Book: Mockingjay

MockingJay

by Suzanne Collins

Length: 397 pages

Format: Kindle
Price: $2.99 for the whole series!

How I heard about it: um...duh

Basic Premise: In this third installment of the Hunger Games trilogy, the districts are seeking to overtake the capital and are lead by District 13, which was not annihilated as the Capitol lead the districts to believe, but instead has been steadily growing an arsenal of weapons for war against the Capitol, lead by the Mockingjay herself.

My Take: 2 out of 10 (scale here)

SPOILER ALERT.  And EXTREME NEGATIVITY (and a small amount of snobiness) ALERT.

I warned you.

This was my second read. This book was originally released on August 24th of 2010. I had it finished by August 26th.  And I HATED it. But, to be fair, I wasn't sure how much of it could fairly be attributed to Suzanne Collins, as I was reading so fast I was barely keeping up with the story.  I knew I needed to read it again, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. So now, four years later, I decided to pick it up again. The film is due for release later this year, and I was hoping to take things a little slower and enjoy it this time around.

**COMMENCE RANT**

As it turns out, I was right the first time. The book, indeed, sucks.

In fairness to Collins, it's got to be hard to write a final book in a trilogy this popular, because you know there are certain things the audience wants to read. However, as a writer, you are compelled to write what you discover, not merely satiate the throngs of fans who want an neat, bundled happily-ever-after. But MY GOODNESS this book, especially on the heels of books one and two which were both so riveting, was just downright painful. It echoed oddly of Stephenie Meyer, whose 2,458 pages were without question the most painful in my YAL experience.

So what went wrong? What happened to make Mockingjay so atrociously different from the first two books?  Well, for one, the pacing was completely different, and not in a way that worked. The first two books were methodical, rich in detail, and, for lack of a better term, believable. With this book, I often found myself wondering, "How did they get there so fast?" or "What prompted that move?" There were long stretches between some points of action and then just a few pages for what seemed as though it should have had an entire chapter. I got the sense that Collins was rush-writing - like she had a deadline and was hurrying to meet it and neglecting to adequately develop the characters and plot line, which is my next complaint. There was far too much emphasis on the movement of the districts in the war effort and not nearly enough on character development. Now, if we're honest, character development is not one of Collins' strong suits, but this book highlights it in a way the other two do not. I also just hated what happened. Peeta is my favorite character. Next in line is Finnick. I mostly want to strangle Katniss.

**CONCLUDE RANT**

Sigh. Hopefully it will make a better film than book. I will definitely be there opening weekend.

List progress:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins

Book: Shepherding a Child's Heart

Shepherding a Child's Heart

by Tedd Tripp

Length: 211 pages

Format: Kindle
Price: $1.99

How I heard about it: A fellow mom recommended it to me

Basic Premise: This non-fiction book helps parents understand that their children's behavior is a symptom of a larger problem that, when addressed, not only corrects behavior, but directs the child to a fruitful and lasting relationship with God.

My Take: 8 out of 10 (scale here)
*It was really difficult to assign a rating to this book. I HATE HATE HATE to read books like this because they. are. so. slow. There is no action, mainly because there isn't meant to be. IT'S NONFICTION. And even though the information was great stuff, it read like a newspaper, which I avoid like the plague. I had to set goals like, "Okay, I am not getting up until I have read another 10%"...talk about lame.  THIS IS WHY I HATE NONFICTION.  Okay...enough of that.

This book was actually very, very good.  Dr. Tripp's central message is this: children behave badly because they are sinners, and as such, they have to be taught how to live according to God's direction.  As parents, we are responsible for showing them how to do that.  This is not earth-shattering.  Sin, or "original sin" as it is referred to in this context, is part of humanity.  I remember sitting in a (terrible) presentation in the auditorium of the high school for a professional development session where the renowned speaker whom we had flown in maintained that children, in their hearts, are innately good. Their first impulse is always compassion. Mmmmmm no. That is not even close to right. Even if the Bible didn't say so, we don't teach a child to lie. The child's nature is to lie to get what he/she wants. The child has to be taught NOT to lie.  If not directed and constantly redirected, that child will continue to live according to his nature, which is not innately good.  Dr. Tripp doesn't debate this as I just did, but I felt the compelled to add it, as someone who believes a child's nature is innately righteous will make no sense of this book.  He maintains that children misbehave because their nature is to sin, and if we simply address the sins, we are missing the heart of the issue.

