishing for those). it's not so bad to judge a book by it's cover.

disneyland, in pics

a smattering of the fun times, including a meet-n-greet with a first sweetheart, shoulder-napping at Pirates of the Caribbean and meltdowns in the stroller. totally worth it, i say.  warning: many pictures to follow.

totally and absolutely certain he's going to get that sword out of that stone. the veins in his stubborn little neck were bulging.  I'm so happy we did this trip now, when everything is still magical to my little guys. 

favorite things::little ones

automoblox--even mommy likes to play with these!

jenny lind beds--I'm anxiously hoping to get my hands on a pair, used. Hoping and searching.

i spy books. both boys are big fans. (ok, so we are all hooked on the iphone app, too)


piglet's prayer: ...I thank thee...and please bless my little brother [nanuk] who is giggly and wiggly...


this super cool indoor/outdoor hopscotch mat, discovered via ohdeedoh, would be fun in the looooong winter.

favorite things::just for me

fossil bags, on my wish list for a long time
girly flip flops from Jenny, I wear them ever day!
new makeup, once a skeptic, now a believer.
san pelegrino, orange or lemon, makes me feel sophisticated, reminds me of a sunny day in Italy. [sigh]

favorite things::motherhood

new little words from Nanuk: hop! nawdy (naughty). doowty (dirty). wadoo (water) me! me! owl hoo hoo!

every single impromptu, snuggle-accompanying "oh mommy, i love ya"

the sound of Mr. J doing the dishes

two striped little tushes waving good bye at the window.

favorite things::at home

my lavender bush that started out as barely a twig

white towels and sheets

my ikea chair that is just the right size and still looks new, even though it's white

my brother's wooden toy box, passed along to my little ones

damage

coulda been worse. 

a beat up glove, a homemade bat...

Baseball is foremost on Piglet's brain right now. Baseball hat. Baseball glove. Baseball teams. Baseball songs. Baseball matching games. Baseball cards. Baseball books. Baseballs and baseball bats. Trying to indulge the obsession indoors since Mother Nature seems to fancy an indefinite rain delay. Even a Sunday drive just to look at the local baseball field. Doing our best to indulge this little obsession indoors since Mother Nature seems to be on indefinite rain delay. Boo.

My favorite: his nightly choreographed pitching and sliding to "centerfield" over and over. and over and over. I really really like this little guy of mine. Put him in, coach. He's ready to play.

fine art

title: dinosaur, deconstructed
in case you couldn't tell: face, eyes, teeth and arms on the right, tail on the left

considering my little guy doesn't love to color, I was impressed with this deliberate creation 

totally cool

anybody gotta spare vintage vespa collecting collecting dust? I'll take it off your hands...cuz I really want one of these. 

via ohdeedo

wouldn't it be loverly

...to own, even to gaze upon, one of Audrey Hepburn's iconic frocks? They are up for auction.
 Details here.

cozy pajamas

I've got a thing for pajamas. good pajamas, cute pajamas, and especially in these arctic winters, cozy pajamas. My pajama love runs deep. And lately for me, it's all about the flannel menswear pajamas; there's something Doris Day-ish about them, I think.  Like these:

lots of cute patterns and colors. I'm partial to the blue stars on white.

these I find utterly adorable

and these are pretty cute, too

I can't get enough of these guys

I'm digging Straight No Chaser;

this little ditty is great.

I recommend listening to the entire song.

happy mail day

it's always a happy day when my Real Simple comes in the mail. Even though it started out with a minor, brief crisis, which was followed by a toddler tantrum, which was followed by a sick baby, which was followed by a grumpy toddler, which was followed by leftovers for dinner. Between the sick baby and the grumpy toddler, Mr. J came home from work via the mailbox and presented my with my happy mail. I have a little ritual each month: he hands it over to me and attempts to entertain unravelling children while I attempt to enjoy the magazine but really only get a teensy taste as I quickly thumb through it. It's obvious and inevitable that my family needs my undivided for the next few hours. When bedtime finally rolls around, I crawl under the covers with my happy mail and devour it from cover to cover, folding down the corners on my favorite pages. For when I read it again a few days later.

size 6 and a half, please

would like a pair of these darlings

we've got annie

Our local theater is presenting one of my favorite musicals, produced by my dear (kind, multi-talented, gracious, humorous, clever, bright, genuine) friend. Knowing her makes me feel really super cool. Care to join me for a show?

School Days: Happy Trails

via Travelin Oma's School Days Seminar

Homework: Do any or all or be inspired. ~Write a love letter to a modern appliance you could not live without. Idea: "Dear Washer: Before you came to live with me, my life stunk . . . " ~Could you live absolutely alone, for weeks at a time? Write a paragraph about what you would do if you had nothing to do. Prompt: "All I have here is time. I've decided that I will . . . " ~If you could plan a 3-day festival to depict your lifestyle, what ten activities would you choose? Go back and explain why each one is meaningful. Idea: Hike up Mount Olympus, German cooking class, political debate, etc."

Ooooh. A 3 day festival honoring my lifestyle. Planning an imaginary party, which involves list-making, as a homework assignment? Might as well just give me an A+ right now, since this is all about the planning and not the execution. I'm a girl of great vision but for some reason my execution of said visions just never measures up. This much I know for sure: a lifestyle festival would involve lots of great food, great music, and the great outdoors a great photographer to document it all.

