Chasing Bluebirds

the REAL roald dahl museum post

ok, so here are the pictures of the actual museum! yay!

enter between these two funny buildings
there is a really cool cafe to the right (i had a fantastic "jacket potato")
inside shots are a bit fuzzy, phone and camera are crappy in poor light and it was raining that day... several museum type rooms with fun and creative stations for the kids
i think liz and emily were the perfect age for this museum
this was the shadow puppet theatre and there were stations to stamp a book you got at the beginning of the tour

characters from the movie fantastic mr. fox (and chris, clowning around)
while the girls colored in this fun coloring room, i walked around to see what other kids had done. there were lots of stations designed to help with story telling and story writing. i thought the combinations were neat (and some naughty, just like roald dahl)


the mother of all coloring rooms, unlimited supplies
there were school children there (dressed in suit and tie, both boys and girls) so we could not hear the story telling session (bummer) but we had fun watching them play. the girls were too intrigued to notice
classic:

view to the courtyard, so nice and clean
surprisingly not much about chocolate, but still a very nice collection of his work. the gift shop was to die for (still pining for a book i didnt buy) and lunch at the cafe "twit"and then a walk through town to the cemetery made a perfect day trip.
hope you enjoyed the tour!!

close encounters of the family kind

i had to use that title again (i had it on my facebook status and really liked it) i could use it for our entire vacation so far actually, close close close. we are road tripping each day, seeing the local sights of colorado, wyoming and southern south dakota and have settled in to a pretty good routine. i have always enjoyed reading books on families who take a year off and travel the world together, what an awesome gift you could give your kids. i am not willing to sell my house and do that just yet, but i really admire those who can manage it. the girls are finally able to entertain themselves and work together on projects without constant help, it makes the sight seeing so much easier. all this togetherness has its ups and downs, mostly ups which include lots of lovely conversations with the girls. lizzie is growing up so fast, she has wonderful ideas and thoughts, so chatty and fun. being the baby of the bunch, her neediness and whining can get on nerves and its nice to see her maturing and joining in on conversations in a productive way. of course she still has her moments (like pooping out halfway around the tower) this is devils tower in wyoming, it is the first national monument and a sacred area to the indians who lived here. it was also used in the movie "close encounters of the third kind" which we are dying to see now. i recommend it as a nice day trip visit, it is relatively close to mt. rushmore. we really enjoyed coming over the rolling hills to see it off in the distance (the surrounding farm land is gorgeous right now as well). we took the short hike around it (liz made it about halfway) and enjoyed it from all angles. i'll leave you with some prairie views on our way back to colorado being the bookaholic that i am, i always choose a book to read to give my trip a "theme" and this trip i brought the third olive farm book (i had read the first third but couldnt get into it, moving on to the twilight books). it was a perfect choice and i have enjoyed moments of quiet reading, traveling to the south of france each day. carol drinkwater is a fantastic writer, very sensuous and lyrical, i cannot get enough! lucky for me she has two new books out making that FIVE olive farm books (i also have the companion photo book which is glorious all by itself) so i get to continue my journey with her when i get back home. we have one more day here and then its a two day drive back to so cal, back to house cleaning and work...back to school starting and camp fire meetings... energized, refreshed and ready to go!

new bikes and a book i cant stop thinking about

emily mastered her old bike and earned herself a new one, lizzie graduated up to a bike since her tricycle has seen better days and our whole family is riding round and round the neighborhood together, finally! i have been completely absorbed with "animal vegetable miracle" just soaking it up, every word. i have the audio book and i am reading in tandem, it just hits home for me right now, the most perfect read. i have our family garden plot rolling along and with these oil prices it makes sense that driving food from coast to coast (or country to country) is a waste of fuel... that buying organic and local makes sense. i get it! every chapter brings another twist, some things i already knew about (being vegetarian, i had issues with factory farming) and some things i can't believe i had never given thought to. simple concepts about how americans eat, shop and grow food. i wish everyone would read this book because it's interesting and "normal" not too complicated to grasp.i am so sick of how everything in this country is tied to the government and some kind of racket or scandal, so SICK of it! i just want to know that the right thing is being done, that people aren't ripping us all off, that we can eat food without getting sick, that animals aren't suffering and small family farms aren't being pushed out so large corporations can take over the world. are we just all sitting around like ignorant idiots? ok, i am going off a bit... back to the book...i love camille's (the authors teenage daughter) cameos and her recipes, i have made the disappearing squash and orzo recipe which tasted great. looking forward to trying out some more recipes and learning how to can tomatoes, we picked our first ripe tomato yesterday and it was awesome! cant wait for enough to make some salsa, buckets and buckets.

