My kids are the luckiest ever — they have a cool aunt.
A cool, childless aunt.
A cool childless aunt who works in the apparel-design industry . . .
. . . and who decided that she wanted to design and sew costumes for all my kids this Halloween!
[jumps back and forth doing happy dance]
Seriously, this was the most adorable thing ever. The kids decided they wanted to be torotos from “My Neighbor Totoro,” except for Eleanor, who had already decided to be Kiki from “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
Kristen borrowed hoodies from the kids to get a baseline set of measurements, then came up on different Sundays for fittings. She even made “bellies” for the kids to wear underneath to give them extra plumpness.
One of the perks of Kristen’s job is salvaging all the scraps and leftovers of the various high-end fabrics and notions. There’s some interesting details to the costumes, such as micro-velcro on the hoods (for folding back the “teeth”) to the extra-puffy Japanese filler inside of the belly-stuffing.
Aren’t they incredible! Katie wore her white suit as pajamas for three straight days in a row before Halloween.
Eleanor took time to make herself a cute “witch broom” out of felt, with a pocket for Jiji the cat. I was so proud of her ingenuity!
The suits had their first outing at Trunk-or-Treat at church. Brian and I signed up to do a “black light room,” with various glow-in-the-dark fun . . . except our black light wasn’t as powerful as we hoped, so the room was kind of lame. At least we tried.
I dressed up as a Pale and Tragic Mysterious Widow, which allowed me to wear a fascinator and say things like “I can’t talk about it, the pain is too near,” or “Richard always loved the water,” or “How dare you — you are mistaken! I was NEVER in Monte Carlo!”
But the best costume by far was this one:
My friend Michelle painted her husband to look like Vincent Van Gogh! Even his shirt and face have streaky marks to look like Impressionist art!
The following day, the costumes had Outing #2 at the autumn piano recital at Frances’ house. Katie, William & Jeff all played little Halloween songs. For some reason, Eleanor didn’t perform . . . but then again, she’s doing more advanced repertoire (Gollywog’s Cakewalk! Hooray!) which takes longer to master.
I should also mention that this year I was a little envious of my kids’ Halloween music . . . so I decided to pick out and learn a Halloween piece myself! I chose the piano solo arrangement of “Kiki’s Delivery Service” from my book of Ghibli music. This was a challenging piece, but I loved learning it — it reminds me of my own amazing 13 year old Eleanor.
On Monday for FHE we carved pumpkins and ate apple pie caramel apples. I’d never made them before, and they were SO GOOD. Definitely taking time to make them again next year. Jeff had 0% interest in pumpkins until we suggested he carve his with power tools. Boom — teenager engagement accomplished. (Look for the pumpkin below filled with holes. And yes, we had a totoro pumpkin.)
Totoro Outing #4 was at school on Halloween day . . . and then Outing #5 for the Big Event Itself.
You’ll notice that I don’t have a group picture of the kids in their costumes. This is because everyone split up for Halloween this year.
Eleanor went to trick-or-treat with a friend from school (hoooooray, thank you friend for inviting her!)
William and Katie went with Brian to trick-or-treat near their elementary school.
Meanwhile Jeff stayed home, and we had a Teen Halloween Movie Night for anyone aged 12+ who wanted to come.
The kids voted to watch “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” and I had fun making Halloween goodies like whoopie pies and candy corn Krispie treats. Unfortunately, I also whipped up two batches of kettle corn before I realized that most of the kids wear braces. (including Jeff! Whoops!).
Most of the kids hadn’t seen Holy Grail before, and were kind of baffled by it. I admit it is kind of bewildering the first time you watch it. But they enjoyed it, and had a game of Apples to Apples afterwards. It was so much fun — I think we definitely need to host more teenager kickback nights in the future.
Finally, the morning after: I came downstairs to find William and Katie piling a giant tower of candy bags on top of our kitchen scale. Miraculously, it stayed upright just long enough for a picture and a reading: 16.8 pounds of candy. (“My fingers still hurt from carrying my candy bucket,” Katie complained. Oh, what a trial.)
Which sounds like a lot until you realize that in previous years we’ve gotten twenty-two pounds of candy. That’s what happens when your candy-gathering force is down by 25%, I suppose.
We had a run of spectacularly lovely autumn weather for most of the month of October, and I decided to take full advantage. It felt like retribution — nature paying us back after the last two weeks of summer were ruined by forest fire smoke.
So here are some mini descriptions of the various Items of Interest that happened during the month of October:
Jeff was promoted to the rank of Life Scout with his Boy Scout troop. Onwards to Eagle!
Jeff also achieved the distinction of being the first of my children to read all seven Harry Potter books. They are only allowed to read one a year in our household, so this is a bit of a rite of passage for them. It’s become a birthday tradition — new birthday, new Harry Potter. Jeff could barely put it down.
Katie and William had some early-release days owing to parent-teacher conference week, and we spent a Friday afternoon exploring the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden, which we hadn’t visited in years.
The Wood Wave was still in fine form for climbing.
