Month: July 2013

I don’t do a lot of random event photos (that aren’t on scrapbook layouts) here on my blog… but indulge me please. I just want to relive our Sunday in Yountville where the Parisian macarons and fleur de lis shortbread cookies were flowing and never-ending. Where there was whole roasted halibut, pork, and lamb. Ahh… thank you Bouchon for the Bastille day celebration that won’t soon be forgotten.

Loved experiencing this with the girls, we’ve already marked our calendar for next year! Our next event will be the Renegade Craft fair in San Francisco at the end of this month – can’t wait!

Today I’m over at the Simon Says Stamp blog talking vacation scrapbooking and sharing a new layout with the awesome Travel Girl line from October Afternoon. You can check out my post here.

It’s been quite a while since I did a kids post – and this has been the summer of reading in our house. I suspect Rebecca is improving her reading by a full grade, and Miss Elizabeth… well goodness that girl is just reading everything! Here are some of our current picks.

Despicable Me 2 – I think I enjoyed this movie as much as the girls, and they just adored it. I’m off to find them some books/activities that will keep them entertained. I want to leave them some goodies for when I leave for Las Vegas (CHA craft show)… and I’m thinking minions are going to dominate.

Tyler Makes Spaghetti is a lot of fun because a) the girls adore Tyler Florence and b) it really got them thinking about all of the steps and ingredients that go into their food. A really cute book and of course after reading you can then go make some spaghetti!

Fancy Nancy continues to be a household favorite! Elizabeth has been reading the more advanced/longer books like the Super Sleuth one, but the regular ones continue to be challenging as Nancy has quite the vocabulary! They really enjoyed Nancy’s adventure with her doll, and seeing Nancy at a fancy party.

Monsters U was another favorite, for me because of how it ends and the lessons there. But, the girls just love the colorful monsters and they are super into reading all the books that are available based off the movie. I let them each pick a book from Target – I love that Target gets the books for kids movies!

Vader’s Little Princess is more of a book for me than them, but oh these girls are big into Star Wars these days.

This weekend we’re going to have a “Teen Beach Movie” beach themed dinner party – I’ll report back on that and share pics after the CHA madness subsides. I will also be reporting next month on one LaLaLoopsy birthday party (at least, that is the current theme).

There’s never a dull moment here – and we’re soaking up pool time + reading time like crazy in the Flaum house! If you’ve got recommended chapter book reading for a 3rd grade girl – I’d love some! For now I’m off to prep for my upcoming trip to CHA (aka semi-annual craft convention for manufacturers/designers/stores/etc)