christmas fast approaching

this has been hands down the fasted race to christmas i have ever experienced. i probably say that every year, but MAN november is just smoking by. i actually bought some christmas ornaments today because i just dont know if i will ever get another chance, who has time to shop? i saw a couple buy 300 dollars worth of toys and high five each other at the checkout stand, whew! they were done i guess. i have always liked to savor the holidays so i am trying to be calm and enjoy it. i guess when i look at my december calendar and see most every day filled with something to do, it gets a bit overwhelming. i totally missed this again, damn it!

oh and by the way, in case any freaks are reading my blog (she won't know who she is, but everyone else will) there is an awesome aisle at k-mart devoted to an entirely purple christmas, purple tree, purple ornaments, purple paper, purple everything. you can spend 1000 dollars on purpling out your house. happy holidays!

lost in books

emily asked me yesterday as we were driving home from our camp fire meeting... "what's your favorite color?" gray, "favorite animal?" elephant, "favorite food" pizza, "favorite store...oh i KNOW!!! book store!" and yep, i realized i have a major book addiction, even my daughter is on to me. MAJOR! i dream books, read whenever i get 1 minute, 2 minutes... a 10 minute break, score! i have a book in the john, a book in my purse, something to read in just about every nook possible. a maxed out credit card? fancy clothes, exotic trips, expensive dinners you say? no, books. plain and simple. love them.

so of course i was a sucker for this (having my own 98 year old grandfather living alone)... i think i am going to buy a dozen of these for christmas gifts. this book left me breathless (as so few books do... this and this and this and maybe this have left me speechless, gasping for breath. i am probably the only person on the planet who has a physical reaction to reading)
so now i am thinking, maybe i can reproduce my own version of this book using photos about my own grandpa? his house is just bursting with potential. just thinking.

this book and my preliminary version...

book club fizzles

well, the book club i joined recently fizzled after i read two books, attended only two meetings... of course i chose the latest book in the middle of the inevitable demise of the group. oh well! all i can say is this book was amazing, i had goose bumps as i read the ending and on through the notes regarding irene nemirovsky's real life. the story is so beautifully written, moving and dramatic with touches of humor. it is only the first two parts of a five part series, there are hints to what irene would have written had she lived and it is just beyond creepy to read her notes. i have been fascinated with world war two ever since college because for some reason i focused on early american history and just never learned much about the modern wars. i am so sad i wont be able to discuss this at a meeting because it would have been a fascinating book club choice! oh well, jen, if you end up reading this, lets get together over coffee sometime! this will definitely go on my favorite list of books... another recent addition is "around the world in 80 days" both are just brilliant!

hoping to find more of her writing translated soon.

i watched this movie this weekend up at the cabin, sometimes a movie is just so perfect, that's all i can say. lizzie watched with me and immediately recognized the peter rabbit book as one she had recently picked out at the book store, it was nice to read it together after watching such a sweet movie. rare peaceful moments.

Alexander

when i first saw this book i realized it was one i had read many times as a child, but hadn't seen or thought about in ??? years. you know that strange feeling of recognition, a memory from way back? my mom made me a striped horse that looked just like this, i still have it packed away. i wonder if this was her inspiration?
by the way, the chicken on this cover reminds me of this.

leo politi

sometimes it's good to check your messages

so, i have been known to check the house phone messages like....um....never if i can help it. most of the time i rely on my cell phone and how many times is the message, "oh, you aren't home so i will try your cell..." which means i already got the message. i hate all the, "please stay on the line for an important message!!!" then 10 minutes of "hold" music plays only to find it is an advertisement of some kind. no thanks!

so imagine my surprise when my neighbor (and fellow cerritos wetland member) leaves a message that goes something like this, "um...not sure if you would be interested, sorry to bother you, some books, not in the best condition, retired teacher, library editions,old...not in the greatest shape, off to goodwill, let me know if you are interested." ok can you say speed dial? i was over there so fast and could not believe my eyes when i saw the huge boxes, heavy with old hard back children's books. i almost passed out and did scream when the first book i pulled from the top box was a ? first edition "james and the giant peach" with the illustrations i remember as a child. perfect condition. there are so many gorgeous examples, i could write for days on them. these were even picked over by several other people before me and i still scored big time! thanks pat bliss! i am in heaven over here!

cool elephant book

and little red riding hood

kids and books, my life

yeah, i am obsessed with books. i have been grinning from ear to ear today as i happily sort out books i have had stacked to the rafters for months, waiting for a new bookshelf. the cool retro toybox had to go unfortunately, teeny house, very little wall space. oh well, i think we can use it somewhere else! maybe the living room? just kidding chris!

cat shadows

elizabeth said last night, "when i get big (meaning: "grow up"), i am going to be SUPERMAN!!!"

my idea of fun, this job is only half done!

the toy box my mom and i wrestled out of the trash and carted home while i was pregnant with emily...my dad fixed it up and as it waits to be hauled to the garage, the girls have made a puppet theater out of it! fantastic!