shameless valentine thievery

My great friend Aimee had the best Valentine's for her kids last year. In fact, they were so good that I remembered them all year and am shamelessly stealing the idea this year. (For the record, this idea is Aimee's. Not mine. I am not this creative. I am a fan of the drug-store, perforated tattoo variety of Valentine's. Which is what Eleanor opted for this year.) Hope you don't mind the thievery, Aimee!

Hmmm... I am now wondering if I should have asked her before putting this on my blog. If you are deeply wounded, Aimee, I will bring you chocolate and hopefully that will make you forget. :)

So this is the idea: you take a photo of your darling child -just like the one of Eve below - and then make a slit above and below the fist. Then slide in a lollipop. Voila! Eve is handing you a Valentine lollipop! Eve is going to print out a little Valentiney greeting with her classmates names on the computer that she will glue to the back, but we thought about having her hold a sign or something. Either way, I think it is a cute idea. And because I am stealing it, I thought the least I could do was pass the awesome idea along and not horde it for my very own.

In my defense, I did make the little hair thingie that Eve is wearing. All by myself! No stealing on this one. I tried to get a picture of Eleanor wearing it one day, but Sam was the much more enthusiastic model.

misty water-colored Newberies

While Eleanor industriously addresses Valentine's next to me, I thought I should put my time to good use and finally begin updating my Newberies. (Though licking envelopes for her while eating Valentine candy wasn't a shabby way to spend the afternoon.)

I have put this off forever because I am really behind. I think I have read a billion Newberies since the last time I posted! Give or take a few. So hopefully I can retrieve more than a vague memory so I can give an honest review. Luckily, the really terrible ones are still giving off enough of a stink in my head that I think I will remember them (Hi, Roller Skates!)

I have decided not to punish you and do all fourteen in one post. Because I would alienate the two readers I have left. I'll just do a few at a time until I'm caught up. Unfortunately, more Newberies get added to the "to review" list every week, so I had better hustle!

Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (1993)

I really like Cynthia Rylant. She writes the Tabby and Mr. Putter series that my kids have loved for years. She does charming and whimsical and kind of philosophical really well. Missing May tries to get there... but I think I'll stick to Mr. Putter. Summer is an orphan who has spent her childhood passed from relative to relative, until her kindly great aunt and uncle take her in. Many happy years ensue! The book begins with the death of May, Summer's great aunt, and the rest of this short-for-a-Newbery book is spent exploring Summer's grief, her uncle's grief, and how they come to terms with their new life. I remember the ending resolving everything, but it was a little vague and mystical how they got there. And I remember being surprised at how little emotional connection I felt with the book. I cry at anything and this book didn't really tug at me. A short read so you won't feel like it's a huge time investment, but if you are looking for a book that explores adolescent grief, I would recommend the lovely Walk Two Moons.

Shadow of a Bull by Maja Wojciechowska (1965)

The story of Manolo, son of a famous - and dead - Spanish bullfighter, facing both his cowardice and his courage in a town where he has very little choice but to follow in his father's footsteps. I really liked this book and read it mostly in one sitting on our 7 hour drive to Seattle over Thanksgiving. I love books where the moral is about having courage to be different, courage to have integrity and to be yourself - something I would love my children to know. It's well-written and the characters are genuine. And, best of all, it comes with a handy glossary of Spanish bullfighting vocabulary. I now know the difference between a matador and a torero! I know all about aficion! And how Manolo sure doesn't have it.

