Adventuring and Celebrations

April in One Post: This Blog Turned 11, and We Went Back East

jackie May 27, 2019 Events and Celebrations, Food, Movies and TV, Outings, Theater, Travel adventures, nyc, spring break, theatre, Travel

This blog turned 11 back on April 16th! I somehow always miss my blogiversary (does anyone still use that word?), and it’s also been a couple of months since I last posted. The week before this blog’s anniversary, we went back east to NJ to visit my mom for H’s spring break, and I got to spend a couple of nights on my own in NYC. The trip was fantastic for so many reasons. Adam gave me a ticket to finally see Hamilton for Christmas, and I just had the most amazing time. And it was great for H to revisit her hometown. She’d been missing NJ a lot, and lately starting to compare what she missed about NJ to what she had in WA. But she came back home to WA with a new appreciation for this new home we’re making in a way I don’t think she would have without a visit back to NJ. After 10 months away, she has changed so much, and I think she was able to enjoy the place where she was born but then get back to her new life out here.

H’s 7th Birthday Weekend

jackie March 21, 2019 Art, Events and Celebrations, Outings, Parties adventures, birthdays, events, family, parties, Washington

Our girl is 7! Her birthday was last Friday the 15th, and we had two full days of celebrating. Everyone here is still recovering, and I’m getting over a bug that left me with a fever upwards of 103 last night. Friday morning we were at school for her class’s birthday circle, then we left school for a day at Ikea (she asked for a new desk for her birthday) and Emerald City ComicCon. Saturday morning was her Wild Kratts-themed birthday party, and Saturday night we went to Monster Jam.

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Valentine Love Bugs

jackie February 21, 2019 Crafts, Events and Celebrations, Projects Crafts, kid crafts, snow day, valentine's day

Here’s a simple, quick, cute project to make with your kids. We made these googly-eyed love bugs for H’s class Valentines this year, but we’ve made them in the past just for fun. H’s party was postponed a week because of a giant snowstorm the night of my birthday that, combined with midwinter break, meant school was closed all of last week. It was the fourth snowstorm we’d had in just over a week, February has been wild around here. So one day while H was home and I was working, I set her up to work on these for school.

On Turning 40

jackie February 10, 2019 Events and Celebrations, Family, Thoughts 40 years old, birthdays, Thoughts, Washington

It’s here, the milestone is here. I’m 40! I don’t remember the specifics of when I turned 30, but apparently I was in a cruddy mood all day (thank you, 11 years of blogging). I wasn’t taking photos of myself regularly then, and I thought I should start. When I’m 50, I want to know what I looked like today.

We’ve Got the 2019 Caldecotts (And Lots of Other Award Winners)

jackie February 2, 2019 Activism, Booklists, Children's Books, Events and Celebrations activism, caldecotts, Children's Books, libraries, picture books, reading

I went to ALA Midwinter while it was happening in Seattle last weekend, and it was amazing to walk the exhibits space and just see so many great books. I’m not as current with what’s happening in children’s lit since I left teaching, and I really miss it. I love being a full time, working writer, but…I love children’s books, and I love sharing them with kids. I was at ALA on Sunday, and then Monday morning they held the ALA Youth Media Awards, where they announce all the big winners in kidlit. This is what I watch every year for the announcement of the Newbery and Caldecott books, and then I immediately buy all of the Caldecotts for H’s collection–we have them all for every year of her life, plus the year I was pregnant (and lots of other years because I just love Caldecott books). I also picked up a lot of the other award winners announced on Monday, and by Tuesday they’d all arrived.

ALA Midwinter in Seattle

jackie February 1, 2019 Booklists, Events and Celebrations, Grownup Books books, events, librarians, reading

I know I’m not a working librarian anymore, but the American Library Association had its annual midwinter conference here in Seattle over the weekend. Which was really exciting since this is where the announce the Newbery and Caldecott books every year! I didn’t go to the awards ceremony, but I did spend Sunday afternoon walking around the exhibit floor.

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A Weekend in Vancouver

jackie January 26, 2019 Family, Food, Outings, Puppy, Travel adventures, Canada, road trip, Travel, west coast

I feel really good about the start of a fresh new year, especially since 2018 was so eventful. I’m trying to dust off this blog a little–it’ll turn 11 in April, and even though I spend most of my social media life on Instagram I’m not ready to abandon it. So, the first big thing we’ve done this year is take a little last-minute mommy/daughter/pup road trip to Canada.

2018 Was a Completely New Thing

jackie January 2, 2019 Adventuring and Celebrations, Living Life, Making Stuff, Projects, Quilting Stuff, Reading moving, new year's, planning, Quilts, Travel

Last year was unlike any other year I’ve ever had. I think the silence on this blog kind of reflects that. Trucking along in a quieter-than-usual but other wise normal year, and then June 17th comes and off the grid I go. That’s when we finished packing up everything we owned in NJ (everything that was left after weeks of purging, yard sales, and donations), left the house we’d owned for 10 years, 7 months, and 12 days, spent a week driving across the country to Washington, moved into a rental apartment, spent three months looking at houses/putting offers on houses/buying a house, and then moved into our farmhouse on the 28th of September. It’s on six acres of forested woodlands, it’s beautiful, and I’m so in love with it out here.

Hello from Washington

jackie December 6, 2018 Crafts, Family, Home, Outings, Travel diy, halloween, Home, moving, nj, summer, Travel, Washington

It’s been a little more than six months since I last posted here, which is a record. This blog is ten years old, and I’ve never gone that long without posting! But it was kind of a welcome break–I needed to concentrate on packing up, moving from New Jersey to Washington, getting settled, finding a house, getting H settled at a new school. It’s been a ride, and we’re just starting to settle down.

H’s 6th Birthday Party

jackie April 1, 2018 Events and Celebrations, Family, Food, Outings, Parties, Totally Random birthdays, family, parties

This was, by a mile, the best birthday party H has ever had. Four of her friends and their moms met us in Brooklyn at Brooklyn Owl, a unicorn horn store, for a day out in NYC. The moms went for coffee, and Adam and I stayed to take photos of the girls picking out their own special unicorn horns, making unicorn crafts, eating unicorn cupcakes, and solving clues for the store’s magic mirror, which spoke to them and transformed them from little girls into magical unicorns. We could not have packed more unicorns in if we tried, it was fabulous.

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