We have two weeks until April when the spring gardening really begins here in Northern California.
Time to say goodbye to the winter garden:
And get ready to plant for spring.
In that vein, we’ve started reading a number of fantastic gardening books. Here’s a glimpse of some of our favorites from this week:
Shown above:
+ Planting a Rainbow
+ My Garden
+ Gardening with Children
+ Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z
Yesterday I wrote about our daughter’s Very Hungry Caterpillar obsession. Today I want to share an in-progress art project that she spearheaded: her Very Own Hungry Caterpillar Board Book.
The blank board book is from Bare Books. The clip art comes from the The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity Pad
Three years later and she still loves Eric Carle’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar
February 2008
August 2009 (playing with Matthieu and Christina who brought us the French version with them from France)
October 2009 (reading the Pop-Up version with Alexis)
May 2010 (reading the French version with Alice)
December 2010 (reading the German version with Diane, a present toted from Germany for us)
January 2010 (reading the French version with Natalia)
“Reading” us her version of the book
“This is a picture of me sleeping peacefully,” says the toddler upon seeing a photo of herself asleep. I love looking at her when she’s sleeping because she looks so radically different without any emotion on her face.
I love this shot of her, taken at my parents house last week, asleep amongst the comfy pillows next to a stack of books.
Our whole family loves reading before bed. (Truthfully, the parents enjoy it a little bit more than is good for us, as we tend to stay up way too late reading just about every night.)
By far the easiest way to put the toddler to bed is to read her out.
Here are some of the wonderful books we’ve been reading before bed:
I’ve added these books, plus several others, to a new section in our left-hand sidebar on the right titled, “favorite family reads,” and will try to update this regularly as we discover new books to share with you. We so enjoy them all and highly recommend you pop over to your local library to pick them up.
Inspired by the miriad of Life Lists floating around the web, I feel compelled to create a list of books to read before I turn 40 (in just over nine years).
On this list are books that I’ve always wanted to read, books that I feel I need to read, books that sound like a lot of fun, books that are thought provoking, books that I own but haven’t cracked open, books that I read once upon a time but can’t remember, and books I started or have read excerpts from, but never finished.
Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
1. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
2. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights
3. On the Origins of Species by Charles Darwin
4. Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx (currently reading)
5. Richard Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth
6. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
7. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
8. Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail
9. Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs ans Steel
10. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt
11. Sharon Shinn’s The Shape-Changer’s Wife
12. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (yet to be written, due to be published in 2012)
Clearly I have many more books to add to this list and so I need your help! Do you have any suggestions? What must-read books would you recommend?
Most importantly, please don’t suggest any heartbreaking books! Real life (in the news! on the radio!) is depressing enough, I don’t need to cry while reading. (Unless it’s happy romantic tears. I am completely okay with those!)
I’m excited to see what you suggest.
