The Chronicles of Narnia Wrap-Up

My Bug and I started reading the Narnia series this year and we powered through all seven books but believe me, it took a lot of willpower.

Neither of us liked this series to be honest.  Bug says she liked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but that's just because she's seen the movie several times and was able to follow along easier with the book even when the writing confused her.

I think that was my biggest problem with this series.  It seems like a Middle Grade type book but the speeches from some of the characters felt like eighteenth century classic literature.  It was really hard for Bug to tell me what the plot was sometimes.  She normally asks questions as we read and sits patiently waiting for the exciting parts but when I read these books she pretty much ignored me the whole time.  I finished the final three pages of the last book by myself because after almost seven books of this world she was just done with it all.

This is a popular classic kid series that I'm glad I was able to cross off my TBR list but I'm disappointed Bug isn't going to look back on it as a well-beloved read aloud with her mommy.

Oh well.  There's always Beverly Cleary.  Her stuff is like sugar to my kid.

Funko Collection

I have a bit of a Funko Pop obsession and it's been very hard for me to try and stop buying so many to save some money up.  They're usually less than ten dollars so buying one here and there is no big deal and it's only when you see them all together that I'm finally like
oh
...
That's a lot of money...

So since I'm on a Funko Pop ban for a while I wanted to showcase my collection as it stands right now.  These are just the ones that I claim.  The other three in the house have their own collections.

My Star Wars collection is small compared to how many there are but I still am happy with it.  There's not really any more Pop's I want to add to it so I think that unless I just randomly come across one later that I like I am saying this is complete.  (I do want Queen Amidala but unfortunately she is very, very expensive.)  My favorite is Darth Maul, of course.  He's been my favorite Star Wars character since high school and I'm not even ashamed that I had a birthday cake of him.

 

The Avengers pops are my biggest collection.  I don't have all of them but this is still a pretty big percentage of what is out there.  Vision was the first Funko I bought and Paul Bettany is the star of my favorite move of all time, Legion, so of course this Funko was destined to be my favorite.

Eventually I would like to buy Twelve to add to my Doctor Who collection.  I love his version of the Doctor, I just haven't had a chance to pick him up yet.  Ten is forever my favorite Doctor though.

Leeloo from the Fifth Element and Diablo from Suicide Squad have to stick together since they're the only ones from their series that I wanted.

Pocahontas is another who's all alone.  The only other character in her series is Meeko but I can't get Meeko and not have Flick, too.

Last we have the Game of Thrones section of my bookshelf.  I only bought one for each book so that's why I stopped at five.  I wanted to buy my favorite character from each book that I read and Tyrion came first since he's the king of Westeros to me.  I watched the series while I was reading the fifth book so that's why Sam's in there instead of a book character.  I loved him from the show more than I loved any one person in the book.  The only thing I regret from this collection is that I have Dany and not Littlefinger's Funko.  After watching the tv show I really don't like her character anymore and would love to go back and buy his instead.

Goose's Birthday!

My little Goose turned 11 last month and it seems like she turned into a tiny little woman overnight.  Momma doesn't like it :(

She is really into a computer game called Transformice and for her birthday all she wanted was a gift card to use to buy some stuff for her character on it.  Easy peasy done.  We also bought her a used desk off an auction site for only $30 because she's in junior high now and I know she'll need somewhere just for herself to read, study, craft, write, anything she wants to do.  I really wanted to buy her a nice antique one that she can use for years and pass down but that will have to wait until I can save up for it.  This one is pretty nice though and she seems to like it a lot so that's all that matters.

She had a sleepover with her best friend and we went to Fazoli's and to see the new Ghostbusters movie.  When we came home we had her cake that she decorated all by herself (it's a mouse since she loves Transformice so much).

I love how she's growing up and becoming a mature little lady but sometimes I miss that tiny baby who slept on my arm every night and who would sit in my lap all day while we watched Noggin and read books.  Sweet Goose I love you so much.

My July Book Pile

I went a little overboard in July...
Like-
A little too much overboard.

 

There wasn't really anything I wanted to watch on TV since Game of Thrones ended so I decided to spend all of my free time just reading.  And I accomplished that with a bang.

Most of these are library books that were due back at different times so I wasn't able to get a pic of the whole pile but I imagine it would have been glorious.  As in, won't even fit into the frame properly kind of glorious.

Two of these books are more than 700 pages which is almost like reading two books in one so I'm especially proud of myself for how much I accomplished.  I absolutely hated A Little Life and it was pure torture to finish it, but the other doorstop I read (Alexander Hamilton) was actually pretty good and even though it was dense it was really interesting.

My favorite was Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine which is the second book in The Great Library series.  I still wish there was a little more character building but the universe is so in-depth that I am okay with more of it and less character buildup. 

I disliked quite a bit of this month's books, unfortunately.  As I said above, I hated A Little Life and had to force myself to finish it.  I couldn't even finish Rome but since I read 230 pages of it before giving up I'm still counting it as a full book on my list.   Most of the books I read this month received 2-3 stars and I hate that.  I miss loving everything I'm reading.

St. Louis Magic House

The girls and I took an all-day trip to St. Louis where we left at 7 in the morning and didn't pull back into the driveway until 9 at night.  We crammed a lot into our day and I hope the two girls loved it as much as mommy did.