For example, if Charlie and Lucy are fighting over a toy, I might walk in and say, "Charlie, who had it first?" or "Whose toy is this?" or "How about taking turns?" or any such suggestion.  But the root issue here - selfishness - is not addressed by any of these solutions.  If I expect Charlie's behavior to change, I need to teach him that it's his heart I am worried about, not the resulting behavior.  He needs to get his heart right with God first.

That simple idea is both true and brilliant. I'm a little embarrassed to say I never thought of it that way.  We often discuss Charlie's attitude with him, but we say things like, "You will enjoy it so much more if you cheer up" or "You will not get to go to the party if you don't stop acting like that."  We also tell him, "You need to change your attitude."  I discontinued this approach immediately. Yesterday in the car, Charlie had a book Lucy wanted. She was screaming and reaching for it (she is one), and Charlie was saying, "No, Lucy, I had it first." We tried giving her other books but nothing worked. She wanted that one.

The conversation went something like this:

Me: Charlie, what about giving that book to Lucy since she's so upset?
Charlie: But I want this book.
Me: Charlie, who are you thinking about right now?
Charlie: (because he knows it's the right answer) Lucy.
Me: Really? If you were thinking about Lucy, don't you think you'd give her the book since she's so upset?
Charlie: But Mommy, I want this book.
Me: I know you do, but Jesus tells us to think about others before we think about ourselves. Right now, your sister would really like to have this book. She is little. You are big. And God made you Lucy's big brother for a reason. She won't have it forever. You can have it after she's finished with it.
Charlie: (troubled expression)
Me: (bated breath)
Charlie: Here Lucy. (hands over book)
Lucy: (screaming ceases) Oooooo (opens book)
Me: Charlie, I am SO proud of you.
Charlie: I'm proud of you too, Mommy. (picks up another book)

A little sloppy, but successful. Repeating this process many many many times, as I'm sure we will, will hopefully begin to teach him that it's not about the book, it's about his heart.  And as Lucy grows and develops the ability to understand her heart, she will begin to treat him in the same way.

Anyway, all that to say that this was a good book despite the lack of action.  I am beginning to implement the principals of the book and we will see how it goes!

List progress:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins

Lake Trip!

My dear niece, Emma, turned two this weekend. I can't believe that it's already been two years since she was born. And Lucy's birthday is right around the corner.  Wow.

We celebrated by traveling to Oklahoma and staying at my sister-in-law's parents' lake house.  I can count on one hand the number of times I've been on a boat in a lake, so I had no idea it was going to be SO MUCH FUN.

We got a later start than we meant to, and the drive ended up being longer than we thought...

 Especially when you consider we hit three temporary construction lights like this:

 Aaaaaaaand a train with 143 coal cars:

But we finally made it!  Once we arrived, we dropped our bags off in our rooms (yes, rooms...the place was so big that, even with my parents, Alex and Molly, and Molly's parents, Charlie got his own!) and headed out to the boat.

 We geared up and boated out to a restaurant on the water. It was spectacular and our boy didn't stop smiling or saying, "I'm on a BOAT!" the whole time.

The kids did surprisingly well, considering they were both up until 10:45.  We had to wake them up at 8:30 when my dad made French toast (his is the only French toast I will eat) and then we headed back out to the water.

I rode only for a short while. The jetski wasn't for me. But it was for my boys.  They rode that thing for quite a while, and even when we did decide it was time to swim, Rick followed the boat in the jetski, zooming all over the place and getting himself soaked in the process.  It was fun to watch.  And I'm loving what the jetski did for Charlie's hair:

 

We had lunch at the house and celebrated this adorable little girl's SECOND birthday!

It was a wonderful weekend of fun and family.  A HUGE, HUGE thank you to John and Jackie for hosting us.  It was such a blast!

Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

by Steig Larsson

Length: 590 pages

Format: Paperback
Price: $1 (used)

How I heard about it: I had heard of it when the movie came out, but my dad had picked it up in an airport and said it turned out to be pretty interesting.

Basic Premise: Reporter Mikael Blomkvist is hired by an old business giant to chronicle his family tree and help him write his autobiography, but his real mission is to discover whatever became of his favorite niece, who disappeared mysteriously thirty-six years ago. What he discovers is more involved - and far more sinister - than anyone could have imagined.

