Books. A word near and dear to my heart. I love to read, J. loves to read, and I am so happy that the girls seem to be following in our footsteps. We spend many a Saturday afternoon wandering around the bookstore. And when I saw that this week’s theme was Books, I knew that I wanted to capture a moment from my favorite time of the day.

Granted, some nights it is my favorite time of the day because it has been a particularly hard or long day, and I just need them tucked in. And I need some peace. But most nights it is that moment when the girls are all scrubbed clean, their teeth have been double-checked for brushing, they are in their soft pjs, all ready to snuggle and they say, “Can we read in your bed tonight, Mommy?”

It used to be that I would read Ad her books (usually she would weasel four or five Sandra Boynton books out of me) and Em would “listen in on” Ad’s books. Then we’d tuck Ad in, and then I would go read a “big girl” book to Em and tuck her in.

But their reading paths have converged. Ad will sit still for much longer books now and wants to read “Emma’s books.” So we have been piling into my and J’s bed and they each get to pick a book. Addie almost always picks some sort of Princess book, but Emma likes to mix it up. She has been picking some Dr. Seuss books lately, and trying to read some of them to me. We are so close to the next level when Mommy will be replaced and Em will be reading to herself or to Addie.

Until then, I will continue to soak all of our bedtime reading in. And treasure each word.

Make sure to go over and share some Book love with other Theme Thursday photos.

I know I’m kind of “phoning it in” this week. And I promise an update and many excuses as to why I have not written anything of substance this week (not that it is that different from most weeks!), but I do have a picture to share for Theme Thursday. Today’s theme was any interpretation of contrast.

I was going to play with some b&w photos and work on contrast, and then I saw this on Tuesday –  I thought that this is a pretty cool contrast. How often do you see palm trees and snow in the same shot? Yep, there is snow on our mountains, well, there was anyhow…

Stop over to Stacy’s to see some other contrast-y shots.

Every night the girls wait anxiously at the kitchen window. Finally, the next door neighbor will reward their impatience by flipping a switch and inflating her entire yard.

I have been using the promise to “visit” the Halloween Holy Land in order to get the girls to eat their dinner. (Hmmm…do you think she’ll leave them up until Christmas?) They will eat as quickly as they can, race to put their shoes on and then stand at the door, “Can we go now, can we go now? Mommy, can we go visit the Halloweens now?”

So off we go. The glow of the pumpkins beckons us.

Check out other spooky glows over at Tracey’s.

Tracey’s theme for today is Heat.

Around here (where it is pretty much hot all summer long!) the heat has forced us to keep cool by playing in the wading pool, living in our swimsuits and eating tomatoes, fresh off the plant, still warm from the sun.

Addie has been eyeing this tomato for weeks. And she was so excited to sink her teeth into it when I finally gave her the go-ahead.

For a trippy little blast from the past, check this out…

Emma, 3 years ago. She was 18 months (about 4 months younger than Addie is here). Same swimsuit. Documentation of her first tomato from our garden. Cool, huh?

This was a non-digital pic – remember those? Shot in b&w and then scanned in with a not-so-great scanner, so the quality is not as great. But I think it is such a cool coincidence. Totally not planned, at all!