Once Upon a Read-a-thon Day 3

Format: select

Yesterday was the last day of the Once Upon a Read-a-thon hosted by Candace at Candace’s Book Blog, Angela & Loretta at Reading Angels and Pure Imagination.

It was a crazy day with tons of errands so we didn’t get much reading done together.

I woke up to find my two boys reading together. Very very cute :)

 

While they played and read in their rooms, I got to spend all morning paying the bills :/ They were dying to get out of the house by the time I was done, so we rode bikes to the park and I got a little bit of reading in.

I was STARVING by the time they were done playing, so we walked home and went grocery shopping.  They must have been hungry too, because they bickered and fought the whole time. I was THAT mom at the store with two screaming kids.

We got home and I made gluten-free mac and cheese.  It was chewy. I’m still getting the hang of this gluten-free cooking. Rice pasta is much more finicky than wheat pasta. But they must have been starving because they ate it.

Then I did the dishes, swept the floor and put away some laundry.  I was in need of a break by then so we sat down for thirty minutes and ate way too many Starbursts while we read books.

Then we were off to the library craft time! With much crying because the 4 yo wanted to wash his hands first! And was upset that I couldn’t go back in time and change it! Or something!

Luckily the 4 yo fell asleep in the car.

The craft was so cute. The reading theme for the library is “Dig into Reading” so they made dinosaur fossils. There were rocks, gems, and shells that you could decorate the dinosaur print with.

We had another mega-haul from the library. I think they intend to read all the Mo Willems books ever written.

 

These are the books in addition to the books we got from the library on Day 1 and Day 2.  I’m getting dangerously close to my check-out limit.

I’m exhausted by this whole long day at this point, but noooo we all have to eat again. It’s dinner time.  I made peanut Thai coconut something-or-other with gluten-free pasta.  It was too spicy so my kids wouldn’t touch it.  I thought it was bland except for a tiny hint of spice.  We all ate a lot of cereal. Thank heavens for gluten-free Chex.

My husband is working late, so I get to put them to bed by myself too! I should have bought more chocolate at the store. A lot more chocolate.

My kids want to run around outside even though they should have been in bed a half-hour ago, so I figure I can rest while watching them from the front porch and hey maybe they’ll get really tired.  They chased the white floating seeds from all the weeds growing in the patch of dirt that will be our yard when it grows up someday.  They had a lot of fun :)  And I got to sit down for 20 minutes :)

 

Then they went to bed after reading two more Mo Willems books.

And this is why I read. At the end of a long day, I can sit in a comfy chair and escape to another world where they don’t have to go grocery shopping.  They deal with saving the world and stuff like that. And I realize I’ve got it pretty good :)

Final Read-a-thon Stats

All the books the kids read over the last 3 days:

• Today We Will Fly by Mo Willems
• Should I Share my Ice Cream by Mo Willems
• Pigs Make Me Sneeze by Mo Willems
• Dragontales: Music is Magic
• Pete the Cat: Play Ball!
• Elephants Cannot Dance by Mo Willems
• I Brok My Trunk! by Mo Willems
• My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems
• What’s Your Sound, Hound the Hound? by Mo Willems
• Nutty Knock Knocks
• Wilson and the Ice Cream Fair
• Dolphins
• Safari: National Geographic
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Dr. Daisy MD
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Look Before you Leap!
• Hop on Pop
• Are You Ready to Play Outside? by Mo Willems
• Can I Play Too? by Mo Willems
• Listen to my Trumpet! by Mo Willems

Total time kids read over the three days: about 3 hours

Books I read:

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (135 pages). I finished it! YAY!
• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (266 pages). I’m halfway through and I’m loving it :)

Total time reading for me: 5 hours

I had such a fun time with my kids.  It was very rewarding to me to spend so much reading time with them.  I’m going to make this a tradition to have a read-a-thon with them online every year. And I have got my calendar booked with all the library activities for kids this summer!

I just have to add that while I was writing this post, my kids snuck into the Starbursts and are reading their library books while eating them because “Starburst are for reading” lol.