They've gone to the Magic House a couple of times but it's been years since our last trip and they have been begging to go back.  I really honestly thought they might be a bit too old for it but after almost five hours I was proven wrong.  They had an absolute blast and I'm so happy I let them lead the way and explore wherever they chose to go.

The Magic House is gigantic and it's pretty much impossible to get a good photo of the entire thing. 

Their favorite part of the Magic House is always the little village where you can explore and go into themed rooms and every time we've gone there's been new rooms added.  They probably spent the most time in the library because they're my little booknerds.  You can make your own library card and scan books out like a real librarian and they got such a kick out of that.

Another popular spot was the art area.  This is a new one for us but it was practically heaven for my two creative girls.  They have a craft bucket at home that isn't as popular as it used to be but they are still such big lovers of being creative.

Outside in the garden area they had a special summer beach exhibit.  We didn't go inside since the girls had tennis shoes on and the thought of them climbing back into my car with sandy feet made me cringe.  If I had known about it though I would have sent them with flip-flops and play clothes because it looked like a lot of fun.

After we left we made a beeline for IKEA.  We've never been to one before and we were excited to check it out and grab some supper.

I got the famous meatballs and they completely exceeded my expectations.  I can't wait to go back and have them again!

My June Book Pile

I read a lot of books in June and it was so nice to see my book pile growing and growing as the month went on.  There was one day I read pretty much every free second I had and I ended up finished three books.

I marked a few books off my TBR pile that I'd been eying for awhile so that made me pretty happy.  The Game of Thrones series is a huge pile of books that I am now completely done with.  There's a few other books that are set in the world or talk about the universe that I want to get to eventually but I'm not planning on it anytime in the next few months.

Bug has been really loving The Spiderwick Chronicles series and we powered through three books this month together.  She watched the movie too but didn't seem to like it near as much as the books.

Goose recommended Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and El Deafo to me.  She's read El Deafo twice now so I wanted to see what it was all about.

The best book I read this month was by far The Fireman by Joe Hill.  It was amazing and I read over 500 pages of it in one day because I could. not. put. it. down.  For those of you who don't know, Joe Hill is Stephen King's son.  My other favorite book this year was 11/22/63 by King so let me just say, them King boys know how to craft a good story.

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman was a really happy surprise that I checked out from the library solely based on the title and pretty cover.  Any book that has the word 'library' somewhere in the title or description automatically has my attention.

The only book that I wasn't really a fan of this month was The Devil's Advocate by Jane Yolan.  I enjoy reading books set during WW2 so I was looking forward to this one but I thought it was a little too wordy and not enough showy for me.

Hoping I have a good book month for July but I start back to work this month so I probably won't do as much as June.  June took a lot out of me!

Evansville Museum

The girls and I absolutely love Evansville, Indiana.  It's such a beautiful city and there's tons of fun stuff to do with kids.  We've been going routinely ever since they were babies and we always have a full day of fun.

The museum had a special display of World War II locations made entirely out of Lego's.   They were really detailed and the girls liked this section a lot. 

This ship was HUGE.  So huge I couldn't even get a full picture of it.  And see that photo on the left?  That's also made completely out of Lego's!

Their favorite part of this museum is always the town square on the first floor.  It has glass cases  where you can look in and see a reenactment of what that store would have looked like.  And the whole wing of the section looks like you're really walking through a town.  

The candy store is really cute with candy on display but as you can see they all need a good dusting!

 

What the kitchen would have looked like with the parlor through the door.  I told the girls a parlor was a fancy living room where only guests were allowed to go and if they thought we could have a living room like that and keep it clean.

No, the answer was of course no.

The dentist office is always one of my favorites with the tiny bottles of stuff and the scary looking implements they used on display.

They love the toy store and always tell me what they want out of it.

My favorite part of town are the beautiful "streets" you walk through.

We didn't have time to fully explore all of the artwork upstairs because we had tickets to their movie and had to be back in time to line up for it.  I tried to get a good picture of the domed screen and how it wraps completely around you but wasn't able to.  The movie we watched was really cute about a dinosaur and how it was born and died but honestly craning my head back and forth to see everything gave me a bit of a headache.

We did get to see a few fun pieces of art like this Andy Warhol painting. 

 My favorite art section in the museum is the wooden room with some super old beautiful paintings.

After we left the museum we visited the train museum again.  They love climbing through all of the trains and ringing the big bell in the front.  We also have to buy Goose the disgusting astronaut ice cream they sell in the gift shop that she loves.  

The weather was amazing this day.  Not too hot but warm enough we had a fun stroll on the sidewalk next to the river.  We found a bench and relaxed while Goose ate her dehydrated and gross ice cream (I really dislike astronaut food in case it's not obvious) and just watched the water for awhile.

There's this beautiful building right beside the water and we wanted to go in but didn't have time.  I think it might be a tourist bureau but no matter what it is, it sure is pretty!

After the museum we went to eat (and sadly realized this was probably their last time being small enough to play in the Chick-Fil-A playplace) and then did some shopping at the two story Barnes & Noble that they are obsessed with.  

My girls and I had such a fun day together!