Stuck in the Bath with Mac.

Cincinnati Public Library partnered with a whole bunch of really great independent bookstores to sell 500 copies of the now Cincinnati best seller…

President Taft Got Stuck in the Bath 

in order to bring it's author, Mac Barnett for a visit.

The book selling goal was reached and true to his word, Mac paid a visit to President Taft's hometown.  

And because he came to Wordplay, where kids love to read, Mac got to read his story about Presidents and Bathtubs in the presence of several claw foot bath tubs. 

(Because kids love to curl up and read in a tub and Wordplay gets that.)

So of course, I had to ask Mac if he would get in a bath with my kids, and of course he did, because he is awesome. 

The terrific Mac Barnett sharing his books with young fans at Wordplay.

And then we kicked all of my kids out and Mac got back in the tub and did some pretend reading of the book that he wrote.
"I'm laughing because its really, really, funny!"
And I agree with him.
It's a great book… super funny with just enough tasteful presidential Taft-y nudity.
Enjoy!
http://wordplaycincy.org 

Toilet Water Wig.

On this happy mothers day my youngest and spunkiest daughter hit me with this…

"I forgot to tell you that yesterday I accidentally got my wig too close to the toilet and it got wet. 

But don't worry, because I dried it off with a roll of paper towels."

Wishing all daughters, and mothers too, the grace to keep your wigs far away from the toilet and a roll a paper towels on hand for life's unavoidable mishaps. 

Happy Mothers Day Friends. 

It's Coronation Day!!!

Anna graduated from Queens University on Saturday morning and we were all there to cheer her on. 

Rosie thought that Anna's graduation was her coronation and insisted on calling it so...it was fitting for the occasion so we stopped correcting her, just went with it, and all began calling it Anna's Coronation Day!

And absolutely,  the day of our oldest daughter's coronation was a wonderful morning, full of hugs and happiness. 

 

Before the ceremony I found our girl (in her coronation gown) in the line up of graduates and was able to grab this picture of my girl smiling through her last few college moments. 

And then immediately after the ceremony with an even larger smile… woo hoo!

Here is the whole Coronation Gang… mom and dad, every single brother and sister, Grandma and Grandpa, cousin CJ, sweetheart Nate, and Nate's sister and friend, Kathleen. 

We were quite a crew and I do believe this photo took about an hour to coordinate… we kept losing people before we could all assemble.

I am very glad to have a pic of the entire team together…it was well worth the effort.    

The sassy sister subset photo was much easier to orchestrate. 

Anna looking very brainy outside of the library that she won't be visiting anymore… I think she is really ok with that.

With Nate the Great...

I insisted that she throw her mortar board in the air as a sign of graduate happiness and fresh new beginnings.

She humored me, and although the happy hat toss photo wasn't exactly as I imagined, the idea and intention was right there.

Congratulations Anna!
Your graduation speaker, Jay Bilas (who gave a most excellent talk) said that those who love you most have never been more proud of you than we were on Saturday morning... which is true. 

So very proud of you Anna for so many reasons!!!

Short and Sweet and Skipping Class.

Until a week ago, my Mary had perfect college class attendance…she made it all the way through a snowpocalyptic winter to the end of April, without missing a day of class.  

And then I showed up, and her regular academic Tuesday turned into one of delicious paellas and shopping instead of studying and classes.

(I have fallen in love with Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba…yummy)

I paid a quick Chicago visit to my girl to go see the play that she is working on. 

It's called Jackie and Me… based on a Dan Gutman book about Jackie Robinson.

It is a production for a young audience which is what Mary enjoys doing the most, and the performance was a part of her classwork and completely school sanctioned. 

(unlike the paella)

My very biased review of Jackie and Me is that it was most excellent. 

I was the only mom who wasn't a teacher in an audience filled with school kids who loved it as much as I did. The kids were very engaged in the story, with a lot of cheering for young Jackie at bat and groaning when he faced trouble and diversity…which was a lot, poor Jackie. 

I loved being a part of a loud and rowdy house.

("house" as in the theater...after a day of skipping class with my theater major, I'm full of hip lingo)

Afterwards Mary gave me a backstage tour and was proud of me for not getting into trouble of breaking anything on the set.

Because Mary did have to go to school, I walked her to her class, met some of her  friends and of course, made her pose in the stairwell. 

The brand new theater building at Depaul is fantastic and I got to peek into some of the rooms where I found a whole lot of yoga happening. Mary told me that one of her classes starts off each time with a sun salutation... my yogi pals would get a kick out of that :-)

 We had a very lovely, but short visit...we both enjoyed every minute of our time together. 

Chicago is a wonderful and exciting place full of fantastic opportunity…but 

the thing that I love the most about it is how much my girl loves being there.