My Take: 5 out of 10 (scale here)
I could really take or leave this book.

It was incredibly slow in the beginning. I mentioned that on my Facebook page, and several people chimed in. It seemed like about half the people thought it was horrible and abandoned it, and the other half LOVED it and encouraged me to keep going. I kept at it, mainly because I had a sick kiddo who napped a lot and I had time. The constant flood of business and economic talk was a bit much, but what really bothered me was all the sex, and there were two types in this book, neither of which were the good kind. The first was sexual violence. There was a lot of very, very disturbing sexual acts in this book. They were not glorified - they were treated as heinous, and well the should be, but still, it was a bit much for me. The other kind was casual sex, which the characters engaged in constantly and as if there were no consequence, physical or emotional.  I understand that this is not a novel for kids, but I can't help but think what a young person would take away about sex if they read this book.  Add it to the ever-growing list of ways our society mistreats sex.

The book did have some redeeming qualities.  It was a page-turner (after about page 200) and it was quite the mystery.  There were only two elements to the story that I saw coming, and they were relatively small.  As I always am after reading a book that's been turned into a movie, I am interested in seeing the film, but I am wary of the graphic violence.  I will have to research it before diving in to that one.

List progress:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins

The Letter

I got The Letter in the mail this week.

I met a group of people for lunch shortly after.  One of my teacher friends was there.  We had a conversation like this:
Me: Don't check your mailbox.
Her: (not looking at me) Why?
Me: (silence)
Her: (looking up and seeing my look) Oh. OHHHHHHH. Already?
Me: (sad nod)
Her: Aww man.  I'm not opening it.
Non-teacher-friend-across-the-table: Whaaaaaaaaat are you two talking about?
Her: The Letter.
Me: That's "The Letter" with a capital T and a capital L.
Him: (looking confused)
Her: It's the letter our superintendent sends us every year to remind us we have to go back to work.
Me: It's like Voldemort in Harry Potter. It's that-which-must-not-be-named. 

And it is.  IT SO IS.

It caused me to look at the calendar and realize there is an appallingly small amount of summer left.  So, I checked on my goals:

Health Goals:

• watch the diet very carefully, focusing on fresh, plant-based foods
• once my back has recovered, continue with yoga and frequent walking
• continue oil pulling (not sure this is necessarily a "health" goal, but it makes my mouth feel clean and I do believe my teeth are a bit whiter)
• drink only water, but allow myself one tea per week
• weight down to 140

Reading Goals:

• finish my list - only 5 more to go!
• read Catcher in the Rye (for you, Lara!)
• read my two parenting books (one of my unreached 30 Before 30 goals)
• reread Mockingjay

Relational Goals:

• take at least one trip down to OK to visit my brother and his family
• go on no less than FOUR non-kid outings with my super-hot husband of nearly 10 years - no, but two feels pretty good...hopefully we can squeeze one more in
• oh yeah...and celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary
• try to connect with the women in my moms class at least once a week OUTSIDE of Sunday
• coordinate a freezer cooking night at church

Spiritual Goals:

• continue to be discipled
• lead a Moms Connect Group
• participate in our movies/13 Coffees Connect Group both by going and doing the prep beforehand
• focus on prayer - in progress
• increase Bible study - in progress

Family Goals:

• take a (small) trip - happening this weekend
• make a summer "do" list with my son...and do all the stuff! - in progress
• throw him a 4.5 birthday party (his birthday is right after Christmas so we party on his half birthday)
• attend the Sports Center family reunion
• enjoy time with Rick's extended family when they come in July 

Personal Goals

• make a "to do" list every week and post it in my bedroom (like the one above)
• keep my house in a constant state of cleanness - this helps my stress level stay down
• prepare home-cooked meals for the family every weekday
• finish Lucy's baby book (another of my unmet 30 Before 30 goals)
• make videos from the kids' early years of life (again, another unmet 30 goal)

Soooo...it looks like my list is a bit lacking.

My health goals have slipped by the wayside.  It's been a really rough summer with my back, but I have an appointment this week with a personal trainer of sorts who is going to help me design work outs that will strengthen and rehabilitate my back.  I kind of forgot about oil pulling :/ and, to be honest, the diet has been very on-again off-again.  I need to commit or give up, so I'm committing.  And I feel like 140 from 147ish has been WAY harder than 190 to 145.  Not sure how that works, but it definitely feels that way.