And the Fairy House Garden was a riot! In addition to boxes of natural materials for fairy-house building, someone had scattered bunches of glass beads around as “treasures.” William and Katie gathered them all up and built a “fairy gemstone mine.” I love it when W & K play so well together.
Eleanor also completed another year of Cross Country at the middle school. She was proud of herself for not walking at the meets. We’re both happy that the crazy training days are over!
I also managed to go on a great 4 1/2 mile hike with my friend Emily and her daughter. It’s something that I wish I could do more but often find trouble making time for. Thank you to Emily for getting me out of the house.
While Brian was out of town for the dreaded ASHG conference, I took the kids to the Camp Korey Fall Festival.
Well . . .I took everyone except Jeff, who refused to come. Refused! It wasn’t worth the fight. Eleanor also didn’t really want to come at first, but is glad she did.
Honestly, the outing could have easily turned south because I didn’t know that Camp Korey (a summer camp for kids with life-altering medical conditions) had CHANGED LOCATIONS and was now much farther away . . . and instead of a pumpkin patch, there were just store-bought pumpkins in a field.
Also, they only took cash donations, and I only had $3 in my wallet. So we picked the smallest pumpkin possible and put all three in the donation box.
But what saved the day is seeing the new-and-improved Diagon Alley that’s being built at the camp. Remember the guy in Ballard who built Diagon Alley in his driveway? Well, he took that down, and decided to build a new one for the kids at this camp.
So cool! It’s much bigger than the first version. When it’s finished, the interior rooms will be fully furnished, wizard props and everything. Eleanor demanded that we return in 2022 to see the completed project.
In the meanwhile, we also enjoyed hay rides, cider, caramel apple cookies, gourd bowling, firehose cone tipping . . . yada yada, you know the drill.
When we lived in Salt Lake, Brian and I discovered that one of the best ways for our family to listen to General Conference was to load everyone in the car and drive through the mountains. We’d take the Alpine Loop down Mt. Timpanogos and then finish in Provo to have dinner with Brian’s parents.
We’ve missed the custom since moving to Seattle — the only way to listen to conference in the car was via cell phone, but we’d usually lose the signal before we drove very far. However, we’ve since purchased better-grade cell phones, so this year we decided to give it another try.
We chose the drive up Stevens Pass to Leavenworth for our drive, a part of the state we’d never seen before.
I wasn’t expecting much by way of fall color, so I was rather pleased!
We stopped at a picnic area for lunch. The grounds were dotted with a series of gigantic boulders, and the kids were excited to climb them all.
I especially enjoyed the view over the river. We weren’t the only visitors posing for portraits in that spot!
We also drove through the main drag of Leavenworth before going home. We didn’t stop in town because it was Sunday, but it looked so fun! And we had so many pleasant memories from visiting Leavenworth at Christmastime . . .
Sooooooo when we discovered that Jeff & Ella had an all-day choir retreat the following weekend, Brian and I decided to take the littles back to Leavenworth for Oktoberfest.
There was much more impressive fall color the second week. It also helped that there was bright sunlight instead of overcast.
Leavenworth has made efforts in the last few years to make Oktoberfest more family-friendly and much less “Bavarian Spring Break.” We arrived just in time to see the main street parade:
Then we walked over to Rhein Haus for incredible soft pretzels and house-made sausages. The food was wonderful, but Brian admits that he still likes Nurnberg Rostbratwurst best.
After lunch, we listened to the polka band in the gazebo, the alpenhorn-players on Main Street, and watched the antics of a clown street performer. (Katie was chosen to be part of the act, but I didn’t get any pictures that looked good.)
We also picked up Berry Berry tea to mail to grandparents (it’s Grandma Kathryn’s favorite), and of course cookies from the Gingerbread Factory for the entire family to eat at home.
After stuffing ourselves with sausage and frites, it was important to spend time doing a little hiking in Wenatchee National Forest on the way home.
We took a perfect little hike up to Hidden Lake. The fall colors were especially lovely reflected in the water.
William took pictures of Katie with his Instax camera, and another group of hikers got one of our mini-tribe.
I love my teenagers, but sometimes it’s especially nice to have time with just my littles! Love them so much!
He’s making that face because I insisted on playing “Sixteen Candles” by The Crests, which made him totally embarrassed and it was totally satisfying. I count it a win every time my teenage son squirms and yells “Mooooooooom!”
Eleanor asked me to make a special evening trip to the store so she could pick out a present for him. Surprise, surprise : Magic cards. I’ve given up on trying to figure out if Jeff has any other interests.
Here he is opening Eleanor’s present. He liked it, but also said he had a similar deck already. Ha.
Jeff asked for a Magic: the Gathering draft game party this year. He even invited — gasp — friends from school to this event. We’ve been trying to get him to do this for years.
Unfortunately, none of those friends showed up. It may be owing to the fact that Brian misprinted his phone number on the invitation Jeff handed out. We’ll never know. Fortunately, a couple other buddies from church, etc. showed up, so they still had a good (if shorter) tournament.
Also fortunately: Jeff is so very socially unaware that he didn’t register a trace of disappointment in his lame friends. His response was “oooh, more card packs for me!” and spent a long time stacking and organizing them all.