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (1937)

Gah! So glad this book is behind me. The worst kind of pretentious old-timey kids' book. While her family goes to France for a year, Lucinda stays behind in 1890s New York City, lives with her school teacher, and has many adventures on her roller skates. Okay, so maybe being left behind while your parents and 4 little brothers go to Europe would turn anyone into a brat, but I just wanted to throttle Lucinda! Not only is she selfish and obnoxious, she is completely unrelatable for any child. Unless you think most 9 year children quote Shakespeare and put on their own hand-puppet productions of The Tempest. Aside from the standard old-timey plot devices - picnics in the park, magical Christmases, etc - this book is just plain bizarre. In a weird and maudlin turn of events, Lucinda's impoverished and ill little friend dies and another friend is violently - and inexplicably - stabbed to death. And like most 9 year olds, Lucinda isn't traumatized in the least (she's the one who finds the body) but roller skates on home! There are many 4-star reviews for this book on amazon, but don't be fooled! They are all written by oldsters - I can tell this because they use words like "gallant Lucinda" and "Old New York." Maybe it's just me, but I would rather put a fork in my eye than read this book again.

Time to get Eve to swim lessons, so that's it for today. After swimming, we race home, shovel dinner, and then me and the kids head to the church to set up for tonight's youth activity: glow-in-the-dark Capture the Flag. Jared has a meeting that will end at who-knows-when, so I may be stumbling around a dark gym with three small children and 20 teenagers wearing glowsticks. Lucky me! I need to look on the bright side here - at least I won't be reading Roller Skates.

PS. Tai! I remember your request to label all my Newbery posts! I just haven't done it yet because I'm lame. I'll do it soon.

starving artist

We went to a special reception at the mall this Saturday to celebrate our own resident starving artist, Eve (starving because we refused to buy ice cream for her at the mall. We already had a pie at home!)

The district picks a handful of pieces from each school to display at the mall for a week. We were very proud Eve's subtle Crayola/paintwash creation was chosen! She was incredibly pleased and it was fun to make a big deal out of her success.

Eve posing next to her tortured windswept winter landscape (lower left.) It is titled "Winter Landscape"

The reception consisted of some local entertainment - a few 2nd graders wearing wings dancing with ribbon wands - and a speech by the mayor of Medford. I whispered to Jared that I felt like we were on an episode of Parks and Rec. Jared whispered back that he felt like we were in Stars Hollow. That's Medford for you!

o'er the hills we went

We have managed to squeeeze in two sledding trips this year, despite living in a snowless city. It is kind of a drive to get to any kind of decent snow, but it is so worth it to have the kids think we are superparents for feeding them jellybeans and hot cocoa and taking them sledding.


The first time was on New Year's Eve and I failed to capture any of it on my camera. We went to a great area with really well-groomed runs and the kids had a fantastic time. Well, Sam did a few runs and decided the car was warmer and drier. But Eve and Eleanor were maniacs and we had to drag them back to the car in order to get out of the treacherous mountain roads before dark. When we got home, we changed out of all our snow gear directly into our jammies, feasted on our usual New Year's Eve dinner of bazillions of appetizers, and stayed up late playing games, doing a jigsaw puzzle, and watching "How To Train Your Dragon." Till midnight. It was one long day - good, but very long.



Last Monday, Jared had the day off so we decided to claim Rockstar Parent status one more time this winter - we took the kids to breakfast at our favorite little diner and then headed to the mountains. We tried out a different spot this time that was a little less well-groomed and a little more Into the Wild. It was very remote. Pretty much very steep hills with snow on them and cliffs at the bottom (we lost a sled once. Jared kindly retrieved it. I'm sure he would have done the same for a child.) Not the same sledapalooza as the first time, but the kids still managed to have fun - they did some runs, built a snowman, Sam ate fistfuls of snow.


The hills were so steep and the snow was so deep - I fell in up to my hip several times... okay, so that's not really that deep considering this is me we are talking about - that it took monumental effort just to attempt more than a few runs. We were all very exhausted when we got home. A movie night was about all we were up to, but that did lock in our Parents of the Year award. Well, at least for that day...

See how ungroomed? In a few steps, Jared will disappear into a crevasse.

Eve's snowman. He was a labor of love. His little twig arms fell off right as we were about to leave and I had to freeze my already frostbitten tush off in the wet snow trying to reapply them.