In terms of reading goals, my list says I have four more books to read before the end of summer.  I'm going to take the Parenting with Love & Logic class at church in the fall, so I'm going to hold off on reading that one, which means I have three more to read between now and the end of the summer: Shepherding a Child's Heart, Catcher in the Rye, and Mockingjay.  It's happening.

Relational goals...boom.  Spiritual goals consist of prayer and scripture study, which is constantly in progress.  Family goals have only to finish up the list Charlie and I started.  Otherwise, I feel pretty good about these.

If I'm totally honest, I knew the last two personal goals were not going to happen this summer.  But I don't want to forget about them, so I keep them on my list.  I have also done a pretty good job with the to-do list every week.  But keeping your house in a constant state of cleanliness when your husband is demolishing the upstairs is, well, pretty much impossible. I'm giving myself a pass on that.

So, in the two (sad face) weeks to come, I will:

• Nail the diet
• Walk and exercise according to my trainer's plan
• Read 3 books
• Go on a no-kids date with my husband
• Prayer and Bible study daily
• Finish Charlie's summer do list
• To do lists each week

I can do this.

Book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

Length: 381 pages

Format: Hardback
Price: Free - checked out from the library

How I heard about it: Recommended by a friend

Basic Premise: Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 of cervical cancer, but she survived because doctors who didn't ask permission took her cells and replicated them, using them for further cancer studies, AIDS research, even sending them into space.  They launched a multi-million dollar cell tissue industry and her family had no idea it was happening.

My Take: 8 out of 10 (scale here)
This book was endlessly fascinating.  I really don't know much anything about medical science (or regular science, to be frank), but I remember sitting in a coffee shop with my friend and former college roommate a few years ago and listening to her talk about this book.  She said she had heard about HeLa cells all through her collegiate and professional training as a sonographer, but had never realized that "He" and "La" were the beginnings of the first and last name of the woman from whom they came 60 years ago.  And she wasn't told.  And neither was her family.  And there are literally BILLIONS of these cells all over the planet.  And she was black and this all happened at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.  It sounded interesting.

It's a disjointed plot.  Skloot skips back and forth, documenting both Henrietta's life and story beginning in the 30s, and her own story of learning about the cells, struggling to make contact with the family, and unearthing what really happened.  There is quite a bit of science in the book, causing me to read slowly and deliberately, but I didn't mind it because it was all so interesting.  I also appreciated (but also balked just a little at) the way Skloot presented nearly all the factual information without a detectable bias, despite the absolute injustice in certain points of the story.

The fact that the debate regarding human tissue and cell samples and who "owns" the rights to them is still going on and has not come to a legal consensus is fascinating to me.  Though HeLa is probably the most well-known instance, there are a multitude of other cells, once belonging to humans who did not give consent and, in many cases, had no idea their cells were even taken, that are being bought and sold all over the world.  If you've ever had any kind of -ectomy (as in a tonsillectomy, which I had just before I turned 20), it's unlikely the doctor just threw the removed tissue away.  It's far more likely that it was passed on to researchers.

Interesting.  I highly recommend this one if you want a bit of an academic read.  It's a far cry from YAL!

List Progress:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins

New Reading List

I finished my YAL reading list and decided that I really like reading from a list.  I pretty much like any list, so it makes sense that I like reading from one.  I always have a mental list of books to read, but writing it down made it so much easier to keep track and cross them off.

So, I'm doing it again, but this time I only have two YAL titles:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins

I know...it's a strange list.  The two parenting books are summer goals, so I really need to get on those quick because, well, summer is rapidly slipping away.  The two classics are ones I'm embarrassed to say I have never read, so I've got to take care of those.   I have obviously already read Mocking Jay, but I did so in the two days that followed its release in 2010.  I read it so fast and hated it so much that I'm just now forgiving Suzanne Collins for it and thinking I need to give it another shot.  As for the other four, they were all recommended by friends.

Here's to knocking out most of this list before summer's over!