So it’s fortunate that my parents gave him a nifty new card carrying case.
Also, I knitted him this:
See the cabled eyes? See the tentacles?? I’m very proud of this strange thing.
This is a dice bag shaped like Cthulu. It’s the Elder Dice-Bag. It may be the single most nerdy thing I’ve ever made, and that includes Jeff himself. I was worried that Jeff would be disappointed by the bag, but he was SO EXCITED when he saw it and spent a good amount of time gushing over how cool it was. (“The coolest thing ever!”) He even smiled a genuine smile!
(I also included some cool steampunk dice with little gears and curlicues all over the sides. I couldn’t resist them.)
As I write this, Jeff is playing more Magic with his dad and siblings. The Magic madness may never end. There are worse ways to burn through your time and money, so I don’t mind it at all. I only wish I could occasionally get my dining room table back.
As for The Big Question: yes, Jeff is juuuuust beginning to show an interest in learning how to drive. Specifically, he wants to be able to drive so he can get a job and earn more money for Magic cards.
[Brooke waves hands in “I give up” gesture]
Brian even let him carefully cruise around an abandoned parking lot this past week. Interesting developments are surely in store. I really love this brown-eyed boy.
And now, onwards to the next nerdy knitting project: a Hufflepuff scarf for William!
How exciting — Katie was finally old enough to come along to the Girl Scout Mom & Me weekend at Camp Robbinswold.
I had a moment of bitter confusion when I realized that we hadn’t been to a Mom & Me since 2015. Three years! (There wasn’t a Mom & Me in 2016, and then 2017 was the year I Over-Camped myself and I couldn’t handle the idea of yet one more camping trip.)
Full disclosure: this was Princess Camping. We were in a winterized unit with flush toilets and showers. Meals were served in the lodge.
Our bunks. When I appeared around camp with freshly showered wet hair, I got a few jealous stares.
But that’s not the point. The point is having fun one-on-on(ish) time with my girls. And eating lots of gorp.
Everyone contributed a different ingredient to the big bags of gorp. At least 30% of the reason I came.
The theme of the weekend was “Out of This World,” so there were lots of educational and art activities about astronomy. Katie was delighted to make a “solar system” beaded necklace. I loved learning how to use sightlines and geometry to calculate how high the sun is in the sky (er . . . it was overcast, so we used the same technique to estimate the height of a tree).
Saturday afternoon was spent making tie-dye shirts and painting rocks and mini canvases. Eleanor made a rather pretty landscape picture of the Hood Canal (where Robbinswold is located).
We also took a nice long walk along the shore, just the three of us. No sea otter sightings, but we did get to see the cabins where Eleanor stayed this summer at camp.
Katie loved collecting and playing with the giant brown leaves
Eleanor spent time describing how she left her copy of “The Queen of Attolia” on a shelf just inside so she could easily grab it during downtime at summer camp
In the evening we had a guest speaker: a former NASA astronaut who told us all about what life was like on the International Space Station. Unfortunately, the clouds came in right before her talk so we couldn’t use her big telescope.
Bummer — but it did make for a spectacular moonrise. Katie was especially charmed by how beautiful it looked. It made for a great background for the all-camp sing-a-long. I’m such a sucker for camp songs, love ’em.
Our unit was shared with another group of moms and girls who were all Katie’s age. We had fun hanging out together in the evening, talking and playing games. The little girls made blanket forts in the middle of the common area. I spent time knitting my Cthulu dice bag for Jeff (more to come on that later), at which the other moms nodded politely (if they were non-geeks) or declared “the coolest thing ever your son is so lucky” (if they were geek geeks).
On Sunday morning we all worked together to tidy up the camp (lots of floor mopping and table wiping) then we gathered to trade SWAPS.
A SWAP = Some Whatchamacallit Affectionately Pinned. It’s a Girl Scout thing where people make little trinkets on safety pins to trade. Lots of good fun.
We were missing our Grandma on this trip (she’s come with us in the past) so we re-created some of the pictures Eleanor had done with her.
It was a little sad to say goodbye and come home, but we were very tired out (both girls fell asleep on the drive back) and more than happy to say hello to our comfy mattresses Sunday evening.
Can’t wait to go again next year!
Eleanor specifically asked to take this photo of Special K & me. My smile is stiff because I’m painfully aware of how wonky my hair looks when it’s wet and full of product. Love my girls.
When I mentally glance at all the books I read in 2017 and think, which ones of these do I still remember? And still get excited about, and want to share with everybody? Yep, those are the ones that make this list.
THE USUAL DISCLAIMERS: This list does not include mega-bestsellers that you’ve probably already heard of. I do think The Hate U Give** and Turtles All the Way Down** and La Belle Sauvage** and Refugee**are definitely amazing and worth reading, but I figure they don’t need any further attention from me.
This is far from anything like an extensive survey of the 2017 publishing year. I simply can’t read ’em all. If you’d like a comprehensive Alls The Books You Needs to Read List, click here.
