Bookmarks Festival

We had a great day today at Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors.  I can't believe that this was Bookmarks' TENTH Festival and my first!  It was a super fun day.  Part of the festivities included a parade where kids dressed up as their favorite book character and Clara chose to go as Alice the Fairy (David Shannon).  Here she is, trying out Alice's spell on Rufus:  "Hawkin Tawkin Riggin Fawkin!"  I think, like Alice, she still needs to work on that one a bit.  

Eric Litwin, author of the first four Pete the Cat books was presenting and signing and since Clara is a big fan, we wanted to be sure to check him out.   He gave a super lively "book talk" that was perfect for the big crowd of kids that gathered.  Here's Clara and Miles rocking out to his introduction with their daddies.  

He performed Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons (the Pete the Cat book that Clara had brought for him to sign!) and then gave a great reading/singing of his newest book from his new series: The Nuts | Bedtime at the Nut House. (Listen to the song here)

Finally, he invited all the children on stage to teach them the dance and song to his next, yet to be released Nut Family book.

After his performance, the kids in costume began their parade. Clara joined some friends from church who were dressed as fabulous Fancy Nancys.

And after scoring the last copy of his new Nut book, Clara got to meet Mr. Eric and have him sign her new book and her Pete the Cat book.  After a brief interaction he asked, "Is she precocious?"  Yes.  Yes, she is.

We stopped at a few more booths before totally succumbing to the heat and calling it a day.  Thanks, Bookmarks for such a great festival and a cool experience for Clara meeting her first author in person.  We'll be back next year!

Big Girl Room

We've been slowly working on Clara's big girl room since Christmas in hopes of moving her into it on her birthday (and making room for baby sister in the nursery.)  It's been an evolving project, but I'm so so happy with how it turned out.  I started with this beautiful quilt that Robert's Memaw made years ago.

I love the bright colors and just think it's so special to have something handmade by her great grandmother in her room.  We asked Clara what color she wanted her room to be and she insisted on blue, so Robert I painted it one Saturday morning in January.

Once the room was painted, I started searching for fabric for the curtains and stumbled on this which just felt perfect for Clara.  Not only did it match the blue perfectly, but it brought the outside in to her room.  She's a nature girl for sure, and I loved this subtle touch.  Mama K did the hard labor of turning them into actual curtains for us (and made some pillows too!)

 Then, to complete the nature feel without totally overdoing it, my dear friend Sarah, who is extremely talented, came up from SC to paint some wildlife in Clara's room.  You might remember that Clara was a chickadee for Halloween last year... this child really loves her some birds.  And these sweet little touches tucked in on door frames and in corners are so perfect and so dear. She might not forgive me for posting these, because she was exhausted from 12+ hours of straight painting, but here are some "in progress" shots:

Clara wanted to draw on the walls "just like Ms. Sarah."

They couldn't have turned out any better.  Now, commence oohing and ahhing at these masterpieces:

Male and female cardinals (NC State bird):

Chickadees:

A box turtle munching a strawberry:

Mommy bluebird bringing a bug to her babies:

A writing spider:

And a rufous-sided towhee:

Robert spend several months working on building Clara the shelves I wanted for her books.  I'd seen "gutter" shelves before, but Robert wanted to make them himself, from wood, and they look so good.  He loves being able to make things with his hands.  Since Papaw died, Robert has slowly been learning how to use all his woodworking tools and it's a special way of connecting with him and that past.  I love that so much of Clara's room is hand-crafted by people who love her.  The goal was to have her in her big girl room by her birthday, and we came down to the wire, but at about 9:00PM on Sunday night, Robert got those shelves hung.

And TA-DA!  Here's the (mostly) finished product.  I still need to frame a few things for the walls, but it's mostly done.

 So, here's Clara in her first night in her big girl room.  So excited!  And she stayed in her bed all night long.  (Now since then is a different story, but we're working on it....)

 Sweet dreams, my big girl!  We had so much fun making this room for you and I'm glad you love it!