Keli reads

Last month, Eleanor read a book by Kimberly Griffiths Little. I contacted Kimberly. I found out that she was coming here with The Compelling Reads Tour in October 2014. 

Jenna came up with the idea to ask if she would speak to Eleanor's 4th grade class. We are so lucky that she was available! 

Kimberly came and told the kids all about her house in NM. Which sounds amazing. 

She then showed the children book trailers from her middle grade books. The children were so excited and after each trailer was over the room was abuzz! 

Eleanor and her friend Karalee, plus the rest of the 4th grade class. 

Kimberly told each of the kids to imagine a lemon. A big juicy lemon and you put it on the counter and you smell it and then you get a knife and cut it in half and then you take a big bite. She asked the kids, did your mouth pucker up? 

BECAUSE THAT IS USING YOUR IMAGINATION! 

Kimberly encouraging the kids to use their imagination.

She said pretend a monkey just came in here and jumped on my head, after that it ran out that door!!! ..Now what did the monkey look like. The kids were coming up with all sorts of things. She asked if the kids that came up with brown or black monkeys were using their imagination as much as the kids that came up with neon green monkeys wearing sunglasses or the kid that said he wanted his monkey was mango colored with a tinge of watermelon. One kid said no. 

Kimberly said "yes they were" because "there was never a monkey in the room" 

All the kids had a clipboard and a pencil and she said imagine you are walking all alone. You are walking alone.Where are you walking?  She gave them ideas for prompts. Then She said imagine something happens! What is it ? What happened? write about that! 

 kids writing their stories.

 another kid writing her story.

 One of the kids showed me his story. His name was Matthew. 

I sure do hope he killed that zombie! 

 Kimberly called two kids up one boy and one girl to tell us their stories. She then encouraged them to continue them later.

What an absolute delight! How blessed we were to have Kimberly come and do this for Eleanor's class. 

Jenna and I then took Kimberly out to lunch at a place in Reston called Cafe Sano. Eleanor got to come too. 

 When we got back to the school, Jenna took this picture of Kimberly and Eleanor.

What a wonderful day! 

Keli eats

In July 2014, Jenny Ellen and I had a fondue party. I am just writing about it now. In October 2014. I am three months late. 

 I wrote this on the chalk board. 

 me and Jenny Ellen. Thank you to Cody who was so nice he must have taken this picture fifty times :)

 table decorations

 our names. 

 Cody, Jenny Ellen and me. 

 Max, Rebecca and Jen. 

 Max, Rebecca, Jen, Cody, and Jenny Ellen. 

Max helped me make some delicious chocolate fondue! We dipped all sorts of stuff into it. 

 I think everyone had fun! 

Keli reads

October 2014- Jenna, Eleanor and I went to our second night of The Compelling Reads Tour. It was at One More Page Books in Arlington, VA 

One More Pages Books is such a cute little bookstore! 

We went in and they had ice tea and wine, and of course water for people like me. 

They had cupcakes

 I had the PB one. 

and they had BOOKS!!!! 

I love how they displayed kids books in this darling wagon. 

 I need this book! 

 cute matches with book titles on them! SO CHARMING! These would make cute stocking stuffers! 

 and lots of books from the authors that were there last night! 

 The authors did this dating game thing. This lady asked them silly dating game type questions and they had to answer as if they were there book.

 more fun questions.

all the authors that were there. 

Kimberly Griffiths Little with her book Forbidden. Wendy Higgins with part of her triliogy. Martina Boone with her book Compulsion. Melissa Marr and her book Made for You. Leah Cypess and her book Death Sworn. 

 us and all the authors. Eleanor, Jenna, me, Kimberly Griffiths Little, Wendy Higgins, Martina Boone, Melissa Marr and Leah Cypess.

 me and Wendy Higgins and her triliogy that I can not wait to read.

Martina Boone and I and her book Compulsion. This was also her book release! I won a necklace with it on it! ( I did not know we were matching) I look forward to reading her book too! 

us and our friend Kimberly Griffiths Little and her book Forbidden. Eleanor won a bookmark and I won earrings.

 I had tons of fun and bought a lot of books! 

HAPPY READING!!!!!!!!

Keli works

In August 2014, I found this "snow kit" at Tuesday Morning for 75% off. I bought it. 