Please remember: not every book is for you. Like many librarians, I have very wide-ranging reading tastes and enjoy books from pretty much every genre. Most readers are not this way, so please forgive me if you pick up a book from this list that doesn’t mesh with your tastes. I’m always, always happy to do individualized book recommendations (I get a request like that about once a week, no kidding.)
Books with double asterisks (**) contain content that is better suited for the 12+ crowd, or even the 15+ crowd. Parents might want read up on the book’s content before handing it to a young person.
Just How Was The 2017, Publishing Year, Brooke?
2017 was kind of an odd year for the children’s book world. Picture books had a lot of strong contenders — and the quantity and variety of picture book biographies continues to grow. 2017 was the year that gave us a picture book biography of the guy who invented graphs. Graphs. They were invented by a singular someone! I kid you not.
Like 2016, there were an unusual number of picture books about foxes (some of which are on my list) and several books about narwhals. (Who knew that American kids would suddenly decide that narwhals were The Thing?) There’s also a stunning number of international picture books that made my list. Many thanks to publishers for bringing translated versions to the U.S.
Meanwhile, middle grade fiction was incredibly meh this year. I haven’t the foggiest clue what book will win the Newbery Medal. Novels for the 8-14 set were just kinda not-so-stellar. It’s the kind of year when you can write a 500+ page fantasy novel about the frickin’ Brontësiblings and have it be a standout from the pack. Yeeesh.
(Truly, I have nothing against The Glass Town Game. It’s well written. I just say . . . good luck getting someone in elementary school to read that thing.)
In other words: 2017 was the wacky publishing year that gave us THREEdifferentnovels about orphans abandoned on islands (oh, why?), and my favorite book turned out to be a YA biography of Vincent and Theo Van Gogh. The End.
PICTURE BOOKS (Buckle up, this list is long)
Absolute Favorite Picture Book of the Year: Crown: Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes, illus. Gordon C. James
Best Read-Aloud Escargot by Dashka Slater. Illustrated by Sydney Hanson
Best Over-the-Top-Can’t-Stop-Staring-At-the-Wackiness-Illustration Accident! by Andrea Tsurumi
Accident! also wins because of the owl librarian:
I mean COME ON
Trippiest Illustration AND Best Tribute to Works of Lewis Carrol: Mrs. White Rabbit by Gilles Bachelet
Best Wordless Book: Little Fox in the Forest by Stephanie Graegin
Eh, Probably Most Likely To Win Caldecott Medal: Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell
In Which Being Eaten Alive Is the Best of All Possible Outcomes: The Wolf, The Duck, & the Mouse by Mac Barnett, illus. Jon Klassen
Best Book About Being the Quirky “Different” Person in a Community: Not Quite Narwhal by Jessie Sima
Best Heartwarming Immigration Story: A Different Pond by Bao Phi, illus. Thi Bui
Basically “How Green Was My Valley: Picture Book Edition” Town is By the Sea by Joanne Schwartz, illus. Sydney Smith
BEST BIRTHDAY BOOK EVER: When’s My Birthday? by Julie Fogliano, illus. Christian Robinson
It’s So, So, Hard to Come Up With An Original Premise for an Alphabet Book, so Double Kudos to You, Patrick McDonnell: The Little Red Cat Who Ran Away and Learned His ABCs (the Hard Way) by Patrick McDonnell
Sometimes Cats Die, and You Need a Good Book to Cope: Big Cat, Little Cat by Elisha Cooper
Sometimes Dogs Die, and OKAY, OKAY, WE’RE ALL CRYING NOW: Stay: A Girl, A Dog, and a Bucket List by Kate Klise, illus. M. Sarah Klise
See? I Told You There Were a Lot of Beautiful Foxes in Picture Books This Year: All Ears, All Eyes by Richard Jackson, illus. Katherine Tillotson
Cubans In Cars Getting Coffee: All the Way to Havana by Margarita Engle, illus. Mike Curato
Best Spiritual/Inspirational Book: In Your Hands by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. Brian Pinkney (Also basically #BlackLivesMatter: The Picture Book)
Gorgeous, Trippy Illustrations, Part Deux: The Antlered Ship by Dashka Slater, illus. Eric and Terry Fan
Original Folktale + Out of This World Folk-Art Style Pictures: Deep in the Woods by Christopher Corr
Best Book for Father’s Day: Little Wolf’s First Howling by Laura McGee Kvasnosky
Sometimes Dropping Your Phone in the Pond is the Greatest Thing That Can Happen to You: On a Magical, Do-Nothing Day by Beatrice Alemagna
Picture Book Equivalent of Soothing Herbal Tea at Bedtime: This House, Once by Deborah Freedman
A Picture Book from BRAZIL!!! (And it’s SO PRETTY) Along the River by Vaniva Starkoff and Jane Springer
This Book Has the Best Subtitle Ever: Baabwa and Wooliam: A Tale of Literacy, Dental Hygiene and Friendship by David Elliot, illus. Melissa Sweet
Most Hilarious, Laugh-Out-Loud Premise: Claymates by Dev Petty, illus. Lauren Eldridge
Teachers Are The Most Beautiful People and I’m Not Crying, YOU’RE Crying! A Letter to My Teacher by Deborah Hopkinson, illus. Nancy Carpenter
You Needed a Book About a Luchadora Superhero. You Just Didn’t Know It: Lucia the Luchadora by Cynthia Leonor Garza, illus. Alyssa Bermudez
This Book’s Title Is Pretty Much What I’m Mentally Shouting At People All The Time: Read the Book, Lemmings! By Ame Dyckman, illus. Zachariah OHora
Yes, I Did Only Include This Book Because I Have a Cute Son Named William: William’s Winter Nap by Linda Ashman, illus. Chuck Groenick
Yes, You CAN Write a Story With Just One Word: Mine! by Jeff Mack
Absolutely Most Eye-Popping Beautiful Illustration, Hands-Down: The Blue Hour by Isabelle Simler (I’d say it deserved the Caldecott Medal, but it’s from FRANCE, sigh)
Katie’s Personal Favorite. The Adorableness Is Strong With This One: Chirri & Chirra In the Tall Grass by Kaya Doi (be sure to check out the other titles in this series!)
