A Place Like This......

The Summer Season Has Begun

Over the weekend it was time to: 

• Fire Up The Grill

• Try and get a spot on one of the spinning chairs.

• Play some music. E brought home is ukelele from University. They wanted to sing John Mayer songs and all I could think of were Hawaiian ballads or better yet , my Tiny Tim impersonation. Can you believe none of the kids knows who Tiny Tim is or that he tip-toed through the tulips?
• Along with that music, it was time to plug in the electric motored boat. So one day soon we will putt putt around our little lake.

• After all of this activity, it was finally time to eat a feast.

And we saved the best for last, 

• Put our feet up. 

And with that dear friends, the summer season has officially begun. Hope you had a great weekend.

Katten at the Keys

It's no secret that every good piano has

a katten at the keys.

We are so lucky to have this little fellow who checks our hand positions so we don't injure ourselves.

Or perhaps choose the wrong music. He complains greatly if we play too many diminished chords.  He gives the pianist a very uncomfortable glare. Speaking from experience, you just have to change what you're playing due to cat pressure.

Once the music changes however, he's right back on the lap and settling in for a lovely piano rehearsal.

 

Out Into The World: A Milestone

" Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."  Nelson Mandela

Oh happy day to you our graduate. A gathering of family and friends celebrated the end of her five year journey and a first step into the next. With honors she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Sciences from the University of Tennessee.

It is said that it takes a village to raise a child. Fortunately for us and our girl, that has been a true statement. We give our thanks to all of the professors, and deans who have so graciously taught and inspired Zaina to this successful day.

My husband and I sat there at the graduation ceremony sort of in disbelief that so many years have gone by so quickly. We remember the day she was born like it was five seconds ago and now we are looking at a college graduate.

University isn't something we take for granted in our house or family. Our generation was the first generation to graduate from university in both my and my husband's families. We watched as both sets of parents slaved and worked themselves into exhaustion just so that everyone of their children could have the opportunity to go to college and better themselves. Both sets of our parents knew that education was the only way to move forward in life and create security for ones family and future generations. When I graduated college my father asked what I was going to do to make the world a better place? How was I going to give back?Since I held a degree, I was responsible for many things larger than myself. 

Zaina's graduation, the second generation to hold a college diploma, is a great testament to our parents, and her grandparents, who worked tirelessly to make that dream come true. We couldn't help but think and talk of them often throughout all of the festivities. I wish they could have seen this day. They would have been beyond proud of our girl. And so now we ask her, this eldest child of ours, what are you going to do to make the world a better place? What are you going to do to change the plight of one person? You hold a great responsibility in your hands and a lifetime to work towards it. 

Congratulations Zuzu. We Love You.

More Celebrating than a Kettle of Fish and A Special Something For YOU!

It is an exciting day at Over Here ! Sound the party horns! Whip some confetti around the room or do a Happy Dance around the Old Oak Tree! Dish up the Birthday Cake! It's PARTY TIME :)

Why all the fuss? JIAB (Jump into a Book) and  Audrey Press have two reasons to celebrate on this day of May 7th. First, it's lucky number 7 for Jump Into a book! As of today May 7th, JIAB has been around SEVEN YEARS. I guess you could say it's our beloved blog's Golden Birthday. Can you believe it's been 7 years?? Can you say BLESSED?

OK...now our "Let's Party Hardy" reason #2 is..........(drum roll please)

Our sweet little fox  book The Fox Diaries:The Year The Foxes Came To Our Garden is ONE.YEAR.OLD today!!! It's actually kind of magical how these two special days landed on the same day. It certainly wasn't planned that way! Oh, and what an exciting year it has been for our Foxes:

• We've toured all over the country. Visiting blogs, libraries, schools, nature centers, and wildlife reserves
• Sponsored the Pella Wildlife Company.
• Have gone digital (you can find the Fox Diaries Digital Read-Aloud version HERE)

AND...the cherry on this birthday sundae would be there's a whole NEW batch of foxes in the Budayr backyard!

Yes, it's true. The second generation of foxes have arrived via original kit Hulda. Hulda herself is now all grown up and a mama.. A mama to TEN kits. Yes...I said 10. SO, needless to say, we have a lot to celebrate. And in honor of these monumental occasion we would love to offer our readers a very special Birthday Price for our The Fox Diaries Book. In honor of Hulda's 10 new babies, we are offering The Fox Diaries for TEN BUCKS this week only.

