V is for Van Allsburg; Chris Van Allsburg

My boys and I just love the imagination and intrigue of Chris Van Allsburg's books.  He has written many picture books, a few of which have even been made into movies.

We find his stories and ideas captivating and hope you will too.


Jumanji:


Two Bad Ants







Others in this series:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Favorite TV Shows Growing Up in the 80's and early 90's

Image
Do you remember the TGIF lineups on Friday nights? I can remember planning sleepovers and time with friends around TV Show lineups of our favorite shows... or else trying to set the VCR to record our favorite shows if we weren't going to be home. And through the years I had SO MANY favorites! Growing pains aired in 1985 which put me around age 8 and it stayed on the air until I was 15 or so; I'm pretty sure most people in my age group watched mostly for Kirk Cameron and all his antics.  I still have a soft spot for family sit-coms!  The Facts of Life aired when I was just 2  and stayed on the air until I was 11 so I'm sure the episodes I remember so fondly were either some of the later ones and then reruns shown later on when I was old enough to watch from the beginning. I think everyone would have loved an Edna Garret in their lives.   Benson another sitcom that began airing when I was just 2 and was done by the time I was 9 (another one I must have watched mai...
Read more

Things That Make Me Laugh

Image
I loved the challenge of this week's list for our 26 lists link up.  I don't know about you but I really need to laugh more lately.  It's such a great stress reliever. 1.  Books-- I love a good funny book that makes me laugh out loud.  I haven't read one in a while but if you have any recommendations I'm all ears.  The last book I can remember making me laugh was the Un-Honeymooners. 2  The boys being silly. 3.  Watching shows like America's Funniest Videos or Family Feud. 4. My husband.  Most people don't realize it but he's actually pretty funny and often makes me laugh. 5.  Whenever my sisters/ family get together and we get to reminiscing (particularly if my Aunt Elaine is around) we end up laughing so hard at all the old family stories that we are all in tears by the end of the night.  It's fabulous. 6. Movies like Mom's Night Out, Christmas Vacation, and Grown Ups make me laugh out loud. 7.  When my ...
Read more

10 Most Popular Posts of All Time

Image
Each year near the end of December/ beginning of January I share the top 10 posts of the year but this year, in particular, I have noticed some much older posts that are still bringing in lots of pageviews and thought it would be fun to look back and see a top 10 list of all time.  I started my blog in June of 2012 and while so many of my first posts were long blocky, chunky rambles without any real photos of us and our family I just can't bring myself to delete any of them as I really do enjoy looking back and seeing how my blog has change and grown over time. Not surprisingly all my top 10 posts are from more recent years.  I love to look at what is popular and try to figure out WHY each post is so popular. Most of the time I can't but I love to speculate anyway.  10. Our 2022 Disney/Universal Trip Day 1 & 2 has almost 2000 views. Who doesn't love Disney and the Magic Kingdom? 😊 9. My Would You rather; Fall Edition had well over 3,000 pageview. I do, however, thi...
Read more

15 Family Restaurant Games

Image
When my boys were little and we'd take them out to eat I kept a small bag of toys in the car to grab on our way into any restaurant.  That way they would be entertained and a bit quieter while we enjoyed our meal. Now that the boys are older we don't keep a bag of toys handy but we do have few games we use to keep the boys occupied if they start getting bored or squirmy while we're waiting for our food or our check. While there are many phone apps, portable gaming systems and electronic games that could occupy my kids we prefer to use the time together at restaurants to connect with one another and so we tend to play games like: Hangman--   any restaurant that has paper place mats works well for this.  We take turns picking  a word and drawing our hangman stand then take turns calling out letters and seeing if we can solve the puzzle.   Tic Tac Toe-- This works best with pen on paper place mats but we have played making a grid with butter knives ...
Read more

Immersive Monet Experience

Image
 I had such high expectations for the Immersive Monet exhibit because we loved the Van Gogh one so much and I love Monet's art work even more. Alec and I went this past weekend and we spent a good 2 hours inside.  It was in the same building and space that housed the Van Gogh exhibit so we expected a similar set up.     We read about Monet's life and works and home. We watched a short computer animated video about the start of the impressionist movement and Monet's role in it.  Then we stepped into a room that was set up to look like Monet's art studio/salon. There were reproductions of his art all around, little handwritten notes/thoughts sprinkled throughout and even a little window where you could look out onto a scene from Monet's garden complete with bridges, hanging plants, and koi pond.  From there we stepped out into Monet's garden. Now these next two photos look awful but I promise you in real life it wasn't nearly so blue or hazy in there... ...
Read more