The Last One

My children are ROCK STARS at sleeping.  Charlie was sleeping through the night at three months with only three nights of training and was a serious napper.  When he got to be old enough, he would point to the stairs and say, "night night?" when he wanted a nap, which was often.  We thought he was good, and then Lucy came along.  She was sleeping through the night at TWO MONTHS and taking GLORIOUS naps.  And as I type this, my husband is sawing, banging, and nail-gunning upstairs.  I have checked on both kids and they are still sound asleep.  I am not sure why my kids are such great sleepers, other than the fact that they were c-section babies, and the nurses in the hospital told us that, by virtue of that fact, they would be.  Whatever - I'm not questioning it!

But for some reason, Lucy woke up at 3 AM.  She cried out just a little and then stopped.  About ten minutes later, she did it again.  I know I could have left her and she would have been fine, but by that point I was awake and thinking I could do with a little snuggle.  So I tiptoed in and lifted her out of her crib.  I sat down in the rocker fully expecting her to whine or squirm, but she did neither.  She just let me hold her.  She likes it when I sing to her, and she especially likes it when I replace the words with her name ("Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music works great for this).  So I just sang to her.  After about five minutes, I rotated her so that she was lying on my shoulder like she is in the picture above, and she didn't fight it like I expected.  She just snuggled her head down and fell asleep.  And as I sat there rocking her, I thought, this is probably the last time I will ever rock my baby to sleep.

You see, Lucy is our last baby.  I have written a blog post in my head about our decision to stop after two, but upon reflection, I feel like it's one I really just don't want to share.  I will just say that it was an extremely difficult decision.  And as I sat rocking and humming to my blissfully sleeping baby girl, I was overcome by the fact that I will probably never do this again.  Oh, she will let me rock her when she is sick, and she will let me cuddle her every once in a while, but this exact thing will probably never happen again.  And there is some sadness there.

But mainly, there is joy.  I don't know if I've ever seen a happier, sweeter, more precious little girl anywhere.  And I still have 16 more years with her under my roof.

YAL Reading List DONE!

So this is my list.  I wrote it out on December 21st, so for all intents and purposes, I started at the beginning of 2014.  I have never read from a list before, but this was a great exercise, and I also enjoyed finding the books as cheaply as possible and getting to know the YAL section of the pubic library better.

So, my progress:

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer done, review here
• Vote by Gary Paulsen done, review here
• The Compound by S.A. Bodeen done, review here
• Just One Day by Gayle Forman done, review here
• Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger ABANDONED
• Island of Thieves by Josh Lacey - done, review here
• The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau done, review here
• Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner done, review here
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey done, review here
• Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein done, review here
• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys done, review here
• Imprisoned by Martin W. Sandler done, review here
• The President Has Been Shot by James Swanso done, review here
• March by John Lewis done, review here
• The Vine Basket by Josanne La Valley done, review here
• The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan done, review here
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowel done, review here
• If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch done, review here
• Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan done, review here
• This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith I didn't read this one, but I read another by the same author (review here) and didn't like it enough to bother with this one 

In addition to these titles, I have also read:

• Looking for Alaska by John Green (review here)
• Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton (review here)
• The Giver by Lois Lowry (review here)
• Independent Study by Joelle Charbonneau (review here)
• Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff (review here)
• Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (review here)

That's a total of 26 books.  I did abandon Etiquette and Espionage.  I tried - I REALLY did.  But it was awful.  So, really, that's only 25 titles.  BUT! It's 25 titles in almost as many weeks.  A book a week is pretty darn good!

If I had to recommend only five books from this list, they would be:
The Testing
The Compound
The President Has Been Shot
Eleanor & Park
The 5th Wave

Book: Vote

Vote

by Gary Paulsen

Length: 131 pages

Format: Paperback
Price: $6.29 on Amazon (I looked for this book EVERYWHERE and couldn't avoid buying it if I wanted to finish my list. *sigh*)

How I heard about it: my awesome YAL conference

Basic Premise: Kevin is running for student body president to impress a girl. The problem is...so is the most attractive, charismatic, babe-magnet in the entire school.  Kevin's political strategies are put to the test.

My Take:  5 out of 10 (scale here)
This book was remarkably like the last one...ehhh.

I like Paulsen. A lot. I always have, and I was intrigued with this new line of books he has recently published: Liar, Liar, Flat Broke, and Crush are "companion novels."  It was written with snark and wit, something very attractive to my boys.  It didn't require much thinking (something that is also attractive to middle school boys), and there was nothing particularly riveting about the plot.  It will be a good one to give kids, but I won't be reading it again, or picking up any of the companions for myself.

