Clifford Sighting

My mom has always wished for 25 hour days, and over the summer, it felt like we found that magical extra time. We started going to the beach with friends on Friday nights, and it was like our whole weekend opened up. Of course it threw our whole night off, and it was often 10:00 before we got everyone to bed (even though we typically left the beach by 7:15 or 7:30), but we were so used to our nights being nothing but dinner-dog walking-baths-snack-stories-teeth brushing-bed, that breaking out of the routine really felt like we were given extra time to spend together.

Over the last month or so, we've fall out of the habit of going to the beach, but we have still been doing stuff on Friday evenings when we can. This weekend we took the kids to see Clifford at Barnes & Noble. They were so excited they started jumping up and down as soon as they got out of the car. We really need to get out more.

(On a side note, they also started jumping up and down with excitement while inside Whole Foods today. We really, really need to get out more.)

Since Clifford didn't arrive until the end of story time at 7:00, we arrived early so they could play before seeing Clifford. As usual, they were total enthralled by the wall of educational toys.

I tried taking pictures of Natalia in action, but every time she saw the flash, she looked up, grinned, and said in a fake Japanese accent, "Chee-zu!" I did catch her unaware at the train table.

When it was time for Clifford, the kids all ran to the book section. (Yes, we even occasionally go to the book section of the book store!) Then they proceeded to flip and flop all over while the poor woman working there attempted to read two Clifford stories. In their defense, the other kids were acting about the same. There was even a two-year-old who ran up during each and every page, pointed at the book, and shouted, "Clifford!" The woman with the book had the patience of a saint.

When Clifford came out, Natalia was in awe. She squirmed her way through the crowd to see him with me scrambling after her. Leon also gave him a hug. As for Michael and Ree, our super readers who love Clifford, they stayed in the back and watched from afar. It was safer back there. With the books.