the lion, the witch and the wardrobe

today, we finished reading the lion, the witch and the wardrobe by c.s. lewis, one of my all time favorites!! i especially enjoy the colored illustrations in this paperback collector's edition. one by one i will buy all the paperbacks of this edition with the illustrations by pauline baynes. 

the birds that sing...

i finally was able to purchase the bird songs anthology (200 birds from north america and beyond) by les beletsky. i first saw it at an anthropologie store and it's retail price was for $45. i found it yesterday for $9.99 at borders! natalie is having a blast going through it and listening to all the various bird calls. she is actually showing her papa that book right now, beginning with her favorite call from the willow ptarmigan. 

the stone and the feather

last night, while driving home, we began a story:

once there was a father who had a little girl named natalie. she loved to play in the house all day and in the evenings, go outside to play hopscotch. one day she went out to the woods and found a stone. she picked it up and took it home. the next day, she went to the woods again and found a feather. this too, she picked up and took home. she went to her discovery box the following day to look at these things she had found and realized that the stone had a diamond on it with a star within. the feather too, was also extraordinary because it was a heart shaped feather, a very rare thing indeed. natalie saw that these were very special items she had collected and went immediately to show her father...

from here, the story went back and forth and all over the place. i'll have to colloraborate again with natalie to see where to story goes... :)

read a book, plant a tree

from time to time, i like to donate to ecolibris to help balance out trees for new books we have purchased. i am trying to teach nat about the importance of taking care of our environment and so she was thrilled to see one of the ecolibris stickers (printed on recycled paper with soy inks too) on her 'the snowman' book. i usually save two of the five stickers for her books only and i am still looking for her other book we just bought (it must be buried somewhere in her new room!) i like doing this for many reasons but also to see her feel like a part of such a bigger thing. she feels proud that her book helped plant a tree. :)

the miraculous journey of edward tulane

truly, a delight, instantly a favorite...

a trip to borders...

i love children's books. they are filled with such delight and whimsy. here are some photos i took while we perused borders. nat made out with a few pre-level reading books and i got my first two nancy books (at the age of thirty!) :)

silvermist and the ladybug curse