Halloween Party Menu

This is a bit late, but I thought I'd post it anyway so I'd have a chance of finding it next year:

-Wormy Orange Punch
-Constricting Snake Bites
-Bloodshot Deviled Eyeballs (we made to look like bloodshot eyes with red food coloring instead of pimento)
-Spiderweb Nacho Spread: layered Mexican dip with sour cream spiderweb drizzled on top
-Broccoli Boo Salad
-Spider Pretzels
-Cat Cookies 1 or Cat Cookies 2
-Ghosts in the Graveyard
-Popcorn Gloves

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss is awesome. My favorite book is The Lorax. I recently checked it out from the library and read it with T, who's almost three and beginning to read. Yes, really.

Green Eggs and Ham has been a favorite with him for some time - he likes to flip through and try to remember the lines as he looks at the pages. This morning, however, I caught him trying to read another Beginner Book, Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? He was getting most of the words. Even though I'm around him all the time, I was surprised at how well he got some of the more difficult words, and how well he guessed at some he clearly didn't know by sight.

On an inspiration, I sliced up some of the ham Meme sent us home with yesterday, and colored a small batch of scrambled eggs green with blue food coloring. (They looked like they should taste minty, but I suppose that's just the food industry tainting my taste buds again.) He was so excited to eat them, and he ran and got the book to look at after lunch.

When he proceeded to read practically the whole thing to me. He got a little frustrated at the end by some of the longer pages, which are basically all repetition anyway - I think he was just used to it going a little faster. But seriously - I've tried to teach a young child to read before, and it was not this easy. I am absolutely stunned that he is picking this up with seemingly little interference on my (or anyone's) part.

So, an idea is born: theme meals. We've been working on T eating more variety (as previously mentioned, he likes everything sweet - breakfast foods, desserts, fruits...and not so much meat and veggies). He's already pretty clear on not liking beef very much, and he just won't give non-French fry-potatoes a fair shake. But other than that, we've been doing pretty well with the "you have to try a bite of everything on your plate" rule.

So, why not have a "letter of the day" like Sesame Street, and plan some part of the meal to revolve around that letter? Zucchini for Z Day, for example, or Cauliflower for C Day (except then I'd have to eat cauliflower, blech - one of the few veggies I do NOT like).

I'm pretty psyched about this idea, and about expanding his palate. He's surprised us already - who knew a picky 2-year-old could begin to like jicama (or spell it?), or black beans? He's got definite potential, this kid. Now, if I could just get him to like black beans and rice, or soup. So far, mixtures are beyond him. And yet, I have hope.

Currently Pondering: Upcoming Birthday Party for a Three-Year-Old Boy

Possible Themes:
Teddy Bears (something of an obsession with him)
ABCs and/or 123s (also something of an obsession, but I did this last year, so...)
Dinosaurs

It's a work-in-progress. I've still got to decide on a cake, menu, and decorations. Also, make the thank-you cards.

Which reminds me that I need to get started making my Christmas cards. Argh! And I thought I was catching up...

Update: This morning we chose a theme (based on a cake I found in one of my books). We're going to have a football theme, complete with a football field cake sporting teddy graham bear football players and goalposts made out of white-chocolate dipped pretzel rods. So awesome!

Now, I'll have to think carefully about the menu. How to balance the taste of a choosy 3-year-old who likes mostly sweet foods (when asked what he wants to eat for the meal at his birthday party, he responded "cake!") with the tastes of a group of mainly adults, some of whom don't like "breakfast for dinner" (one of my favorite meal strategies). I'll probably be trying to decide between a brunch menu vs. spaghetti or pizza. (Update: pulled pork sandwiches and cheese ball shaped like a football, and cobb salad! Exciting!)

Decor: I'm hoping I can find some blue and gold balloons and streamers. There are, after all, lots of big ND fans around here, my son included.

I'm still working on the thank-you cards. There's got to be something original I can do with them. (Update: I got blue and gold note cards and stenciled footballs on them in one corner, and stamped "Thank You" on them. They are, I think, fairly appropriate for a kid's thank-you note.)

Currently Making: Poncho

Navy/Gold/Slate Blue vertical stripes. No fringe. Crochet.

I haven't crocheted much in awhile, mainly due to my wrists hurting, but I decided to go for it with a gusto, and so far, aside from a little pain, my wrists are holding up. I'm liking what I've got so far. I'll post pics when I'm done.

Currently Reading: The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon

I've finished Book 1, The Naming, and have started Book 2, The Riddle.

The reviews I read compare the work to Tolkien's, and it's clear the author gave a great deal of thought about languages, customs, clothing, history, etc. (Not nearly so much as Tolkien did, but he was really in a class of his own. Who spends most of a lifetime creating mythology, history, and languages for a fictitious world? Tolkien.) There is a richness in the details in this world, and I'm excited to learn what happens to the characters.

