My Summer Adventure at Girls Inc.

Today I set up for the summer book club that I will be leading at our local Girls Inc.   The theme for the summer camp (which starts next Monday) is... "not a vacation from learning, but a vacation of learning."  The 200 girls will be "traveling" around the world in order to learn about different cultures.

Our book club will take the girls to Mexico, Italy, China, Australia, France, and Chicago!  The girls will make journals, kites, sock puppets, key necklaces, and bake cookies! 

One of the decorations for my "classroom"
(which is actually the stage in the community room) is the banner I made using an old atlas...

I am soooo excited about this opportunity to hopefully pass along my love for books and writing and fun to a group of awesome girls who will surely pass a few things along to me!! Pray for us all (including Chelsea and Kate...my two assistants) as we start our adventure!!  And if by chance you are in town and want to help with making sock puppets or kites...let me know :)

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee...and that pocketbook!

This morning Chelsea and I were checking out the news over our morning coffee and caught some of the Today Show at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee...
She dresses like my grandmother did back in the 50's and 60's and just like my grandmother she is described as pragmatic...which could be the reason behind the pocketbook (yes, that is the correct name for the old fashioned patent leather style she  seems to prefer).  I get taking the pocketbook to church, the theatre, parliament...I mean she might need her lipstick or monogrammed handkerchief or perhaps a Certs breath mint (those were the kind of mints my grandmother carried in her pocketbook)...but seriously...carrying it out on the balcony of her own palace???  I seem to vaguely remember in the movie The Queen, she carried her purse when taking a walk about in her garden with Prime Minister Tony Blair.  I am thinking there must be some pragmatic reason behind this...possibly, she keeps it with her in case she has to be whisked away in an instant for security reasons or maybe she's been trained to use the pocketbook as a weapon in a security situation.  She's the Queen and can do what she likes, but don't you wonder what she carries in her pocketbook...

Anyhow she looks as though she has been enjoying herself over the past several days so my hat is off to her :)

As an aside...here is a picture of my grandmother taken back in the day...she would have made a lovely queen :)