Book Club

Sadly it has been a few months since I have made it to my Book GroupThe recent books just haven't spoken to me and the time they meet is now in the afternoon.Holly is usually napping at that time and by Thursday my week has been long and I just don;t want to wake her.We have missed our friends as we rarely get to see them in any other arena.We were hoping to see many of them this past month at Madelyn's Birthday party.Her mom scheduled her party two weeks in advance because her little brother's due date was the same weekend as her real birthday.As life we have it, the little guy came two weeks early on the afternoon of her party.Needless to say there was not a party that day. But we hope to make it over to visit Naomi and family in the next few weeks.Sadly that doesn't give us a chance to see any of our other Book Club Friends.Maybe we will make it to the next meeting, the book is actually one I am interested in.But alas, there is the other problem, carving out a few moments each day to actually read.

Monthly Book Club Meeting

So I have been quite the slacker when it comes to my book group.I have tried to attend the meetings, but I did not read the last two books, well, I started and read the first chapter of March's bookThese are the pictures from that meeting, but I didn't really get into the Book. The other mom's liked it, and reminded me it was written maybe 20 years ago.So the parts that seemed obvious to me, which turned me off the book, was not so obvious back then. So I plan on giving it a second chance but haven't gotten around to it yet.So this month I went to like three stores looking for the book and couldn't find it and time just crept up on me, Before I knew it it was time for the meeting and I didn't have the book.Then it turns out that on the day of the meeting, Holly had such a busy morning, that she didn't nap until 2:45 just 15 minutes before the meeting was supposed to start.So we missed it. I felt back, I am sure it would have been a great discussion, and I only get to see these wonderful ladies once a month usually.So today I received the book for the May meeting in the mail, it's called "A Child's Work, The Importance of Fantasy Play" I am really excited about this book and looking forward to reading it.But the new meeting time has changed from 11-1 and is now from 3-5, Holly is almost always sleeping during that time, so it is going to be a challenge to make it, but I will try.This play date was a lot of fun, Holly always enjoys hanging out at Madelyn's house. She has lots of fun toys, many drums and instruments.Here are Madelyn and Kai playing with a Big green ball. Madelyn looks so adorable in her little arm warmers, she picked them out all by herself.This is such a cute little dress on Holly, it reminds me of a 20's style with the dropped waistline, of course I don;t think you would ever see a flapper dress with Daisy'sThis was a great deal from Costco, so I ended up getting three, one bright yellow and another with Stripes, and they all look surprisingly different, although they are the same style dress.I really don;t want to get Holly a stroller like this, especially because she tries to sit in it and stand on it, but she loves it. She spent half the play date pushing it around and around.The house is designed in a circle where you can go from the living room, to the dinning room to the kitchen, through the hall and back to the living room.Sometimes she would stop and put a baby or stuffed animal inside, other times toys, sometimes nothing. But she did several times try to climb into it herself, just like the shopping cart we have at home.This was cute too, a little jumper. We have ours downstairs now, simply no room upstairs for it anymore, but whenever we see one out Holly wants to play inside.Oh and this is Hanna! Orna's daughter. I think it is actually my first time meeting her. All the previous meetings it was her nap time and she was home with Daddy, but her mom always came.Now that the meetings are in the afternoon she can attend too. It was fun to meet her, she is very close to Holly in age. So this was our most recent meeting, that I attended, and I look forward to reading the next book!

Wordless Wednesday: Book Club

Music and Montclair

Here is William our little Host. His Mom Kim is the facilitator of our Music Class. Holly is starting to become so friendly running up to all the other kids and greeting them.Here we are singing "Open, Shut Them" one of Holly's favorite songs. She started to smile and look around the room, then ran into my arms for the "Creep them, Crawl Them" verse.Here is Johnny, Mira, Chloe and Holly. They are "rolling" Johnny is such a sweetie, I think he really likes Holly, this week he said her name, his birthday is only a few days after hers.Here Adrian is following Holly under the table. He is such a sweetie, he is always trying to give me hugs, and likes to follow Holly when she is being Mischievous.Here Chloe looks like she is doing Yoga. I think it might be the "Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes" song, she Has her toes and is trying to get them above her head.Here the horde of children are swarming around all of the instruments. This is a high light of the class. I am surprised no one has had an eye poked out with the drumsticks, they are one of Holly's favorite.The maracas are a favorite, and they make great drum sticks too. its really good that she is easy going and can take toys from others and have them taken without getting to upset, everyone learns to share.Here she is shake, shake, shaking that Tambourine. She is making her little duck face. I think it is part pucker, part quake, regardless I think its adorable.We usually listen to two songs while playing with Instruments. Holly really likes this noise maker, if you look in the background you can see Sam playing with Kai.Here Adrian is sharing his toys with me. He was bringing me little clicker's and noise makers. He is such a sweetie.Here is Mira and Holly playing with the tambourine and Yellow Clang. It is so sweet how they all follow each other around the room.Then it's time to begin to clean up the toys. At first Holly doesn't get it and wants to keep playing. She is having so much fun.But the moment I start singing "Clean Up, Clean Up, Every body, every where, Clean Up, Everybody do your share" it is like a queue to her and she starts to actually pick up.She runs around the room and gathers all of the instruments she finds and brings them to the bin and drops them in.Sometimes she even grabs a toy or two someone else is trying to hang onto. She makes sure it all all put away, then chases Kim while she puts the bin on the tops shelf.If she had her way, I think she would dump the bin out and start all over again. She hovers near the shelves reaching up for the bin to come back down, and eventually finds another distraction.This is Griffin. He made friends with Kat. he plopped down right on her lap to visit with her for a whole two songs. He was such a sweetie. She loves making friends with all the babies.Here are Chloe and Holly singing together. They little outfits almost match today. This is a few weeks ago from when it was still really hot. It was October, but unbelievable warm for this time of the year.Music Class is especially warm because there are so many people in the little room, and we are all moving and dancing around. Holly almost nearly always ends up covered in sweat by the time we leave.Here is Mila, one of our friends who usually goes to the park with us. We haven't been to the park for a few weeks. Its not my favorite park, we usually only only go if Chloe does. We did on this day though.Chloe hurt her arm a few weeks ago, so we haven't been the last few times. Here Holly is eating a snack. At some point each class, things devolve as everyone has various snacks and they all try to eat each others.On this week I invited Sarah and Isabel to meet us at the park, that was a lot of fun. I didn't get too many pictures. Here is one of Sarah having a snack and playing in the sand.Another of Holly being mischievous and dumping out Isabel's bag. She takes each item out one by one. Sometimes she puts them back, sometimes not. All in All, this is our fun typical Tuesday afternoon.