Ghouls in Jail

Cute W and the girls carved pumpkins over the weekend (my only contribution was a couple of eyebrows and a scar on one jack-o-lantern), and the girls took inspiration from Fairy Houses. . . Unbelievable! by Barry & Tracy Kane. In the book, they’d used several pumpkins to create an entire town for (presumably pumpkin-dwelling) … [Read more…]

Halloween Books, Activities, and Fun

Halloween’s sneaking up on us. It’s spooky like that. If you’re looking for Halloween activities, KidsOutAndAbout.com has two lists of events, divided into “Fun” and “Scary.” Geek Mom had a list of fun Halloween books that I thought you might like. I was actually unfamiliar with most of these, except for The Little Old Lady … [Read more…]

What We’re Reading

The girls arrived home from their first day of school with Scholastic packets from the teachers and new book recommendations from their classmates. M is dying to read Magyk by Angie Sage, the first book in a series that a friend raved about. I appreciated her enthusiasm, but part of me wishes she didn’t want … [Read more…]

Where’s Waldo?

Both The Open Door Bookstore in Schenectady and Market Block Books in Troy are doing special Where’s Waldo activities in July. You and your child can hunt for 20 Waldos scattered among local businesses, find Waldo, and win prizes. Hooray for shopping local and making it fun for the kiddos. The Open Door Bookstore also … [Read more…]

Albany Children’s Book Festival

At Amy’s urging, the girls and I finally made it to the Albany Children’s Book Festival. This annual festival has been growing each year, and today’s event included about 70 children’s authors and illustrators, exhibitors, and kid-friendly entertainment. It’s held at The Albany Academies, which judging only from the Albany Academy for Girls’ athletic center, … [Read more…]

Fairy Houses

I just realized that I forgot to post about M’s favorite activity during our Mother-Daughter Camp-out: fairy houses! One of the dads had encountered amazing fairy houses in his travels. (A little closer to home, you can find some fairy houses at the Berkshire Botanical Garden.) He and his daughter were excited to share the … [Read more…]

We Travel the World

This is my favorite new three-of-us-from-the-back picture in a long time, from today’s visit to an African marketplace! Okay: not really. We visited go: where children discover the world, the exhibition space for the World Awareness Children’s Museum in Glens Falls. It’s small but fun and worth the trip. I’ll be writing a more detailed … [Read more…]

Celebrating Spring With Books

I was volunteering at the library today, and I stumbled on What Bluebirds Do by Pamela F. Kirby. It’s a gorgeous picture book full of photographs of a family of bluebirds that took up residence in the author’s backyard. Readers see the baby birds grow and learn all sorts of interesting facts that will be … [Read more…]