As a former English major and future English teacher, I (Adri) love to give books as gifts to my friends' children. I feel like kids always have an abundance of toys, but good books can sometimes be hard to find and I feel that good books are vital to developing a love of reading in children. Here are a few of my and my siblings' favorite books from when we were little. Most of the books here are fairly unique, so the odds that a young one in your life already has one of these books are pretty slim and would be a safe bet for a gift, in my opinion.
We absolutely loved the Max & Ruby series. The stories and illustrations are cute and fun and the fact that they're board books makes them appropriate for even the youngest kids.
My younger brother couldn't get enough of this book when he was 3-7 years old. We went to the library at least once a week back then, and every other time, he would check out Airport. Everyone in our family had it memorized because we read it so many times!
Pretzel is a great story about a really long dachshund and his search for love. This was one we read over and over...and over again.
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is another great story. It's been so long since I've read it, that I don't quite remember what it's about. But, I do know that we kids and our parents loved it.
I love ice cream pie. But I hate that some recipes make it so complicated. Let's face it, on a hot day you want an easy and successful dessert that requires very little thought or planning. Here are some of my favorites:
This pie only requires four ingredients: An oreo cookie crust, mocha ice cream, chocolate sauce and a heath bar. This could easily be adapted by changing up the ice cream flavor and candy bar - the options are almost limitless!
So yes, this isn't an ice cream pie....but this takes out a few steps and would be so delicious! Plus everyone can choose multiple flavors, no need to settle on only one :)
Hello!
I'm finally back!! After about seven months of being absent due to a variety of life events (including but not limited to my computer being broken for two months, moving, and months of being sick) it's nice to sit down to compose a blog post. I think writing is like anything, the more you do it the easier it becomes but if you stop for awhile it can be tough to regain your momentum. But I have always loved writing for our blog, so hopefully I will be back to posting more regularly now :)
Since it has been so long, I thought I would start by listing a few things that I have been loving lately. These are all pretty random, which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise ;)
1. We moved into a house with a stainless steel sink. I found this step by step process on how to clean it to be amazing, seriously the sink is blindingly shiny now.
2. I am obsessed with plain greek yogurt! I love that for around 100 calories I can get 20 grams of protein. I like to layer it in a cup alternating between yogurt, a bit of honey and fruit parfait style. It's surprisingly sweet and refreshing.
3. I recently started reading the John Reacher novels by Lee Child. The one I read so far was very clean, fast paced and made me want to read another. It is currently being made into a movie. John Reacher is described as a 6'4" blonde hair blue eyed 250 pound male....so guess who they are casting to play him? Diminutive Tom Cruise. Really?!?!
4. It's been hard to find a good TV show to get hooked on this summer. I recently started watching Design Star and love it! So many good decor ideas this season. I would love to hear what you are watching - I need a few more good shows :)
1. I got to spend some time with my older sister last weekend. We had so much fun we forgot to take pictures! We ran errands together, went window shopping at Home Goods, Anthropologie, and Urban Outfitters, indulged in salty snacks, and then met up with her husband and our two oldest brothers for dinner and Coldstone!
2. One of my best friends recently started a Bible study for post-college 20-somethings in the style of InterVarsity Bible studies. I can't even describe how good it felt to be manuscripting again. Sadly, I can't attend regularly because my credentialing classes are on Tuesday nights. I plan to attend whenever I can, though!
3. I got to hang out with Mom and my brother Joe while we watched our youngest brother race the 4th of July criterium in Davis. He's one of the guys in the front of the group here, lined up at the start line.
4. After watching the crit, I then went to a friend's house where I got to hang out and relax with my two best friends and a couple guys we were all on IV leadership with. It was so great to see them again and catch up and just have a relaxing 4th of July. We bbq'd kabobs, drank Newcastle (something I drew an inordinate amount of amusement from), and set off fireworks in the street.
5. I was worried about how Cora would do with all the fireworks going off, but she was just fine! I brought her with me to my friend's because I didn't want to leave her alone, not knowing how she would react to the fireworks, but she was completely unfazed. In fact, she even took a nap while everyone in the neighborhood was setting off legal (and some illegal) fireworks. What a dog!
Lots of 4th of July doings in this week's High Five, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. My whole week was great, but these were the highlights. Hopefully next week's edition will include some good news about me passing the CSETs!
And here's a song (with an admittedly bizarre music video) that I haven't been able to get out of my head:
My friends and I have had some extensive discussions about the meaning of this song. If you have any ideas, feel free to comment below. I'd love to read some different interpretations!
