The Bookshelf - Summer Reading

Recently, the world marked a super important milestone in my life...the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter. I was in college when this book came out and picked it up at the suggestion of my Children's Lit professor. She was one of my favorite professors and she wasn't wrong. The book was amazing. Harry Potter turned me into a reader. Before Harry came along, I only read when I had to for school, never for pleasure, and I couldn't wait to share the stories with my future students.

Flash forward many...many years, and now I'm patiently waiting for my kids to get a little bit older so I can share the series with Zoey and Beck. For now, we love finding new books at the library and bookstore...we're pretty much book hoarders around here!

dot garland | make believe print 

Here's what we've been reading this summer.

Cats Night Out -- Dancing and counting, two of Zoey's favorite things!  

Love is a Tutu -- A sweet book for any ballerina/tutu-lover.

Iggy Peck, Architect -- We also love Rosie's and Ada's books, but lately, Zoey has been obsessed with Iggy Peck. She's a bit of a builder herself, so I think that's what draws her in. Plus the illustrations are incredible.

The Dark -- Lemony Snicket for the preschooler set. Perfect for your little 'fraidy cat. 

Where the Wild Things Are -- One of my childhood favorites, I love that both my kids pick this one often. Beck is super into the wild things and laughs every time they gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes...
Shh! We Have a Plan -- This one is so much fun to read aloud! Zoey knows it by heart at this point, and can read it to Beck from memory.
Should I Share My Ice Cream -- I hope we can all agree that Mo Willems is pretty great. Probably my second favorite children's author (second only to Chris Van Allsburg), and the Elephant and Piggie series...well, I'll just say that every time we see one of these that isn't already in our collection, it mysteriously ends up in our cart. The kids just can't get enough. (And they're fun for the reader, too) This one is perfect for summer and has been on repeat lately.

Like most moms, I don't get to read as often as I'd like, but some nights, I get about 30 minutes after the kids are in bed to chill before it's Netflix time. (We just finished Glow and started Ozark. Have you seen it? So good!) The last book I read, The Kind Worth Killing, was a serious page turner.  It switches narrators, similar to Gone Girl and Girl on a Train (two of my favorites), and is full of twists and turns. Just when I thought I had things figured out, they'd drop a bomb on me. I love books like that!

Right now, I'm about halfway through The Woman in Cabin 10. I've reached the part of the book where I want to just keep reading. It's sitting on the table right now, calling me. I have NO IDEA how this story is gonna play out and I love it! 

What are you reading this summer? I'd love some ideas for my next book!

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Beck's First Birthday

Before the Fourth, we celebrated Beck's first. I had plans, you guys. There were gonna be balloons, a cute cake for Beck to smash and cupcakes for the rest of us, an adorable, blog-worthy surfer motif. Gummy sharks were involved. It was gonna be great!
But...well...it didn't quite work out the way I had planned. Cuz does it ever?

t-shirt | shorts

We had family in town, who had blessedly offered to watch the kids so the Hubs and I could scoot off for lunch, something we NEVER do. Never. In fact, I think the last child-free meal we had in Virginia Beach went down a few days before Beck was born. A year ago. I made the cake and cupcakes before we left, with the plan to make the frosting that night. Damon and I had an amazing lunch with a gorgeous view. I may have even had an adult beverage with my meal. It was perfect. On the way home, we stopped by the party store and picked up the balloons. We felt so relaxed and productive, so relaxed that I completely flaked on the frosting. Oops! I'd get it done first thing in the morning.

The morning of the celebration, the balloons were on the floor (Damon raced across town to get replacements-at no charge), the frosting wouldn't set enough to pipe it on the cupcakes, let alone frost a cake (humidity?), I dropped and broke a chunk off the cake plate (third sign of birthday apocalypse?), and I spent so much time monkeying around with the frosting that I never got a chance to set up and finish decorating before Damon had to start grilling the Hawaiian burgers for lunch. (They were sooo good, btw.) I held it together for a long time, but finally let the frustration tears flow when it was time to frost the smash cake (the frosting had been chilling in the fridge for hours hoping it would set). I figured the cupcakes didn't matter that much, we could dip them in the frosting if it came down to it, but the smash cake is all about the pictures. And the frosting was basically oozing off of it.

It was a disaster, for sure, but when it came down to it, it all tasted great, and Beck had a ball tearing that oozy cake apart!

When our company left later in the afternoon, I was straightening up the kitchen and noticed...I never even put out the gummy sharks! Doh!

With everything going on, we didn't even get a great family pic. This is as good as it gets. Haha!

But my favorite part of the first birthday...seeing how much Little Man has grown!

Happy birthday, Beck!