Fun times!

So, I was contacted this week by an author to review their book.  I jumped all over it, because if you read this blog, you know I love to read!  And a free book, yes, please!  Because I have been super busy, due to six children, student teaching, homework, Emma's birthday and etc.  I didn't get a chance to read it until today!  But, I loved it!  This is one that I will read to my girls and let Ben read all on his own.  It has a tin of great messages in it and I think my family would do well to think about them now.  It's super important to help your children to hold tight to their dreams, and that is what this book is all about!  If you want to read more about it, you can here.  Here's my review:  This was a great read for me! I'm sure my son will love to read it too! I though there were a lot of life lessons to be learned through these elf children's adventures! Twice I even stopped and read them to my husband, because I was in complete agreement! Especially the one where he says: "Are the youth so poor that they can't afford to pay respect for their elders?" Awesome! I liked the relationships between the elves, all friends and like family, even though they were completely different! I also really liked how the worst they could do was be sarcastic and how much it hurts them! I think that would be fantastic for kids to know, so they don't think it's okay when they get older. I kept thinking, "Why?" They kept making goofy mistakes, but it was understandable, considering they were children. I would have liked knowing a comparison between elf years and human years though! I'm looking forward to the next book in the series! I wonder what will happen next? A LOT happened in this one! But I want to hear about what Boomer and Devlari were doing when they disappeared!
Either way, it was a very enjoyable read and I was sad to be finished with it!
As for the rest of this week:  I was able to spend time with Mandy for her pretend birthday (we celebrated it a day late), and we girls went to Texas Roadhouse!  It was lots of fun and totally worth having to stay up until 3 in the morning to get my homework done!  I was able to give my very first spelling test!  I also got my first drawn picture!  I was pretty excited!  I did lots more, but those were some of the big ones!  Scott and I went on our date and got some clothes for almost free from Children's Orchard (including a monkey costume for Josh, so cute!), and something Scott wanted.  Then poor Scott and Josh had to come along with me to the Authorpalooza!  I got to meet some of my favorite authors!  Plus I won a $5 B&N giftcard!  

 The awesome sunset picture that I took as I was driving!

 One of my very favorite authors signing six of my books!

 She wanted a picture with me, because I had so many books!  And my cute baby (and husband)!

 I'm guessing Lynn ducked behind the flowers as I was clicking the picture!

 This set of authors

And the last set!  So fun!

I stayed up late on Friday making Emma a fun birthday outfit, to make up for the fact that I spent hardly anything on her (Did I mention why I didn't buy her big present?).  Tada!  I thought it turned out pretty well!  Too bad she got it wet before the party, so she's wearing something different at Chuck E Cheese's!  She was super excited about her party!  She was convinced that Aunt Sam was going to come back (from Idaho) for her party!  I told her otherwise, so she wasn't expecting her there!  Phew!  She came with me to get pizza and the lady gave her free cookies there and then we picked up her friend Anna!  She did almost everything with Anna, and they had a great time!  I had played games online at Chuckecheese.com and won free tickets, so each kid (plus 2 random strangers) got at least 20 free tickets!  That worked out really well to get most of them to 100 tickets to pick out something cooler than a laffy taffy or something!    Danyelle borrowed my camera for the conference, so I borrowed my mom's for the party!  No problem!

  I love weekends!  Lots of time with my kiddos and trying to get a lot done (which never works)!  I felt bad, because my house was still a mess and my sister and brother in law stopped by this morning with a ton of clothes!  There was stuff for Leah, Emma, Kira and Josh!  Emma got a whole new summer wardrobe!  Wow!  It was super nice of them to give it to us!  I'm looking forward to another busy week!