Are you IN? AWESOME. Click this LINK to purchase your copy of the Fox Diaries at the birthday deal price, or head over to Jump Into a Book or Audrey Press on Facebook and click the birthday cake icon to get your copy for $10. Oh, and would you do us a favor? Please "Like" is while you are there (please-and-thank-you).

FINAL THOUGHT: Though it was completely unintentional, having the same birthday for both JIAB and The Fox Diaries, it is a full circle moment. From jumping into hundreds of books to holding one of my own, this is a day to truly be celebrated. Thank you all of walking this journey with me and for being the wonderful reading companions you are.- Valarie

Visiting EarthMama and a Big Giveaway

 

Photo by Lisa DeNardo

 

This week sees me out visiting friends. My kid lit blog Jump into a Book is happily a sponsor of the Earthmama herself Lisa Denardo. As part of our sponsor giveaway we are hosting this list of wonderful books to get everyone in the mood for summer.

~Over in the Meadow, by Ezra Jack Keats~
~The Sun Egg, by Elsa Beskow~
~Peter in Blueberry Land, by Elsa Beskow~
~The Kids’ Summer Handbook, by Jane Drake and Ann Love~
~Swallows and Amazons, by Arthur Ransome~
~Mud Pies and Other Recipes, by Marjorie Winslow~

 

Can you believe summer is just around the corner?

To enter head on over to Earthmama 101 and pick up some great ideas for creative living as well.

Meanwhile Back at the Casbah

While still in Paris, one day we decided to go for Moroccan food. All of us are huge couscous fans and we had heard that this little place was like stepping back in time.

As I was trying to have a conversation with my family, I couldn't help but notice that my children were very distracted, unable to participate in our table talk.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

And there I saw them, these two cute litte birds sitting on the chandelier.

My very Swedish self panicked a bit because on the island of Gotland, birds inside a house or building means somebody's going to die soon. ( In case you didn't know, I have a very strong and keen superstitious side. At times it can be annoying.)

"Mom, it's not that. These birds live here, I don't think they've even been outside. They're free living indoor birds." 

This inquiring mind wanted to know,"What makes you say that?"

At just that moment the table next to ours got up to leave. After they departed, those same cute little birds flew down from the chandelier and started eating couscous crumbs. They got a fairly good meal before the waiter came over and really wiped down the table. 

What went through my mind wasn't, "Oh my word what a health concern." The first thing that ran through my mind was, "If they eat this much couscous all day long, why aren't they fat and how do they keep flying with all of that weight?"

So much for logic. 

I'm happy to say the meal was fantastic and that no one died after having seen living birds inside a building or eating off a table.

We did discuss that if "bird flu" were prevalent in Paris at the moment, that it would be the most incredible death story ever. "I went to Paris, died of bird flu, caught while eating couscous at the Casbah."

Fortunately that story will just have to remain in the minds of this creative family. :) 

 

In the Garden of Versailles

On our unexpected, unplanned outing to the Palace of Versailles we were totally mesmerized by the interior. No one mentioned the upcoming picnic lunch on the terrace or that soon we would be enchanted by a magical spring like day in March.

 As far as the eye could see the garden went on. The long set of stairs led us down onto the garden path. Our goal was to reach the place past the grass because we heard that there was a four channel man made lake where one could rent a boat. The idea of rowing ourselves around a garden had a us moving quickly.

   

On our way to the lake little or big things kept popping up that would capture our imaginations. Look at the way this horse and chariot just rises out of the water.  We walked around this fountain alone for about 15 minutes really looking to see how the sculpture had thought this idea up. Our conclusion is that he was a fan of Greek Mythology.

  We were heading for that 4 channeled lake I promise we were, until we came to this little shack/kiosk that was renting bicycles. Oh how I love to ride bicycles and this was all on flat terrain. 

"Let's just rent a bike for an hour and take a ride, then we can come back and rent a boat." I said.

Everyone was game for the adventure. The day was nearly 70 degrees and sunny. There was a light warm wind and that little euphoria that sets in during the beginning of Spring hit us. I think of it was allowed, we would have rode our bikes to Amsterdam.

We followed this path through the garden until we could go no further and had to park our bikes. We had arrived at a manor house. A house which was actually the first building on the Versailles property, built as a hunting lodge by King Louis the XIV. Later the Trianon became the manor house of Marie Antoinette. She hated court life and this allowed her some breathing room from it all. 

"Happiness is doubled when shared with a friend...." In those words are contained the value she placed on friendship as being intrinsic to her happiness. Indeed, the queen had a great capacity for friendship.