1. Eating, eating, eating

2. Outdoor movie

3. Hike

4. Picnic & sunshine & the great oudoors

5. Spa

6. Broadway show

7. Games and laughter

8. More of the great outdoors

9. Book Swap

10. Dancing

To be played out thusly, because a festival should be festive:

Day one would begin with a grand Welcome to the Festival dinner. An evening start to the festivities because I love evening time, all mixed up with daytime and nightime and filled with possibility and memories a-humming. All of my dearest and nearest attend a feast of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and country gravy, whole wheat bread and strawberry jam, tossed salad, and chocolate cake of sinful proportions. An all-American meal, all for all my favorite people. There would be live music of course, because that's how I like it. I'm a sucker for great atmosphere: soulful music, a gazillion twinkle lights in the trees, Mason jars bursting with fresh flowers, the air thick with fragrance and laughter. Then, an outdoor movie. Something timeless Casablanca perhaps, or Indiana Jones or You've Got Mail or The Sound of Music. All depends on my mood, which changes. Often. To accompany the flick would be all the best movie treats as I'm a firm believer in treats with movies. Popcorn, licorice (red and black), raisinettes for every guest. Happy dinner, happy music, happy movie, happy treats, happy friends, happy children and a happy evening.

Day Two: a hike to Hidden Falls at Jenny Lake first thing in the morning. Fresh air and wide open spaces and reverence and exhiliration, maybe a bear or two. My three guys and me together in one of our happy places. A picnic of course, with Red Rover and Capture the Flag and watching my wee boys runhopcrawlclimb every last ounce of energy out of themselves. It's what I do all day. After getting all pretty in my little black dress that really isn't so little, it's time for a night on the town with a broadway show. I don't even care which one, though Annie Get Your Gun is fun, Wicked is fantastic, Aida is wonderful..I could go on and on. I do know that many show tunes, Mr. J secretly does too, and I get a little bit goose-bumpy with every opening note of every [very rare] production. Apres-show, lots of lounging and chatting and a late late night of board games and raucous laughter with my loved ones. I rock the house at Boggle, you know. But Aunt Jan would probably school me. My daddy would smile. Mr. J would fling some great one-line zingers. We'd talk and slap our knees until we wake the babies.

Day Three: A lazy morning in honor of the frenzy of household chores I'd normally be performing. A grand brunch with Aunt Carol's strata, hot scones with strawberry jam, piles of fresh fruit. It's a perfect meal and the kind thing I like to prepare for my Mr. J. We'd spend the day outdoors planting flowers and pulling weeds, to honor the home I try to make beautiful. Maybe we'd do a book swap with everyone's favorites exchanged for someone else's favorites; teenage vampire smut prohibited. How delightful to learn about someone else by getting lost in their favorite book, no? I might give Little Women or Where the Wild Things Are. In the evening, another dinner, more live music, and this time lots and lots of dancing. Oh I wish there were more dancing in my life. A good old fashioned barbecue with all the trimmings? A shrimp boil? Family style and surely more chocolate cake. More flowers in pots overflowing. More twinkle lights and candles flickering. Fiddles and guitars and two-stepping, old standards and swing dancing. At this festival Mr. J really busts some moves on the dance floor. Laughter, hugs, twirling and fizzy drinks. Little ones wiggling and bouncing about with giggles aloft on the breeze.

It's imperative to end on a high note, rather than just fizzle out. So, I'd send all those dear guests home with a special gift of something clever and sentimental all wrapped up pretty with ribbons. It's just the kind of girl I am. Blessed and grateful and eager for them all to feel loved by me; I'm all about the party favors. And a pretty ribbon makes anything more special. In fact, I might tie up my simple, few-frills, fresh-air lifestyle with a big fat bow right this minute. As lifestyles go, it's a good one.

writing assignment: children's library

via travlinoma's school days

~Do you have recommendations for books that haven't been mentioned yet? Who would enjoy them: a little girl, a 10-year-old boy, the whole family? Is it a read-it-yourself, or a read-it-to-me type book?

~If you were giving just one book to an infant grandchild, what would it be? A friend suggested Clotilda by Jack Kent. I like A You're Adorable by Martha Alexander. What's your favorite?

~Do you remember a special book from your childhood? Who read it to you?

children's books. ahhhh. a subject dear to my heart. Where do I even start? As a newlywed I began building a children's library enthusiastically, long before any babies came to me. I've continued adding to it since the arrival of my wee ones; story time is precious at our home, especially at bedtime. Some we have enjoyed most with our boys: Where the Wild Things Are, it's just so timeless and boyish, Tough Boris is short but precious with a story unfolding in the illustrations, Good Night Moon is quite easily a perfect bedtime story, and Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever is filled with silly and interesting illustrations and charming short stories. A wonderful gift for any family, I enjoyed it tremendously as a little girl and now my little boy is thrilled with it. Same goes for the classic Little Golden Books like The Tawny Scrawny Lion and Tootle; they never get old. For older children and adults, Number the Stars is lovely, and my sweet husband never lets a school year go by without reading Where the Red Fern Grows aloud to his students. I read it in fifth grade and cried so hard I vowed never to read it again. But it is wonderful. And every girl should read Anne of Green Gables at some point in her life. Plain and simple.

An early reader (but a late everything else), I was captivated by almost anything readable. Biographies. Picture Books. Novels. Two favorites, aside from my Nancy Drew collection, come to mind. First, Nine Days to Christmas. I remember it from the first grade, when I'd make a beeline for this book at every class visit down the hall to the library. I adored it week after week. It's out of print now, but my husband tracked down a used copy and gave it to me as a Christmas gift two years ago. Romantic, no? The other book is The Giant Jam Sandwich and I think I loved it because it It's silly and rhyming with fun vocabulary, plus it involved summer and strawberry jam, both of which make me happy. I'm so pleased my kiddo enjoy it as much, over and over again. I'll stop now, though the list goes on.

wagons west

I know two little boys who would have lots of good times with one of these:

all-terrain wheels, because you need those in Idaho