It’s that time of year again, that most joyous of seasons, when I start my Mo Willems author study with the kindergarten classes! We started today with the Pigeon books, and I am pretty elated.

Mo Willems Season doesn’t fall on the calendar at the same time every year, but every Mo Willems Season is like Second Christmas to me. Everyone seems a little nicer during Mo Willems Season; a little wittier, a little more delightfully absurd. There’s an extra spring in my step the week I teach the kids how to draw The Pigeon. I am almost deliriously cheerful the week a new crop of kindergartners is introduced to Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie. And I always need to take a moment to collect myself during Knuffle Bunny Week, when Knuffle is passed on to the next generation. Elephant and Piggie, Cat the Cat, Leonardo, Amanda, Goldilocks. This year I have decided to extend the festivities into June.

What makes this year’s Mo Willems Season even more awesome is the fact that April is the 10th anniversary of the publication of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Mr. Willems’ first book. I know I’m down to the wire here with one day of April left, but I am still celebrating the start of the festive season during anniversary month. And there are some pretty great ways for anyone to be celebrating the big anniversary.

Like this new anniversary set, with smaller editions of 3 Pigeon books in their own bus box:

How cool is that? The books are perfectly Hannah-sized, and since the Pigeon was her very first read aloud, and her collection of autographed books began with The Pigeon, I thought she should have a set.

There was also last week’s release of the latest Willems adventure, That Is Not a Good Idea.

And really, the thing I am truly geeking out over this April is the release of Cloud9′s collection of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus fabrics! I cannot believe this is really a thing!

I have been stalking fabric sites all month anxiously awaiting the release of this fabric. Since tomorrow is the end of April, I’m guessing it will go into May before I can order some. But when I can, look out…I have already warned Adam that my fabric budget will be blown on this collection. A Pigeon sundress for Hannah? Another lift-the-flap quilt? A bag for me? All of the above.

It’s the (second) most wonderful time of the year!

The last stop on our week-long, whirlwind spring break road trip through New England was Vermont. We were only there for 1 night, and we stopped in Montpelier before heading up to Stowe to see how the other half lives.

We basically stopped in Montpelier for maple syrup and fabric. I’d read about Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in our guidebook, and I really wanted to get my hands on some syrup to bring home. Sugaring season kicks off in March, so we were just in time. Morse Farm is one of the oldest there is, going back 200 years.

I’m not sure what I was expecting from the sugaring experience, but Morse Farm was basically a very muddy parking lot with a few small buildings and a store. Seriously, do not wear your good shoes if ever you find yourself there. You could stand at the edge of the farm and see all the trees tapped together, leading down from the forest and into the processing building. But there were no tours or real explanations of what was going on. It was almost a little voyeuristic; the family just going about their farm lives while tourists stared at them and shopped in the (surprisingly awesome) store.

But maybe since we were there on a Thursday we didn’t get the full tour experience. There was an ancient TV and VCR set up in a corner of the store with a couple of folding chairs, and you could help yourself to watching a video of the long-deceased patriarch in his heyday. That was kind of worth the trip just for the anecdotes because that man, who passed away in 1999, was not PC. Much discussion of Arabs and the Japanese, but he was so darn homespun and delightful that you almost didn’t know where to look or whether to laugh. We definitely felt like city folk.

However strange the farm itself was, I’m in love with the store. We left with syrup. Oh, boy, we left with syrup.

This was the first time Adam and I got to sample different grades of maple syrup, and it was definitely interesting to see what we each preferred. How could you not love a store with friendly honor system signs like this?

We also bought some of that maple cream on the left, btw. Heaven in a jar.

(more…)

I’m taking forever to get these road trip photos up, but life keeps getting in the way.

After we left Boston and Plymouth, we headed to Portland, ME. I loved Portland. Really we spent most of our time in Maine eating, and that’s a pretty perfect vacation as far as we’re concerned. We’d heard about the food scene up there for ages but finally got to experience some of it.

Our first night in Portland, Monday night, we made a pilgrimage to Duckfat, a place we’d heard of any time the Portland food scene was mentioned. It was behind our hotel, so as pilgrimages go it was pretty lightweight, but I could have eaten every single meal here. The duckfat fries are everything you’d think they would be, with amazing dipping sauces to choose. And there’s just something about a perfect bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a chilly night that nothing else on earth can rival. They do it right here. Ugh, it’s pouring here in NJ today…now I want that meal again.

(more…)

Hannah and I braved the cold and went into Manhattan for the day today. I kind of hemmed and hawed about it this morning because a) Hannah woke up at 1am in hysterical tears, no idea why and b) I had planned on meeting up with Kathy but didn’t have her Christmas and birthday presents ready yet. Somehow these things, combined with the cold, just felt too insurmountable. But, I dragged myself out of bed at 8:30 this morning and got us out of the house.