For the Where’s Waldo? Crowd:Find Me: A Hide and Seek Book by Anders Arhoj (Seriously, guys. The interiors of this book are my everything.)
Most Silly Premise: Danny McGee Drinks the Sea by Andy Stanton, illus. Neal Layton (Also: Big Sisters Rule the World)
The Origin Story For Our Time: The Legend of Rock Scissors Paper by Drew Daywalt, illus. Adam Rex
Most Inspiring True Story: Manjhi Moves a Mountain by Nancy Churnin, illus. Danny Popovici
Best “Awwww” Book About Parenting: Me Tall, You Small by Lilli L’Arronge
FINALLY! A Fairy Tale About Facts vs. Emotion and Fake News! Prince Ribbit by Jonathan Emmet, illus. Poly Bernatene
When You Can’t Get Your Shirt Off, and Decide to Just Say “Well, I Guess This Is My Life Now” Still Stuck by Shinsuke Yoshitake
Anthropomorphic Shapes Play Pranks On Each Other. Need I Say More? Triangle by Mac Barnett
Best Bedtime Book: The Way Home in the Night by Akiko Miyakoshi
Reminds Me of Contemplative, Classic Picture Books Like “Owl Moon,” When the Moon Comes by Paul Harbridge, illus. Matt James
Supremely Silly Story: Firefighter Duckies! By Frank W. Dormer
Best Halloween Story: How to Make Friends With a Ghost by Rebecca Green (Okay, okay — I also admit that The Pomegranate Witch is also a great Halloween story from 2017, but How to Make Friends With a Ghost has an adorable ghost! I’m so easily swayed by adorableness.)
NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS
Best Book Written About This Topic In a Long, Long Time: Tell Me About Sex, Grandma by Anastasia Higgenbotham** (Also wins the prize for Best Raised Eyebrow On a Children’s Book Cover)
“Tears Are Only Acceptable at Funerals and the Grand Canyon”: Grand Canyon by Jason Chin
Necessary, Touching Poetry About a True American Hero: Before She Was Harriet by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illus. James E. Ransome
For When You Wish You Could Take Your Naturalist’s Sketchbook On Safari: How to Be an Elephant: Growing Up in the African Wild by Katherine Roy
Personal Favorite Picture Book Biography: Balderdash! John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children’s Books by Michelle Markel, illus. Nancy Carpenter
Aww, This Biography is My Other Favorite: Pocket Full of Colors: The Magical World of Mary Blair, Disney Artist Extraordinaire by Amy Guglielmo, illus. Jacqueline Torville
Continuing the Trend of Books About Women in STEM Fields: Margaret and the Moon by Dean Robbins, illus. Lucy Knisley
Yeah, You Read That Right: Pop Up Shakespeare by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, illus. Jennie Maizels (It’s written by the Reduced Shakespeare Company guys!)
Best Picture Book Biography for the 12+ Crowd: Strange Fruit: Billie Holliday and the Power of a Protest Song by Gary Golio, illus. Charlotte Riley-Webb**
My Kids Can’t Stop Reading This One: This is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids From Around the World by Matt Lamothe
Most Hilarious Science Nonfiction: Give Bees a Chance by Bethany Barton (This author’s other book is called I’m Trying to Love Spiders. This tells you everything you need to know.)
EASY READERS
Also Happens to Be Best Folklore Retelling of 2017: Noodleheads See the Future by Tedd Arnold, Martha Hamilton and Mitch Wiess, illus. Ted Arnold (Be sure to check out Noodlehead Nightmares, too!)
