favorite books to read aloud

We were recently invited to participate in a book exchange. It's one of those chain types of things, where you send out one book to a specified child and email several friends with the letter who in turn send it out to several of their friends, and your kids are supposed to end up with 36 books. With how much we love books around here, I couldn't resist, even though I didn't expect to receive many. I figured if we even got 1 it would be worth it, and so far we've received 8. The girls love getting surprise packages, so it's been really fun.

Two of the books we received became instant favorites. Kapria and Mila both request them every day:

They especially love it when Trav reads them. He makes the best voices for each character.

Our other most-oft requested books right now are:

The girls of course didn't know that three of their five favorites were created by the same author/illustrator: Mo Willems. That man is a genius. He knows how to make kids laugh. And how to write something that adults can handle reading over and over. His books are funny and simple, without a ton of text. That's why Trav and I love them, too.

Here's the written list, in case you'd like to check them out for yourself:
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
We Are In A Book by Mo Willems
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Bye-Bye, Big Bad BullyBug by Ed Emberley
Princess Hyacinth (the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated) by Florence Parry Heide

art: kapria

When Kapria painted this, I asked her what it was. She told me, "A rainbow waterfall," in a tone like isn't it obvious, Mom. And of course now that I know what it is, it seems like I should have known all along, but apparently I didn't have my creative eyes looking at it. So when Trav got home from school, I had to test him on it. I showed him the painting, and asked, "What do you think this is?"
He immediately responded, "It looks like a rainbow waterfall."

Those two are so much alike! This may look familiar because I posted it on facebook and asked people what they thought it was. One person guessed correctly, but no one said it exactly the way Kapria and Trav did.


Rainbows are an artistic theme she's been following. Here's another one:

I love these so much!

art: mila

Mila loves art. Painting, coloring, drawing, watercolors. Making art is her favorite activity. And I absolutely love watching her create. She's so happy and excited about it, and seeing how much joy it brings her makes me so happy too. Here are some of her fingerpainting creations. I love them.

an evening with friends

These are my favorite kinds of days.

being rapunzel

This new hair braid is definitely the favorite dress-up item around our house. It's darling, but I have to admit I kind of miss seeing the different things she would come up with to serve as her Rapunzel hair: a towel, a baby blanket, a sleeping bag. That hair got pretty crazy at times.

disney day with my rapunzel girl

zoomars