I’m so glad we went! I had such a wonderful day with Baby Girl!

We were going to the February meeting of the NYCMMQG, and even though we were half an hour late I had a great time. I’m always so shy at these guild meetings, and I don’t know. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming, but I just feel tongue-tied and self conscious. Maybe it’s because I look at work like this

and this

and I just feel a little awestruck by the skills and creativity. Let’s not forget our president, Victoria Findlay Wolfe of Bumble Beans Quilts, who was invited to create this pair of shoes for an upcoming auction:

Insanely cool. And then there’s our guest speaker Linda Lum DeBono, who brought projects from her book Sew Merry and Bright (which I ordered on my phone from the meeting).

Obviously I love this Advent calendar:

And this little Russian dolls ornament is so clever, I love it!

So yes, I feel like I have a long way to go with my craftiness to catch up to these folks. But I always get so much inspiration from them, and I love going when I can. I’m also the Charity Chair for the guild, and I have done absolutely zero in that role…this also makes me feel awkward when I go. But Victoria runs her own very successful charity organization, Bumble Beans Basics, and so the charity work seems to run itself through her.

After talking to a couple of other ladies there who’ve had babies recently, Hannah and I headed from Midtown to Chelsea, where we spent a couple of hours walking all over having a great time. We went to City Quilter and then walked passed a Marimekko store I didn’t even know was over there (I’ve only been to the tiny Uptown store). It was amazing.

Gorgeous fabric everywhere I looked, but so pricey; it was $53/yd. I came very close to buying some but decided until I have something specific in mind to use it for it would just sit in my stash being way too precious to cut. Sometimes that depresses me a little, so I’ve put it in the back of my mind for when the perfect project comes up.

And then there was this raincoat in Hannah’s size. The absolute quintessential print in a baby raincoat, I was so tempted. But again, it was pricey ($68). I may still go back for this, though. I really loved it. I tried to make a smooth getaway from the store after drooling over stuff for half an hour, but Hannah and I got stuck in the glass doors on our way out and had to be rescued. I move like a gazelle, I’m telling you.

We walked the Union Square Market.

We bought baked goods for Adam.

We bought baked goods for me at Baked by Melissa. Our last stop was Books of Wonder, where I read some of this year’s Caldecott books to Hannah. I have one left to track down, and then I can post about them all. She was particularly excited about Creepy Carrots; Peter Brown’s illustrations made her giggle and smile.

We headed home from there sufficiently pooped and exhilarated. I needed a day like this to recharge, I’ve been sleep deprived and a little stressed out since…well, since I went back to work, really. I realized today that we’ve just passed the halfway point of the school year, so from here to summer it’s a downhill slope! I can’t wait to hang out with Hannah every day and have more adventures, but today was wonderful for reminding me how many adventures we can have even when I’m working. She’s such a great little lady, so sweet and happy to go with the flow.

I mentioned the other day that we all just got back last week from a 2 week trip around England. We covered 900 miles taking Hannah to visit grandparents, meet cousins and aunts and uncles for the first time, and just start showing her around her other native land. It’s really important to Adam and me that Hannah grow up knowing both the US and the UK, and this was the first of many trips overseas for her. It was kind of awesome seeing her first passport, with her little baby picture, get stamped for the first time. It made me feel so content, knowing all the amazing things this little girl will grow up seeing and doing.

And the best part was we survived air travel with her! We had some rough patches; leaving Newark we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours because of weather, and leaving London we sat for 1 hour because of traffic. Hannah did NOT enjoy waiting on the plane, and I don’t blame her. None of us did. The seat belt sign was on the whole time because we’d left the gate, which meant she was strapped to me the whole time we waited. No diaper changes, no grabbing her bottle if she got hungry, and no putting her down anywhere. So, yeah, she cried and fussed. Coming home she actually howled (we were all pretty exhausted from travel by then). We flew British Airways and had a great flight attendant coming home who COULD move around the cabin, so she held Hannah and rocked her, showed her all the people on the plane, and tried to help us keep her happy. She even held Hannah at the end of the flight so we could get all our carry-on gear organized. Allie was great.

And once the plane was moving, Hannah could not have been a better flier. She slept in her bassinet the whole time, flirted with all the other passengers, and was just an amazing little trooper.

We landed in London the morning of Friday, July 27th–the day of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. It was such a great atmosphere. Greeters and volunteers everywhere in the airport, and just everything feeling really excited and charged. We stopped at my father-in-law’s for lunch and then spent the rest of the day making our way in traffic from London to Manchester, the first official stop on our whirlwind tour. We got into our apartment 10 minutes into the ceremony, so we watched most of it while we got Hannah and ourselves settled.

Morgan’s bachelor party was in Manchester, so while Adam went out with the brothers on Saturday Hannah and I explored central Manchester and the Northern Quarter.

(more…)