See? MORE NARWHALS! Super Narwhal and Jelly Jolt by Ben Clanton
I Swear I Played This Exact Same Game With My Brother: The Good for Nothing Button by Cherise Harper Mericle
POETRY
21st Century’s Version of Shel Silverstein: I’m Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups by Chris Harris, illus. Lane Smith
This Book Ought to Win the Newbery Medal, but it probably won’t: One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes
Best Father’s Day Book, Part Two: My Daddy Rules the World: Poems About Dads by Hope Anita Smith
I’m Including This Because William Loves Sloths and When He Saw This Cover He Squealed For Five Full Minutes: Animal Ark: Celebrating Our Wild World in Poetry and Pictures by Kwame Alexander
GRAPHIC NOVELS
Best “Oh, Wow, That’s Just Like My Childhood” Story: Real Friends by Shannon Hale
At Least Your Embarrassing Parents Aren’t Ren Faire Folke: All’s Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson
I Had To Physically Pry This Book Out of My Children’s Hands In Order To Return It to the Library: Where’s Halmoni? By Julie Kim
Arthurian Legend Retelling HUZZAH! Yvain: Knight of the Lion by M.T. Anderson, illus. Andrea Offermann**
I Heard It Described As “Misty of Chincoteague Meets The Road Warrior,” and That Is Correct: One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale
A Part of WWII That More People Should Know: The Raid of No Return by Nathan Hale
NONFICTION
My Absolute Favorite Book of 2017 (seriously, just thinking about it makes my eyes well up): Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman
A Biography So Good It Made Me Care About Football: Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team
Book With the Highest Body Count: Poison: Deadly Deeds, Perilous Professions, and Murderous Medicines by Sarah Albee
Best Explanation For Why American Society Is The Way It Is: Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws That Affect Us Today by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson
MIDDLE GRADE FICTION
Probably My Favorite Children’s Novel of the Year: Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk
People Grieve In Different Ways. This Kid Needs Blues Music: Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
The “Man In Hole” Plot, In Which There is a Boy Literally Stuck In a Hole: Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
Best Sequel: The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Aww, It Includes Zines! Zines Made By the Protagonist! The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez
A Retelling of “Cyrano de Bergerac” set in a Middle School (AND IT’S AWESOME): Well, That Was Awkward by Rachel Vail
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
In Which an Elevator Full of Ghosts Convinces the Protagonist That Revenge Isn’t the Answer: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds**
Best Retelling of a Greek Myth:Bull by David Elliott**
Best Mystery Story (Also Best Book With Crossover Adult Appeal): The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein**
Never Be Possessed By Ghosts. Unless You Can Be Possessed By a Bear. Then, Always Be Possessed By a Bear: A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
Most Original Fantasy Worldbuilding: Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor**
I Can’t Say Enough Good Things About The “Queen’s Thief” Series. READ IT NOW: Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner (Also, Best Adult Crossover and Best Bromance)
If You’re Going to Write a High School Story, Make Sure It Has a Killer Wardrobe: The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby**
Best Original Folktales, and Best Interior Book Decoration: The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo**
Now go fire up them library cards and happy reading!!
Confession Time: I’m writing this post on August 26, 2018. I’m post-dating it so that it still shows up in chronological order on the blog, but in reality: these events happened 9 months ago.
Last Thanksgiving was such a packed-to-the-gillzzzz funtime extravaganza that when I returned home, trying to write about everything seemed just plain daunting.
It done knocked this blog to the ground and left it stunned.
For nine whole months.
But I’d like to make amends and give it the Old College Try.
Ahem.
Thanksgiving 2017 was spent at the Newey grandparents’ home. Featuring all the Greatest Hits!
Roll making!
Cousins!
Over-the-top table decs!
Which included lots of these little waxy pumpkins and my children were way fascinated with lining them up and stacking them.
Carbs! With a side of carbs!
Backyard bocce!
And taking food to Uncle Alex, who was working at the Emergency Room that evening. (Fun fact I learned: lots of people cut their hands up when they try to carve turkey.)
In other words: a highly satisfactory Thanksgiving weekend was enjoyed by all.
The next day, we trundled down to Provo. Brian’s brother Michael was in town with his family, and so Kathryn decided to Up the Fun Quotient by signing us all up for an Escape Room adventure.
I admit I was skeptical of this activity. I thought I’d be relegated to the background while the more competitive among us rushed forward to solve the puzzles.
But to tell the truth, every person there found something to contribute, even my kids. (Even me!) The game scenario involved trying to shut down the lab of a mad scientist. I was impressed with the variety of props and puzzles. Good job, Getout Games!
Then we headed back to the grandparents’ house to decorate the Christmas tree and partake of the epic pie and ice cream flavors Caitlin invented for the holiday. And snuggle new baby cousins. Mmmm, baby cousins.
However, the real blog-killer of the weekend was what happened the following day: the Santa Claus Tea Party at the Grand America.
Yes, we had done it the year before, but I was eager to do it again. Such deliciousness! Much sugar! My only hope is that Katie is old enough that she will be able to retain a memory of the occasion. I know it’s kinda corny, but I really love it.
The one funny story of the day was when Santa arrived to listen to what the kids wanted for Christmas. Cousin June simply said “a pizza.” One of the hotel managers overheard, and then went to the kitchen to have a little mini pizza made just for her so her wish could come true right then. Which is pretty darn adorable.
Meanwhile, Eleanor was debating whether or not she should bother visiting Santa at all. Caitlin challenged her to do so simply because the candy canes the kids got were enormous. This was apparently the tipping point. Anything for a humongo candy cane.