Jared and Nora about to launch.

christmas in january

I have really not wanted to blog. For two months! I would think about it for a few minutes but there was always something I wanted to do - or had to do - more. I made a lot of Christmas gifts and decorations this year and, for the first time in a long time, I was really enjoying sewing and crafting again. So that took up some time. I read a lot. I did a bunch of stuff with the kids, especially over the break. I watched a lot of movies and Gilmore Girls. I did church stuff. I was swamped, I tell you!

So this morning, I felt that little guilty nudge in the back of my head again - "You should post on your blog!" - and I finally decided to do it. My parents are the main reason I began this blog, so they could keep up with our family and kids while they are on their mission. But they come home in a short six months (hooray!) and I want to keep up my blogging motivation.

Thinking of my loyal readers, I decided I wouldn't punish you with a Newbery blitz (though I promise it will come!) and decided to just post pics of Christmas. It was a pretty great Christmas this year. They kids are such a fun age for the holidays! We watched Christmas movies, went sledding, made gingerbread houses, saw The Nutcracker, even stayed up till midnight on New Year's...well, not so much Sam. Sadly, I took very few pictures of all this alleged fun! So here are a few shots, that will hopefully capture some of the magic:

Nora's Christmas recital. It was hard to get any good shots, but it was adorable. After the recital, we sent the boys home and stayed for older classes' performance of The Nutcracker. So much fun - I love doing stuff "just us girls."

I love the look on the girls' faces. Sam is eating one of the Santa cookies. Eve is clearly disgusted with him. But who can blame him? It looked delicious!

Much better...except Sam is still chewing. Oh well. (Hey, I made those jammmies! Well, the pants.)

Sam's train table. It was love at first sight! A big thank you to my brother's family for kindly passing it on when my nephew was done with it. It is definitely receiving much love and tender care.

A terrible picture, but I had to put it in. All Eve wanted for Christmas - seriously, all - was a new bike helmet. When pressed for anything else, she would say,"Um.... a really, really nice bike helmet?" So here is Eve, perfectly content, with her new helmet. She did get a few other things, I should add.

Nora, displaying her new hat and scarf, lovingly knitted by my aunt...

...and her new fancy tutu, lovingly sewed by my sister. This tutu is the main reason why she wants to keep taking dance. She just can't take her eyes off her beautiful self in those wall-to-wall mirrors when she is wearing this gorgeous thing!

Ah, good to be back. Coming up next, our sledding trip...or maybe I will let you think that and then I will spring all those Newberies on you! Ha, ha!

oh, the newberies!

While I was MIA last month, I read voraciously. Along the way, I consumed several Newberies - so many, in fact, that I can't remember them all and have to read through my ALA list just to make sure that I don't leave any out. So please beware - this post will be long and not for the faint of heart!

• The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (1923) - One of the first in the very prolific Dr. Dolittle series. Old-timey and full of racial stereotypes about "natives" (hey, it was 1923, after all - not nearly as disgraceful as Daniel Boone,) the story is whimsical and playful and a surprisingly quick read. One of Jared's favorite series as a little boy.
  
  
  



• Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (1933) - I really enjoyed this book at the time and I wish I had written this review earlier so it would all still be fresh in my mind. A teenage boy and his mother move to the big city after the death of his father, where the boy becomes an apprentice to a master potter. While the book itself is old and the setting foriegn, the experiences are universal and still feel very contemporary, even 80 years later - making and losing friends, figuring out how to stand on your own feet, discovering what you really care about. A fun read with a heart-warming ending, this book really surprised me. I was expecting a reprise of the same Orientalism found in Shen of the Sea a mere seven years previous, but it couldn't have been more different.

• Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (1934) - I read this book as a girl and I think I remember liking it, but not so much this time around. I suppose it is all because I read a real biography of Alcott last year (why can't I remember which one?!) so this old, child's version seemed to ring very untrue. Of course you wouldn't want to paint the real pain and instability of Alcott's life in stark colors to a young reader, but maybe we could be honest? Maybe I was just bugged because the author portrays Alcott's father - transcendentalist Bronson Alcott - as a lovable dreamer who put his family first. In reality, his passionate and nearly insane pursuit of his philosophy selfishly dominated his family's life, leaving them to live completely unsupported in poverty and instability. The Alcotts moved 30 times before Louisa was 20 years old! The real Marmee - Aba Alcott - was a brave, loyal and long-suffering woman. You can see why Jo's father is a rather vague and absent character in Little Woman. At any rate, skip this one and read the newest biography: Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women instead.
  
  


• Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (1957) - an uncomplicated little story about a father's return from WWII and his family's attempts to heal his wounded spirit by moving to a farm in upstate New York. Kind of charming and heart-warming in all the expected ways, except that I couldn't stand the main character, 9 year old Marley. I think she was supposed to come across as spontaneous and full of joy, but really she was just obnoxious. Hello, Marley! Maybe that's why your Dad is always so crabby! On a side note, I found out that Sorensen is LDS. I wonder if BYU English professor Peter Sorensen is any relation.

• Rifles for Waitie by Harold Keith (1958) - Now this book was a big surprise. Thick, with small print, and a spine that looked like it hadn't been cracked open in all the 50 years it had been collecting dust on the library shelves, it did not look like a winner. But I was quickly drawn in to the story of 16 year old Jeff Bussey, who leaves his Kansas farm and family to join the Union fight in Oklahoma Territory. Thrilling adventures, a heroic main character, and a different angle on the Civil War all make this book a fun and fascinating read. Author Harold Keith, a Civil War buff, meticulously researched for years before beginning to write - and it totally shows! So interesting learning about Cherokee Nation settlements in the 1860s and the extent of their involvement on both sides of the war. Some weird quirks show Keith is not a novelist by trade - a disturbing (or funny!) typo where a much-beloved but also dead character appears nonchalantly in a later scene and a random title (really, neither rifles nor General Stand Waitie are big players in the book.) But still fun - I love being happily surprised.

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (1959) - Wow, now this one was so long ago I thought I had already reported it. A solid and still widely-read book even now, this one doesn't really need my endorsement. Teenage Kit leaves her home in the Barbados to move in with her Puritan aunt and uncle. Antics ensue! Free-spirited Kit is reluctant to embrace her new community's close-mindedness and suspicions quickly begin to fly. Great little book - and Eve loved it, too.

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert O'Brien (1972) - Just finished reading this outloud to both girls last night and it was a major hit. Just forget everything you remember from the movie - there is no "sparkly, " no magic amulet, no Nicodemus getting squished. Dismiss them as the usual trappings of a Don Bluth cartoon! (Bleh, Land Before Time, An American Tale - I am a definitely a Disney girl.) The book is fascinating, especially the chapters about the rats' transformation in the lab at NIMH. Not a whole lot of gripping conflict, but both girls were panting to read it every night, so that's a pretty encouraging recommendation.
  
  

• Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (1989) - a very short and very adorable book of poems written about insects. Some are lovely, some are hilarious, but all of them have two parts and are meant to be read by two people simultaneously (hence the title.) Jared read a few with me, so I could get the jist of it and it was tricky to get the rhythms right. But a pretty cool idea. Interestingly, the author is the son of Sid Fleischman who won the award a few years previous for The Whipping Boy.
  

• Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (1991) - I loved this book. Reading it was a like a big cozy hug. The Publisher's Weekly blurb on amazon says "Winner of the Newbery Medal, this humorous yet poignant tall tale concerns a super-athletic teenager who bridges his town's racial gap." No offense, Publisher's Weekly, but you've got it all wrong. It is written like a tall-tale, a folk story, but Maniac isn't "super-athletic" - the point is that he is magic, that he can do anything! He can run fast and hit baseballs, but he also knocks on the door of the scariest man in town, he unties the biggest knot, he loves people who need to be loved. While there is a black side of town and a white side of town, this is not a book about racism, but a book about loving people who are different.
  

• Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (2005) - Just finished this yesterday and am still digesting. From the very first sentences I knew I would like the book and that it would make me sad: "My sister Lynn taught me my first word: kira kira...Kira kira means "glittering" in Japanese." You can see where this is going, right? The story is about a Japanese-American family who moves to Georgia in the 1960s (though that isn't the central focus of the book) and struggle to make ends meet while their oldest daughter grows increasingly ill. I loved the very authentic bossy protective big sister/adoring little sister relationship - reminded me very much of two little girls I live with (From the book: "Do you agree with me all the time just because I say so or because you really, truly agree with me?" I didn't see the difference between the two things, so I just said I didn't know.) Also, being a bossy protective big sister myself to an adorable Asian sister (Hey, Miranda! You know you are Asian, right? I'm not being racist) made the story close to my heart. Also, these very familiar sisters have a darling little brother named Sammy that they both adore. And, because in a weird way, I consider Korea to be a large portion of my cultural identity, the whole book felt very near. It is brilliantly written and the narrator's voice is startlingly authentic and touching. Filed in the YA books at my library, not the kids' section because of some mature themes.

Is anybody still there? If you are, you deserve a medal! Or a piece of the trick-or-treat candy sitting temptingly in front of me. (I keep reminding my kids it's for the trick-or-treaters while sneaking pieces for myself.) Have a happy and Newbery-y Halloween!

halloween sneak peek

The girls' school held its big Halloween carnival last Saturday, so we got to do a little Halloween dress-rehearsal. It was quite a night! The carnival is always crazy pants - a billion sweaty kids in costume tossing rings and bean bags - but this year seemed extra zoo-like. Eve vanished with some friends, Eleanor panicked at the crowd and tried to hide behind my legs for the first half hour, and Sam - my sweet brave little Sam - started off okay, but was reduced to trembling with fear because of a boy in a large blue duck costume. *sigh* After some cotton candy and snow cones eaten in the relative peace of the bleachers, everyone felt much better and launched themselves back into the chaos for another hour of fun. And I went home thanking my lucky stars that it's another whole year till we do it again!

While I am no huge Halloween fan, I love helping the kids with their costumes. And I loved their choices this year! (I may have been a little instrumental in Sam's selection...)

My Seuss-obsessed Eleanor as The Cat in the Hat. I found the little jumpsuit at Goodwill for only $2.99! It was meant to be. All it needed was a new bow. We already had the hat and, when we found Cat in the Hat socks at Target, the vision was complete.


Eve as Cleopatra. This pose was one she insisted on - her most queenly, I think.

Eve told me her book on anciet Egypt had a picture of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, and she wanted to look just like that. Yikes! I did my best on a third-grade level. She loved her huge mysterious eyes, but when Sam saw her he burst into tears. "Who is that, Sammy?" "sobbing I don't know!" "It's just Eve in her costume." "Evie is scary!" I think the snake headdress was just too much for Sam. Little did he know about the blue duck awaiting him....

Sam as Charlie Brown. This picture just doesn't quite do justice to the hilarity that is Sam as Charlie Brown. He was a hit at the carnival - well, except for the lady who thought he was Batman. She wasn't joking, either! "Oh, Charlie Brown was my second guess!" Batman only wishes he was this cool!

I love his squiggle. Nora's makeup was pretty fun, too, but I'm thinking I can do a better job for actual Halloween, so I'll wait until then to post her close-up.

Little known fact: Cleopatra needs glass when she goes to carnivals. She tried to go without, but a friend later led a squinty, blind, arms-outstretched Eve up to me. Cleopatra can't win the soda bottle ring toss without her prescription lenses!

Carnivals make The Cat in the Hat very sad and nervous, apparently. Until he consumes large amounts of sugar - then everything is wonderful! This frown didn't last long.