The 4th

I love the 4th of July.  For me, it's Christmas, and then the 4th of July.  I LOVE it.  And when we moved to this neighborhood, the morning of the 4th got a whole lot more fun because they do a parade.  A BIG one - so big, it was featured on national news as one of the top ten "small town" (even though our neighborhood isn't really a town) parades in the nation.  It's pretty fun, if I do say so!

We have people over for breakfast and then we sit and watch the parade from our front lawn.  Last year, I made a bunch of different things for breakfast.  This year, I decided to make pancakes and CRAFTS.

I am not a craft person, and there's a reason for that.  I like the way they look, but I hate the time they take and I hate actually doing them.  But last year I made this wreath:

And I figured this was the year for some crafty stuff since it's summer and I have plenty of time!  So I started looking around on Pinterest (which I generally don't like) and found a few cheap ideas.  One was this:

It's a wind blower thing made out of strips cut from plastic table cloths.  It was fun and I got enough materials to be able to make with the kids.  The second undertaking was:

Being someone who hates to craft and hates to use fine motor skills, I immediately went to my mom for help on these.  So she gets credit for, like, 90% of this.  I did paint a few and did the stars on a few.  But Charlie gets credit for the "fireworks" that went inside:

You paint a coffee filter, cut slits all around it, poke a pipe cleaner through it, secure, and voila! Cheap, cute, decorations!

I called that good.  I decided to make only pancakes this year...until my dad brought over some old bananas and I found raspberries and blackberries in the freezer.  So I made pancakes and "Star Spangled Banana Bread."

We had a lovely array of food, including Patriotic Puppy Chow, Old Glory Cinnamon Rolls, and Red, White, and Blue cake.  It was fun. :)

And then, there was the parade!

This is the view from our lawn in both directions down the street.  I've got to say, I'm sure glad I live on the park and don't have to worry about parking and getting to it.

And can we have a moment for this woman playing in the band with her baby strapped to her chest?  That's dedication.

Lucy and I had a great time on the lawn watching the parade.  I managed to catch these two pictures nearly back to back before the parade started:

Funny girl.  And isn't that the cutest dress ever?  Love it.

The parade is always full of military vehicles, kids on bikes and in wagons, and emergency vehicles like fire trucks, and politicians.  One liberal politician stopped to give a sucker to Lucy.  My uber-conservative father-in-law had a thing or two to say about that. :)  But my FAVORITE display was this one:

That's my niece pulling my son and nephew.  They ran out of candy so they just waved a lot.  It was adorable.

As always, it was a great time! Thanks to all who came!

Book: Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life

Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life

by James Patterson

Length: 320 pages

Format: Paperback
Price: $3 at the Scholastic book sale!

How I heard about it: this is one of those books you hear about simply because kids like it

Basic Premise: Rafe Khatchadorian is just a regular middle schooler looking for a way to fit in.  When he sits through an all-school assembly on the school handbook full of rules, he thinks he finds it by issuing a challenge to himself to break every single rule in the book by the end of the year.

My Take: 5 out of 10 (scale here)
Ehhhh.

This is a book my boys will love.  They will like Rafe because he is funny, interesting, and has guts.  They will also really enjoy all the pictures, which I have to admit, I enjoyed too.  This is a great book for lower and reluctant readers.  Personally, I finished the book because, well, I had to.  The book I really wanted (Vote by Gary Paulsen - the last one from my list!) hadn't arrived yet and this one was on my shelf...plus, I needed a break from heavy, serious reading after Rose Under Fire.  I have gotten myself in the habit of reading for pleasure every day (THANK YOU, SUMMER!) and I wasn't about to waste the time.  So, there you have it.  A fun book...but not a great one for me.  Definitely one I will recommend to students, though.

Charlie's 4.5 Birthday Party

Last year, since Lucy couldn't be around people yet and Charlie's birthday is so close to Christmas, we celebrated his 3.5 birthday in June at the pool.  It was awesome, so we did the same thing again this year!

Charlie played baseball this year, so we decided to keep things simple and go with baseball.  Our sweet and very talented friend Sarah designed the invitations for us.  Cute, huh?

Baseball food :)

Sarah also did the banners for us.  You can't see it, but it says "Happy Birthday Charlie"

Grandma made the adorable cupcakes!

Baby Ruths and baseballs for favors!

It was a great time. Thanks to everyone who came out to help us celebrate!