Teachingmommy: Uncle Jeff Turns 39!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Uncle Jeff Turns 39!

We love our Uncle Jeff. ("un-tle deff") He's great and we're so lucky to have him. He turned 39 years old last weekend and the party wouldn't have been complete without time with Jeff and his best friend...Maelin.

We took Jeff out for his favorite dinner on Friday night: Outback steak house. Maelin was very good. She loved twisting around in the booth and watching the people behind us. She was very proud that she wasn't in a highchair and was a big girl sitting at the table.

Then on Saturday night, Jeff and Kat came over (Auntie Heather was spending the weekend which was great fun!) and we got Jeff's favorite pizza and cake. Even though it wasn't Maelin's birthday (which I said to myself a long time ago was the only time she'd ever be allowed cake), it was her BFF's, so she got cake. She LOVED it. (shocking, right?) Then we played and played till it was time for bed.

We adults stayed up with some nice beverages and watched "Stardust." It's a great movie. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it. Full of adventure, humor, romance, evil witches, brave princes, etc. (oh...and Robert DeNiro is a gay pirate which helps....)

We had a great birthday celebration with Uncle Jeff! Kat's is next!

1 comment:

The Great Church Adventure said...: Sounds fun. DeNiro wasn't really gay but more of a cross dresser transsexual. My kids love that movie. She is so cute.; March 26, 2009 at 4:06 PM

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Spanish Steps: Rome, Italy

Must Read Books & Great Authors

"A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" is a novel by Betty Smith first published in 1943. It relates the coming-of-age story of its main character, Francie Nolan, and her Irish-American family struggling against poverty in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. The novel is set in the first and second decades of the 20th century. The book was an immense success, a nationwide best-seller that was distributed to servicemen overseas.
"Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. This is my all-time favorite book and you MUST read this at least once in your lifetime. It has won the Pulitzer Prize, it is available in 31 different countries and it has been hearlded as "The Great Amercian Novel"
"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult is a heart-wrenching novel about what it means to be a good parent, a good person and a good sister. Kate has had cancer since childhood and her younger sister Anna was concevied to be a perfect-match bone marrow donor for her. As Anna grows up, she struggles with how she and world will see the rights of her own body. This novel is the first book in years that had me crying. It was very well written and very enjoyable if you're in the mood for a tear-jerker.
"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls is a memoir about a nomadic, deprived childhood told with the wonderment of a child who always wants to believe that Daddy will be a hero in the end and that Momma really does know best. You are enrapt reading about Walls and her siblings rifling through trash cans at school looking for food, doing the skedaddle in the middle of the night, or waiting for Dad to come home after another bender. It's a riveting story and a testament to Walls' desire to rise above a life that could have easily turned her into just another tragic headline. I really appreciated this story because of the very real probability that some of my students are living this very life.
One of my favorite authors (I have everything she's ever written) is Marian Keyes whose stories are set in Britian or Ireland. She is the internationally bestselling author of Watermelon (which is my favorite), Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, The Last Chance Saloon, Angels, Sushi for Beginners, Under the Duvet, and her latest, The Other Side of the Story. Her books have touched readers around the world, and they are now published in 35 countries and in many different languages.