silver lining

Yesterday was not so much a good day. We almost single-handedly destroyed the Jackson County Public Library system yesterday with the spectacles that were Eleanor Selecting a DVD and Gwyn's Library Bag Exploding All Over the Checkout Counter. What, you don't have almost five dollars worth of loose change in the bottom of your library bag? It turns out I do.

Sam, as usual, decided that taking naps in the crib is for chumps.

And Eve came off the school bus sobbing because she was worried that we wouldn't all be able to go to the circus on the free circus ticket she won at school. A note to elementary school teachers: DO NOT hand out free circus tickets to children! Do they know how much an adult ticket costs (not to mention the tickets for siblings?) Do they know that the ticket was only good for the day they handed it out and then the following day? I had the heartbreaking task of informing Eve that this was probably not the best year for going to the circus, free ticket or not. Luckily, she took the news well, but I felt like a heel the rest of the day. Until I found out that this happens at her school every September. Maybe next year then.

Jared went to the church to take care of some clerking business (thankfully after the girls were down - and he even bathed Sam while I was tucking them in), Sam took a little coaxing to get into bed, and I decided to be a martyr and work on my ever-present Laurels lesson instead of doing something fun. Bleh.

So here is something good that came out of yesterday. I found a great book at the library for my kids.

This is a translation of a series of French books called Le petit Nicolas by Rene Goscinny with hilarious illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempe. (You may know Goscinny as the author of the Asterix comic books.) These funny chapter books tell the story of Nicholas and his daily antics at his all-boys school. And, while funny for the kids, I think they are even more hilarious for the adult reading them to said kids. Win win!

My sister-in-law owns them in French and, when I was feeling ambitious several years ago, I borrowed them and read them. (La de da! She read them in French! They are children's books, after all, and I did read more of my French/English dictionary than I did the books.) But they were so funny, they had me laughing at loud. So when I saw this recent English translation at the library yesterday, I snapped up the first one, thinking the girls would love them. And I love it when I'm right! They begged for an extra chapter at bed and are excited to read Nicholas again tonight.

I thought I'd pass the tip along to those of you who may have been in a storytime rut, like I was. And if any of you have some recommendations, I'm all ears!