When I went to baby sit the Black Family I brought it with me. We made snow. I have no idea how, but whatever was in the kit we just added water to it and it blew up and made snow. 

 Oliver age 8 and Cami age 1 with the snow that we made. 

We made a LOT more snow than that though. We made so much snow and then I let Desi and Campbell play with the snow. 

I was reading to Oliver and Fletcher. The dad came home sooner than I expected and Cami and Desmond and made a huge snowy mess! 

It took us forever and a vacuum to clean it up..

 I have to admit, we did have a lot of fun.

Desi, age 4, Oliver age 8, Campbell age 1 and Fletcher age 5. 

Keli celebrates Spike's birthday

Spike turned six! He had a great birthday and we sang Happy Birthday to him. He wagged his tail the whole time. 

 Here are him and I in my mom's kitchen 

October 2014.

Keli travels

In August 2014, Purple Kellie and I went on a ghost tour in Georgetown, Washington DC. 

The guy read out of a book and I think that I could have given a better tour.. 

but I will say this.

we walked a lot. 

we heard about and saw some interesting things.

like some teens smoking pot in some shady area near the C & O canal.

rats running around behind some national park building. 

Which ran right under a couples feet that were making out.

and the exorcist stairs 

 after we walked down them some people left the tour. 

some people also left and got a pizza and came back.

 the stairs again

all in all I can say that it was an interesting tour. 

Keli travels

I love fall. I love to celebrate fall. If I have the time and the money I go to a different fall thing every weekend in October. 

This year I tried The Corn Maze in The Plains, with my friends Margret and Monica. Monica brought her children Nate and Alexis and her nephew Johnny. 

When we got out to The Plains, we paid and went over to where a guy was ringing a bell. We then had a talk about the maze. This year it is shaped like a wolves head. 

We were told that there were different stations that had quizes about wolves and if we got them right we would be told where to go. 

We were told to make it to a bridge and from there we would be able to see our way out.

We were also told to bring a flag and if we got stuck to wave it in the air and say 

"CORN COP, COME SAVE US!!!" 

oh gosh how embarrasing .. I knew then that I would have to have a full blown anxiety attack before I waved a flag in the air and said "Corn Cop come save us" 

We met some other people in the maze and they helped us find the way out. When we got out after about 45 minutes. We took this picture. 

 here we are with all the extra people we met along the way. 

crafty Keli

I found this wood Adirondack chair on the curb in my neigborhood and thank goodness I still had my Blazer then because I put it in my Blazer and took it home in August 2014 I painted it Orange. 

 doesn't that look good. 

 love it. 

It is sitting outside my house covered in a cobweb right now. I wished I could afford a life size skeketon but I can't. 

I google orange Adirondack chairs and they are expensive ! 

I think I got pretty lucky!!! 

Keli eats

I had a dinner tonight in October 2014, We had cereal for dinner. JUST CEREAL! 

We had Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Apple Jacks, Reeses Puffs, Vanilla Chex, Lucky Charms and Pumpkin Flax.

 The Sisters came. This picture reminds me of pictures I would take on my mission. This is Sister Butts and Sister Vaitu'ulala.

 Margret came Her and Sister Butts are gluten-free so they ate the Vanilla Chex and Sister Vaitu'ulala requested Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 

 Monica and the kids enjoyed having cereal.

Nathan, Johnny, Alexis and Monica. 

Keli eats

I also had an ice cream party in August 2014 with my friends Erin and Rob and their kids Emily, Elliot and Charlotte. Charlotte is still a baby so I am not sure that she had any. but Emily and Elliot loved choosing and putting fun toppings on their ice cream. 

 Emily and her ice cream sundae she made.

 Elliot and his sundae He had a lot of fun putting sprinkles on. 

it was a good day! 

Keli Works

Did you know it is National Pasta Month? 

On Monday we had pasta with butter and garlic and parmesan cheese.

On Tuesday we had spinach pasta that we dipped in pesto.

On Wednesday we had farfalle pasta with cream and pesto

Thursday - I got off early

tonight we are going to have mac and cheese cups

and the other night we did minute to win it with pasta

we had to put a spaghetti in our mouth and then see how many penne we could pick up in a minute. 

We each took a turn with the timer. 

 

the kids loved it and we had a ton of fun!