thanksgiving weekend pt.2

SATURDAY


We went to the movies. All the girls had read The Invention of Hugo Cabret and they were very anxious to see the movie Hugo. I must say, sitting next to Megan in a theater seeing a movie of a book she has read, hence knowing what comes next, is not what you'd call the best movie viewing. The girls loved it, Adam not so much, though we both agreed the cinematography was fabulous. I think it was a wee bit long, got slow in some parts, but I enjoyed it.


Afterward we went for a bit of window shopping and milling about. I already had to return some things believe it or not.


We hit anthropologie,


and of course barnes&noble.


Almost at once it turned to dusk and then really that's when the magic started. Yes it was chilly out, but all I wanted was to stay for a while surrounded by the lights and Christmasy atmosphere. I could tell I was not the only one.




We drove home in the most magical light and watched the light fade along the horizon. What a lovely afternoon/evening we had together as a family.


As we watched the sliver of a moon follow us home, it was the perfect end to a most delightful holiday weekend.

four for friday

01.
I have my brother's girls here with us this weekend so my dear Adam is out numbered once again, 6 to 1. It's kind of nice that their coming falls on Conference weekend because it means we can hunker down at home and have no need to go anywhere. With all of us together it's hard not to imagine what it would be like being the mother of all 5 kids, girls no less...I'm thinking pretty crazy.

02. After scrubbing my nieces puke off Megan's floor this morning, yep she's sick, my darling husband kissed me goodbye and managed to rip half my toenail off. Poor guy was mortified when it happened. I for one couldn't focus on his apology as the pain almost caused me to faint...apparently I don't do good with this sort of thing. It was a strange morning. Strange day really.

03.
Do you know the power of the silly bands? Apparently they are great bribes. My girls will do just about anything for a package. BTW ebay has some great deals if you're in the market.

04.
Spend a good portion of time earlier in the week at barnes & noble pouring over Communication Arts Design Annual. It was loaded with so many idea I kept telling myself to make a mental note of certain projects when in fact I know I won't be able to and just need to buy it so I can use for future reference...Adam you getting this?

I was going to do five, but I only got four in my right now. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

xox, amy

outing

If I could freeze time it would be now. Today with my little family was perfect--as perfect as I think it can be. We spent the entire afternoon together and there was no fights, no crying, no whining, no one saying I'm tired or bored. Everyone just happy to be together tooling around town before we headed to a birthday party.

Our day took us to Barnes&Noble, it usually does. Our normal routine is the girls make their way to the kids section while Adam and I pick out a few books of our own to look through and then we meet back up. This time the girls found the "little miss" books and Megan was thrilled to see that she", little miss chatterbox", was actually in them. That surprisingly provided lots of entertainment for her.



For me the best part was being admits the action, but being consciously aware of how good it was. More than once I looked over at Adam and said, "I'm loving this day. It's so good right now." he agreed. It's so enjoyable to see how excited my girls are to find something new and then eager to share it. Bella and Tess spend sometime in the juvenile section looking for books they're interested in while Megan read about reptiles with her dad. I love that they're readers and once a book is finished that they're excited to move onto the next adventure. Bella wanted Percy Jackson book #5, Tess is anxious to start Diary Of a Whimpy Kid, and Megan well, she was pretty fond of Little Miss Chatterbox.




[Tess and Bella were showing me Diary Of a Whimpy Kid and how the book is full of sketches. They found one of his baby brother and they couldn't stop laughing...it caught on.]

The best part about taken self portraits is you never know what everyone else is doing. You hope they don't know a picture is being taken so they are natural. Looks like it was natural. We definitely all had a good laugh.

how i found them

Like I said in my post yesterday, most activities we've done this summer have been a direct result of selling our home and needing to leave so someone could tour it. Wednesday night was no exception. It was 7 pm and we had to find something to do with our time so the five of us headed to Barnes and Noble.

Immediately upon arriving I usually check the new fiction, recommendations, and new to paperback sections while Adam starts at the magazine rack, and the girls head to the children section. After about 10 minutes of browsing the front I decided to check on the girls first before browsing the fiction section and this is what I saw...



I first walked straight to the train set, I figured the girls were there, but when I didn't see them I turned around to move toward the other end and found them like this, reading together. The other patrons must have thought I was crazy because I hit the deck. I didn't want to them to see me and disrupt this perfect moment before I captured it. Luckily, I had my camera and was easily able to get them. I peeked around the bookcase for a while watching them, delighted to see my three engaged in a book together.

They never did find me watching them, I met up with them later over by the trains as if I was none the wiser. But what a sweet moment it was for me to see them they way I envision them together. I pray time will not change their closeness.

spt - eight ...a book

It's the smell that gets me every time. When the door opens and the distinct smell hits me, it has this calming effect on me. It makes me smile. Even when I wasn't a reader walking into a book store felt good to me.


[although "eight" is not a book i would read or am drawn to when i saw it on the shelf i knew i needed to use it for spt this month.]

I love the aisles of stacks and stacks of books, how easily you can get lost in there all afternoon.
I love the unique design of each cover (actually I dream of one day getting the opportunity of designing a book cover).
I love searching for the one book that could just be my new favorite.
I love selecting several books and finding a comfy place to browse through them.
I love the crispness of a brand new book and sifting through the pages, again taking in the smell.

I think part of the reason I am so fond of books & bookstores is because I associate them with Adam. Going to the bookstore has been a part of our routine since the time we were dating. Instead of dinner and a movie often we will do dinner and spend the rest of the evening at the bookstore. Having books in the home has, from the beginning, been important to him and so they became important to me. I thank him for having such a love of books and for sharing it with me, it's hard to imagine my life now without a book in my bag. We are both hoping this same effect will carry on to our girls that being surrounded by them, they too, will be drawn to them.