Any Readers Out There?

I know that most of this blog is dedicated to Eli (now Jellybean too...) and his adventures, likes, and dislikes. Every now and again I throw in a family story or a recipe. I don't think I've ever shared that I'm a reader. Since Eli has been born, I don't read quite as much as I used to, but I still manage to read at least a book a month (thanks to my FABULOUS book club...a shout out for my FLWW!) And since I share Eli's favorite book finds, it is only fitting that I share some of mine as well.

I cannot begin to list all of my favorites, so I will just go with the latest page-turner.

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom was an outstanding novel. An honest-to-goodness page-turner. I felt that every scene could have been the climax of the novel; so many ups and downs. Now, I tend to like historical novels...and this one follows suit. It takes place on a tobacco plantation in Virgina in the late 18th century. The story follows the life of an orphaned, Irish indentured servant who, at age 7, comes to live and work with other slaves on the plantation. The dynamics of a white servant living amidst the black slaves is an intriguing one that made for a wonderful story.

Along with historical novels, I tend to favor ones that have very well-written characters; the more the better. Ms. Grissom does not dissappoint....there were characters I loved and characters I loved to hate.

If you are looking for a good read, check it out. I don't think you will be disappointed.

And on that note....I'm always looking for good reads. It doesn't have to be historical. I also enjoy reading about different cultures or lifestyles that I don't know a lot about. Now, I do read a lot....so many times I get suggestions for books I have already read. Don't let that stop you from throwing a title into the mix. I don't want to let the good ones get away!

Rice and...

whatever!

This summer I am hooked on rice mixed with something tasty for lunch. I love these 90 second pouches of brown rice.

They cook up so quickly, and it is always perfect.

As for mix-ins, I have been favoring black beans or edamame.

This week we mixed it up a bit with the "fiesta" edamame mix when Publix was out of shelled edamame. It was also very good. And as an added bonus, Eli also finds these dishes to be delicious lunch time fare.

Gotta love the quick and easy lunches that both E and I enjoy. One can only eat so many PB&J sandwiches.

Brought to You By the Letter...

Eli and I have continued to utilize the library this summer. We seem to go all the time...sometimes 2-3 days in one week. We go to return and choose new books(for both of us!), for story time, and for puppet programs.

And now that school is out, we both have a bit more time on our hands to fill each day. I try to fill our quiet mornings with some fun (academic) activities. We have focused our efforts on pre-reading skills (letters, sounds, sounding out multiple sounds, etc) and week long book units. You may remember some of book units I tried last summer, well we are at it again. For our first book this summer, we picked If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff.

Now, Eli and I are not new to Ms. Numeroff's cyclical stories, but we love them, and I found a lot of activities we could do with it....which included making muffins. I was hoping to use our freshly picked blueberries, but Eli got very excited about chocolate chip muffins instead. I never know which activity on which day of the week will register and hit home the most with the boy. It was the letter M that excited Eli the most. He looked and listened all week for words that started with "mmmmmm."

Of course, that immediately got me interested in trying another one of Laura Numeroff's books to tackle another letter and sound. We just finished 5 days of:

Can you guess which letter we worked on this week?

P!

We read the book each day and did some comprehension and retelling activities. I remembered that I had the printouts ready to make the felt board story pieces for this book.

Eli had fun playing with the pieces and making up his own stories, but he would also use the pieces to tell the story as I read from the book. I stumbled upon a great website with ready-made activities and online games created by the publisher. And of course, we practiced writing the letter P, recognizing words that start with "p", and we wrapped up the week with a P Scavenger Hunt.

He was super cute walking around with his Polka-dot Pouch saying the "p" sound over and over and then the names of the things he saw to figure out if he should Put it in his Pouch. These was what he ended up with:

Not too shabby. At first, he was afraid if he put them in, they would have to stay there. It took a little convincing to get him to select his first item.

We wrapped up our unit today Playing at the Park,

getting VERY hot and sweaty,

so that we could come home and have our homemade...

POPSICLES!

You were thinking, Pancakes, right? Well, I plan to make those tomorrow morning...I didn't have everything I needed to make them.

***UPDATED***

I gave a very cute piggy some pancakes this morning...and guess what!

He wanted some syrup to go with them.

It was a fun week with P. Not sure what book we'll do next. Hmmm....suggestions?

Ahhhh! Almost Forgot!

We were out of town this weekend, and despite packing my camera, it never made it out of the car...so I have NO PICTURES to show for our quick trip to Dunedin.

The main reason for the trip (besides visiting with our Carson family...) was to celebrate the birthday of Matt's sisters Ann and Kate.

Happy birthday, girls! Hope you enjoyed the day and have a memorable and fabulous year. Glad we got to celebrate with you. We love you!

Jellybean has Something to Say

Hi!

and.....

I'm a BOY!

Our suspicions were confirmed. Eli is going to have a little brother, and we couldn't be happier!! Jellybean is healthy and right on track...which also makes us happy.

Now....we have to start our list of names...though if you remember, Eli was "Baby Boy Carson" during his first 24 hours of life. We will likely wait to meet this little guy before naming him as well. Names are hard. They are so permanent, and we want it to be perfect, timeless, fitting, yet slightly unique at the same time. And so far we have a whopping ZERO on the list. Thankfully we have some time to get it going.

Mismatched

Or should I say Mis(ter)-matched.

My little goofball insisted on wearing these shoes out today as we ran our errands.

Not a battle worth fighting. He was happy and oh so proud of himself.

4th of July Weekend

We managed to make another trip to an un-tainted SGI for the 4th.

The oil has still not made its way onshore at our piece of paradise.

For now we are making the most of our time as we know the oil will be there eventually.
(can you see the itty bitty piece of rainbow in the clouds?)

The weather was less-than-perfect, but each afternoon, the winds calmed, the rains stopped, and the clouds started to break up enough for us to spend some quality time on the beach on Saturday

and Sunday.

Eli was NOT afraid of the huge waves (such a contrast to the calm, glassy waters from two weeks ago)....although he should have been.

The undertow was intense. Despite convincing several of the boys to take him swimming a few times, we tried to keep him busy with things onshore.

It is always wonderful how SGI allows us to spend so much time with family as it such a perfect get-away spot for all of us. Eli had fun playing with his aunts. Lindsey and her hubby-to-be, Matt B. were down,

and Aunt Kristi and Steve too. (Steve didn't get the memo that I was taking a picture. Smile, Steve!)

We always eat well at the beach, but the boys did it up right and grilled up some burgers and hot dogs (Nathan's, of course).

Eli was super excited about the fireworks this year. He was eager for the sun to go down so the show could get started. It was hard to wait, but at least we had a beautiful sunset to watch while we did.

And this year, we contributed to the incredible amount of fireworks shot off on the beach. The boys impressed us with some "Boom-Ka-POW-WOW" and "Snap-Crackle-POP!"

Eli loved the fireworks,

loved his popsicle,

but was not so sure about the sparklers this year. He loved them last year....oh well. I was always a little leery of them as a kid, myself.

Here's hoping we stay oil-free for the rest of the summer. We plan to be back in a few weeks for a mini-bachelorette weekend for Lindsey before her big day....only 58 days from today! Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th!