We also spent time doing the hotel’s holiday scavenger hunt, seeing the giant gingerbread house, and browsing the boutique toy shop. (William was so cute with this penguin that Santa made sure a similar toy appeared in his stocking that Christmas.)
Afterwards, we changed back into casual clothes, and Brian picked us up to go see a screening of “Coco.”
However, on the way out of downtown SLC, we noticed a perfect parking spot right by Temple Square, so we spontaneously decided to stop for a moment and stroll around. We don’t always get to visit Temple Square on our trips to Utah (seeing as none of our family live all that close to SLC) so this was a fun treat.
And yeah . . . Coco made all of us get misty-eyed. Darn you, Pixar.
We arrived back home with just enough time to decorate our own Christmas tree.
Once again, the children insisted that the placement of the silver star required a group effort.
Oddly enough, the first thing we did of note in November was a Halloween-themed piano concert. Because Halloween took place over a weekend, the holiday-themed piano recital kinda spilled over into the next month.
I don’t mind — any excuse to see the kids in their cute costumes is good enough for me.
We also took our first family trip to the Museum of Flight. This time, we spent time with a museum docent who took time to explain what all the symbols mean on an air traffic controller’s computer display. Just, y’know. In case we have to direct air traffic.
Eleanor and William also got to do the space shuttle tour. This was part of William’s birthday present from Grandma.
Jeff and Eleanor had a special opportunity for Veterans’ Day — performing in a patriotic concert with the Cascade Youth Orchestra at Benaroya Hall. They got to sing the Tabernacle Choir version of Battle Hymn of the Republic, which was fun to practice at home together.
Jeff & Ella are in this photo somewhere, I promise
They also got to sing a medley of U.S. Armed Forces songs together, which, while catchy, got a bit tiresome after the first week or two of practice.
They look so grown up and elegant!
Brian turned 41 . . . and I made a two-layer sugar free, low-carb cake. Oh, such feats of amazement as occur in our household.
The ganache went EVERYWHEREHey, gotta play “Heavy Heavy Hang Over”This has nothing to do with Brian’s birthday, it was just on my camera roll and looked cute
A few days after that, the government announced that they might end the ban on the sale of big game hunting trophies in the U.S. An acquaintance organized a children’s protest near the Woodland Park Zoo, and since Brian was out of town that Saturday, we decided to join up. (Jeff stayed at home. He’s become so much more teenager-ish in that respect lately.)
We only had one piece of posterboard at our house. So Wim made a sign with styrofoam, and I brought a library copy of “How to be an Elephant”
After chanting “hey ho, hey ho, trophy hunting’s got to go” and getting lots of supportive honks from cars, we headed off to the Nordic Heritage Museum for their YulFest.
Which was really just a craft fair. Color me disappointed.
Lots of yummy cookies and little sandwiches to try, though. They even had caramel cheese!
Nobody liked the caramel cheese except me.
The reason Katie isn’t in the above picture is because she was very unhappy with YulFest. (I refused to buy her any of the gewgaws on sale.) But her spirits perked up when we decided to swing by the Diagon Alley Project afterwards.
Note how Katie is still holding the elephant from the protest earlier that day
This is a replica of Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter books, built in miniature in a family’s driveway in Ballard. My friend Margaret and her children joined us (they were also at the protest).
It was originally built as a whimsical gift for the builder’s children, but grew into a community building/charity fundraising project. And boy, was it cool.
William and Eleanor were especially enchanted. As we stepped through the brick wall, they immediately cooed and whispered “it’s just like the books!” under his breath.
William even picked up a branch off the ground and used it as a pretend wand the whole time we were there.
So many cute little details were on display — the storefront “windows” were covered in chalkboard paint, allowing for drawn-in displays of wizard wares. A table held a collection of curious potion bottles. The bookshop had a shelf of old mysterious-looking books with a quill on top.
Note William holding his twig “wand”
We loved it so much that we decided we’d need to make a return visit in the future, especially to since Gringott’s Bank was still a work-in-progress.
And now for the reason we hadn’t seen Jeff much lately: he’d been doing tech crew for the high school production of Thornton Wilder’s The Curious Savage. It’s a cute play (I fell asleep) and applauded Jeff at the end.
Once again, a picture that I promise contains my child. Somewhere. I promise.
I know when October is happening because the afternoons are suddenly clogged with giant herds of gangly teenage cross-country teams running up and down my neighborhood. This is what I get for living within walking distance of a middle school and a high school.
(Okay, I secretly admit that I love it.)
Eleanor really enjoyed running cross for the first time. She won the “most improved” award for her team. I hereby admit that I never got to see her run. I made a valiant effort to make it to a meet, only to have it cancelled owing to windstorms knocking branches out of trees. Grr.
