Natural History Museum

Took the two youngest to the Natural History Museum today. We had a great time looking at the dinosaurs and the stuffed mammals. C really liked roaming around the Oceans exhibit -- he loved the giant squid.

I had totally forgotten that on Tuesdays there is free admission to the butterfly hut on the second floor! So great. C loved checking each type of butterfly off of the list provided by the museum. And L really enjoyed herself too -- grabbing and pointing and laughing. So glad I was able to catch that today!

Harry Potter Crazy

We are well into the third Harry Potter book at our house and the kids are still happily obsessed. We are reading about a chapter a night, and then we watch the movies when we finish the book.

Their Harry & Hermione costumes are ready for Halloween (including the adorable round glasses for young Harry). Sorry to say that Harry will not be wearing a fake lightning bolt scar on his forehead. He's convinced that with the scar, he'll be able to do real magic!

Not sure yet what we are going to do when we finish the third book...I'm thinking the fourth book (and beyond) are a bit much for such young kids. Will definitely be something to think about.

Rock Band

Home again after a long road trip...Virginia to New York to Boston and back all in 5 days with 3 kids and no other adults. So very tired...

But we had a great time and the kids are now obsessed with the Beatles. We played Beatles Rock Band at our cousins' house in Brooklyn and the kids just loved it. When I got home on Sunday night, we found someone selling it on craigslist for super cheap and we picked it up last night.

The kids have been singing and really enjoying themselves, so its money well spent. Can't wait to really try it out and see how we do!

Halloween, already.

We haven't even gone back to school, but the kids have already decided what they want to be for Halloween and want to get started on their costumes. We've been reading the Harry Potter books at night and now C wants to be Harry and B wants to be Hermione. Should be easy enough: robe, tie, white shirt, wand, and glasses for Harry.

I broke out my knitting bag for the first time in over 6 years last night. I'm hoping I can remember enough to make them some "Gryffindor" scarves to wear with the costumes. I was having a lot of trouble remembering the basics, but then thought of searching on YouTube for some instructions. Within minutes I was all set. Pretty cool.

One Day

Finished a terrific book last night: "One Day" by David Nicholls. I read a lot of books and there are very few actually make me wish I had been the one to think up the story and write it so well. This book made me jealous of David Nicholls.

Simple plot -- a love story about two best friends from college and how their lives and potential romance play out over the next 20 years. The clever part is that the story checks in on them only once a year, always on the same date. Well done and difficult to put down.

Here's the review that convinced me to pick it up:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/david-nicholls-one-day,43374/

This book made me laugh and it also made me cry.

Only other books to make me cry? "Cold Mountain", "Persuasion", and "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius".

FYI: The last book that made me jealous of the author was "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl.

"Checking up on Daddy" by Adam Roth

And now a quick plug for a great new children's book written by a childhood friend.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cliff-schecter/checking-up-on-daddy_b_661829.html

Feeling Domestic

I must have been busy today around the house...I just looked at my shirt and it was covered in caulk and brownie mix.