Update:

I've now finished books two and three, and I'm eager for book four, which comes out next year. I did have some funny moments during reading; in book two, the death of one character made me laugh. No joke. As the main character laments, I found myself impatient and bored, with no sympathy for her loss. Why? I knew that the character wasn't dead.

However, I was completely blindsided by the death of a character in book three. I can't say more about that without giving away major plot points, but I was pretty ticked off when it was revealed. What a cheap plot device.

And no, that's not how I feel about the series in general. I really do enjoy the story, it's just that sometimes I feel that the author gets lazy with some of her plots, and it frustrates me. Also, the lack of emotion on the part of some of her characters at certain points makes me angry. They seem to forget about those they hold most dear when they're not in sight; it's bizarre.

Books to Read

Sigrid Undset: Kristin Lavransdatter
Ann Rinaldi: A Ride into Morning, the Story of Tempe Wick
Ann Rinaldi: Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons (Phillis Wheatley)
Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Lost Prince
Ian McEwan: Atonement
Lloyd Alexander: The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio
Michael Gruber: The book of Air and Shadows
Nancy Farmer: The Eye, the Ear, and the Arm
Nancy Farmer: The House of the Scorpion
Lauren Groff: The Monsters of Templeton
Diana Wynne Jones: Drowned Ammet
Divakaruni: The Conch Bearer
Jonathon Stroud: The Golem's Eye and Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus Trilogy)
Thompson: The Last of the High Kings
Robin McKinley: Chalice
Eva Ibbotson: The Dragonfly Pool
Septimus Heap: Magyk
Sharon Creech: The Castle Corona
Adam Gopnik: The King in the Window
Neil Gaiman: The Graveyard Book

Prince of Persia: The Graphic Novel

This graphic novel confused the heck out of me. I can't really even explain what's going on with the story line, as there are two parallel stories that are so interwoven that I don't really even understand who the characters are.

Baffling and intriguing - I wish I could make heads or tails of it.

Thornspell by Helen Lowe

Ah, fairy tales. This book I picked up on a whim (okay, it was on display at the library, face-out, and the cover drew me in. And the title. And the description on the back..."A forbidden wood, an enchanted castle, a sleeping princess...and the prince destined to break the spell." Ooh!).

So, as you might guess, this is really the story of Sleeping Beauty - or rather, the prince who wakes her up. It begins well before he wakes her, and revolves around the efforts of his caretakers to keep him both alive and free from the control of Margravine zu Malvolin (pretty awesome name, btw). She's the evil witch (really of the Faie) who cast the original spell on Princess Aurora.

Anyway, this book is great. I loved every minute of it. The main character is both believable and flawed, brilliant and, at times, completely idiotic. In short, very human. He's surrounded by a cast of interesting characters, the most significant of which is Balisan, his master-at-arms, who teaches him everything a prince needs to know about defending himself - from understanding who your enemy's family is, to knowing how to swordfight. He's totally awesome.

Of course, fairy tales re-told can be awfully predictable - but this one is fresh and full of little details to keep the reader's interest. I can't wait to read more from this author (this is her first novel).

Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

I loved Inkheart and Inkspell. Meggie and Farid, Mo and Resa - funnily enough, it is the everyday characters from our world that speak to me the most, despite their being surrounded by the fantastical creatures of the Inkworld. (Okay, okay, so Farid is technically from A Thousand and One Nights, or something, whatever.) This world is breathtaking - Funke is truly a master artist. The world she paints is vivid and shocking, at once beguilingly innocent and treacherously evil. Meggie is just a beautiful character - of course, we see a lot of her point of view; she's just the age of the target audience for this book. And it's really a story about how she grows up in the completely frightening world inside a book. Her father, Mo/Silvertongue/Blujay, has the power of reading aloud and making characters from books appear in our world. And of making things from our world disappear into books - which is what happens numerous times to various characters during this series.

But back to Meggie. I could listen to her thoughts all day. She's strong and brave (quality character traits for a young girl, and she wears them well). She's fiercely loyal and loving. People seem to act differently around her. She's special - I can't seem to put it any other way.

Yes, terrible things happen. Though Meggie is in love with Farid, his feelings are unknown. He clearly likes Meggie a good deal; but then, he doesn't seem to mind kissing the maids terribly much. His motives are beyond my ken. (I love that expression.) I hope to find a happily-ever-after for Meggie and Farid, Mo and Resa, but I'm not exactly holding my breath. The Inkworld is fraught with peril and bloodshed, and I'm a little nervous that not everyone will make it out alive.

Update: Yes, there is a happily-ever-after (of sorts). The resolution with Farid made me sad, but he should have seen it coming. It was really his decisions that led to the outcome.