You also know October is happening when your kids are cuddling in sherpa blankets:
And you have an overwhelming desire to put on a costume and prance around hay bales in a picturesque fashion. This is from the Sky Nursery Fall Festival:
And if not hay bales, then at least giant pumpkin piles:
I know that it’s October because my life is consumed with Scout stuff. Somehow this year I managed to running a Girl Scout troop AND a Cub Scout den. I did not do this on purpose. It’s exhausting. But at least I got to teach the Webelos how to make Minecraft self-portraits. Here’s mine:
I also did the Outdoor Overnight training with the Girl Scouts and my awesome co-leader, Brittany:
We’re trying to get our Daisies outdoors as much as we can before the rains come back. Here we are working on the Outdoor Art badge:
October is also the month when reading finally began to “click” for Katie. I’ve been teaching her how to read with the help of a homeschooling reading primer called The Ordinary Parents’ Guide to Teaching Reading. Since we need to arrive at school early for William’s safety patrol duties, we work on reading lessons in the car while waiting for school to start. It’s now one of my favorite parts of the day. This has been gratifying for me; Jeff’s reading difficulties were so immense, and my focus on him was so intense for so long, that I kind of missed out on teaching Eleanor and William to read. It’s nice to have one more little one to teach! I’m really relishing the process. Katie has found excellent friends in Frog and Toad. Thank you, Mr. Lobel.
And of course Halloween lets you know that it’s October. . . or at least that the end of October is nigh. This is the first year that Jeff decided not to dress up at all. (Sniff.)
In the meanwhile, Katie was a witch, William was a penguin (oh, he loved that costume), and Eleanor combed through the racks at the thrift store to find what she needed to match her Minnie Mouse ears from Disneyland.
We carved pumpkins (yes, that is an upside-down face you see. And a Seattle skyline)
And then the piece de resistance, as always, is Trunk-or-Treat at church. This year Brian and I finally got around to making a shadow puppet show for the carnival. We had a “haunted house” story with lots of volunteers from the audience. I’m not certain that everyone in the audience understood what was going on, but it sure was fun to do. Brian even used a stick of cotton candy as an improvised “tree.”
For the past few years, the only “summer” weekend we’ve found available to host a Backyard Circus is the one after school starts. Here in the PNW it’s still just baaaaarely warm enough for swimsuits and leotards, and all of our friends are back in town after a variety of summer travels.
Which means that the first day of school and circus shenanigans are becoming inextricably linked in my mind.
But . . . I mean . . . look at my kids in these pictures and you can see that the first day of school isn’t so dissimilar from a circus in the first place.
SCHOOL CONES!
“Let’s All Stand Still for a Portrait Now, Children”
Sigh. This was Jeff’s first year of high school, but because of Seminary, I really didn’t get a chance to photograph him on his Official First Day. But I did get a picture of Eleanor riding her bike to the first day of middle school.
And a picture of Eleanor at cross country practice:
And a picture of Eleanor’s (recycled) Toadette cosplay from when she went to Geek Girl Con with her Girl Scout troop and apparently mopped the floor with the competition at the Super Smash Bros. tournament:
So . . . that makes up for it, right?
And I also snapped a pic of Katie on her first day of first grade. She picked the outfit herself. Yes, that’s a too-small Christmas sweater paired with teal bike shorts. After four kids, I’ve kind of given up on the custom of looking presentable on the first day of school, or anywhere, really. Let Them Be Quirky, I say.
Eleanor also got to come visit the elementary school for Back-to-School Night, and she was very pleased to see her 6th grade art project in pride of place on the wall of the “pod.”
Oh, and needless to say, I was so thrilled to have all the kids back in school that for a while I made them a fancy snack each day. Yeah, impressive. Don’t worry, things dropped back into normalcy soon enough.
Now, for compare-and-contrast time . . .
The best thing about this year’s Backyard Circus is that my friend Margaret won the services of a professional face painter at a silent auction, and decided to donate them to our circus! How awesome is that?
Katie chose to have her face painted like a tiger’s because her circus act was a tiger-taming routine. Eleanor was the “trainer.”
A very fearsome tiger
William’s contribution was a magic act. He took this very seriously, much to everyone’s delight.
And this was the year that I finally, finally talked someone into being a “snake charmer.” Or at least, Eleanor’s interpretation of what a snake charmer is.
This was also the first year that we had a family put together a series of sideshow “freak” routines that was simply hilarious. (Just picture two kids in one giant shirt and you’re halfway there.) Plus two more magic acts, acrobats, and juggling. All in all, a great showing for the 2017 circus. (Come to think of it . . . I think this might mark ten years of doing Backyard Circuses. Wow.)
Other September Items of Note:
The September Piano Recital. We didn’t have to sit in the backyard overflow section this time! I think this was Katie’s first piano recital. I think. They’re all starting to blur together.
JEFF TURNED FIFTEEN! We had friends over for pizza/games/cake, but somehow I didn’t take any pictures? Probably because I was trying to avoid eating cake at the time.
I also finally finished knitting this blanket to donate to refugee relief. I’d been knitting the individual squares all over the place over the summer (at Glacier NP, in the San Juans, a barbecue potlucks, at the side of swimming pools, in a wheat field while waiting for an eclipse. . .)
William received a membership to the Museum of Flight for his birthday, and I took the little kids on their first trip. Airplanes and space shuttles galore!
Katie and William participated in the Primary Program at church. (Sniff, only two kids singing this time!)
And Eleanor and I enjoyed the Women’s session of General Conference by eating hamburgers together. Thanks for the memories, September!