Funnily enough, though, I can't really see this story as a happily-ever-after that way. I wonder if the author has some more Inkworld tales up her sleeve, perhaps to do with Meggie's little brother...I'd read them.

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

I read Climbing the Stairs this week. The time period is so fascinating - around the time when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, but in British-occupied India. The main character is a girl named Vidya. Her family is progressive and open-minded; her father even tells her he plans to send her to college. But a terrible accident causes her father to become mentally incapacitated. Her family goes to live at the home of the very traditional grandfather and his sons' families. There, the men live upstairs, and the women live downstairs. The women cook and clean and tend to children, while the men work and study and listen to the wireless. Only during festivals do the sexes mingle.

There, Vidya discovers her grandfather's off-limits (to the women) library, and meets a young man named Raman. In a fairly predictable fashion, Vidya pushes her boundaries and receives permission to study in the library, and Raman falls in love with her.

The setting is what is so intriguing and beguiling about this book. The customs and culture of this place - so completely foreign to the world I live in - are so fascinating. I couldn't get enough. The ending is fairly conventional, in terms of coming-of-age stories, but it is the richness of India itself that will remain with me long after the names and circumstances of the characters fade away from my memory.

One caveat: I wanted Raman to be the man Vidya expected him to be, and I was a little disappointed by some of his ideas and expectations. But I loved that he was willing to consider himself in the wrong - that he allowed his ideas to change - based on his friendship with Vidya. It is so rare that a strong female character can have that kind of influence on a male character, especially given the time period.

I'd love to find more interesting books set in India. Got any suggestions?

Howl's Moving Castle

I recently read Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I very much liked the characters and the setting. Sophie is the eldest daughter of a hatmaker, who dies and leaves the girls - and their mother - without adequate funds to live on. The two younger sisters apprentice out, and Sophie stays at home to make hats for her mother's shop. One day, the Witch of the Waste comes into the shop and turns Sophie into an old woman. Sophie, realizing she can't continue her narrow, confined existence any longer, sets out to make her way in the world. She marches off, and finds a job - actually, forces her way into a job - cleaning castle for Wizard Howl. He may be infamous for eating the hearts of young, beautiful girls, but Sophie thinks she'll be safe with him, since she now has the body of a ninety-year-old woman (and she wasn't much to look on in the first place).

I really dug these characters. Sophie goes from a quiet little mouse of a girl who can only make hats to a strong, determined, fierce woman. Michael, Howl's apprentice, is a hoot. He seems as baffled by his master as Sophie. Calcifer, the fire demon who is bound to serve Howl, is amazingly developed for such a being - he has personality, likes and dislikes, and he definitely has a heart, whatever the story says.

The secondary characters and storylines are also compelling. Lettie and Martha as Sophie's sisters develop from cardboard cutouts into interesting people, and Howl's mysterious past could merit another book. (I'd love to find out about his life in Wales before he became Wizard Howl.) Everything eventually gets woven together into a big, confusing, mysterious story that, ultimately, makes sense together. It's fun to read. Also, there's a hint of romance and some very keen scenes wherein Sophie realizes something very important about herself.

I took a look at the manga based on the novel, and I was disappointed. The characters are all jumbled up, the story line has been muddied with some kind of bizarre modern warfare that completely destroys the bucolic setting of the novel, and it's just weird. Starting and ending at the same place as the novel, but completely going off the rails on a crazy train in the middle. If I get a chance, I'll watch the movie the manga is based on, but I'm not expecting anything much from it.

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy

I recently finished books two and three of the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray. I really, really enjoyed book one (A Great and Terrible Beauty), and was so pleased that book two (Rebel Angels) continued to shine. However, I was so disappointed with the ending of the story (as told in The Sweet Far Thing), that it fairly ruined the series for me.

Okay, so I always had some serious misgivings about certain aspects of the stories. Such as how Gemma and her friends seem extremely cavalier about how they use the magic, both within the Realms and in our own world. Also, Gemma and her friends are shockingly unsupervised for young ladies of breeding in Victorian England. Don't even get me started about the implausibility of some of the things they do.

Here's my major problem, though: I'm just a sucker for a good coming-of-age love story, and this one had a doozy. Gemma and Kartik are lovely characters, and their developing romance is sweet and real. The fact that any relationship between them is impossible in the society in which they live - Indians at that time being considered by the English as lowly, inferior beings fit only for service - makes it forbidden and dangerous. But, as with so much in the Realms, anything seems possible. SPOILER ALERT! I so dearly wanted them to end up together. The climax of the book, when they go to the Winterlands to destroy the Tree of All Souls, made me feel cheated and betrayed by the author. Seriously - I don't know how she can consider that an acceptable ending. It doesn't even make sense.

In short, I can't recommend this book. I wanted so very much to like it, but in the end, I was disappointed by the completely bizarre ending.