As we came through her house, there was yet another magnificent garden which called us to walk along its pathways  until we reached this little village. It is known as the Hameau, the Hamlet. Along with not liking French court life, Marie Antoinette loved playing peasant. She had a complete village built which housed a fishing pond, vegetable gardens, life-stock, grain fields, and anything and everything a village needed to survive.

 

 The house above would sleep Marie Antoinette and her friends. There is a lovely vegetable garden in the back. The buildings were constructed in the mid-1700's. 

 

 This building was the dining hall. We loved looking in the windows. One can really imagine what life was like here. It was really fascinating the way history comes together and what we think of as facts and dates in a book, actually took place in the company of many historical figures. I was so surprised to learn the Marie Antoinette was dear friends with the Swiss philosopher Rousseau and that he inspired the hamlet gardens which reflected his "back to nature" philosophy. He also helped decorate two of the buildings along with his brother.

Mimi and I couldn't help but comment that we could really feel the queen in this place. It left us with many questions which we would later have to answer. Was Queen Marie Antoinette the selfish extravagant of French history or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Our research would show us that she got the raw end of the deal and was a victim and not an oppressor. She was completely unaware as to what was happening in the outside world. From being born an Austrian princess to marrying the King of France, her life was actually imprisoned in the palace and she had no clue what life was like outside it's walls.

In spite of its idyllic appearance, the hamlet was a real farm, fully managed by a farmer appointed by the Queen, with its vineyards, fields, orchards and vegetable gardens producing fruit and vegetables consumed by the royal table. Animals from Switzerland, according to the instructions of the Queen, were raised on the farm. For this reason the place was often called "the Swiss hamlet".At some point we looked at our watches and discovered it was almost 5 pm. We had 15 minutes to get our bikes back and then it was the long walk out of the palace gardens. We never did see or make it to the man made lake. That we will have to save for another time. Walking out of our reverie but fully contented that we had an impromptu day which delighted us in the most magical way. 

To the Palace of Versailles

He had that look in his eye. The one where a bevy of questions are about to be unleashed.

 

"Mom, is Chateau de Versailles just a metro stop or is there a palace there?"  O asked.

" Oh,there's an incredible palace there. Remember the French revolution sites we visited? This is the Palace that King Louis and Queen Marie-Antoinette lived plus two kings named Louis before that."

"Wouldn't it be great, the boy said, if we could go there? Just to look at it from the outside. I just want to see what it's like. Is it a long metro ride? It must be really something incredible." 

"Not only can we go there but if you'd like we can go inside."

"Are you kidding me?" The boy bellowed.

****************************************************************************************

No I wasn't kidding, and when you're on vacation you have all the time in the world. So with that, I put two children and myself on a metro heading for the Palais de Versailles.

I cannot describe how massive this palace is. We came off the train, took a right hand turn, and were met by a huge alleyway of trees with the most spectacular golden palace at the end.

As we waited in line to go into the palace we were just completely overcome by all of the "real" gold lurking in the most incredible places.

Once the golden gates were behind us,

There was no place to go but inside.

 

As we walked down the hallway of this old and beautifully preserved palace, one couldn't help but think about who else walked these halls, and what were they thinking about? The halls and stairs went on forever as we headed to the beginning of our sojourn into the palace of Versailles.

Like kings, queens, aristocracy , and visitors before us, we came to the place where all visits begin at Versailles. These golden doors opened, waiting for us

to enter this glorious beauty of a chapel. It was called upon all people at court to begin their day at the mass known as matins. It is a double tiered "chapel" that champions a small cathedral.

I never did see the floor of this palace, which I hear wasn't anything special, because I just couldn't get over the celestial views in each room. The ceilings were just a wonder to behold.

As I was looking up, the children were looking out, as in out for where the king and queen lived. Though Marie Antoinette's apartments were being renovated, King Louis XVI's were fully furnished. The joy of seeing the actual place where the king played cards, ate, and slept was almost too much for the kids to bear.  

 

Coming around the corner there was the most beautiful crystal chandelier.

It was then that I realized that we were in the most famous room of them all, The Hall of Mirrors. Even with people inside, it was just awe inspiring.

From within we could see the garden that awaited us . It was time to grab some lunch and head outside.

(to be continued)

Eiffel's Tower

Though we are back from Paris, I haven't yet finished sharing the most magical moments of that trip. The initial reason I started blogging was to save moments my family and I shared. It came from a place of longing, wishing I had captured the incredible moments with my family growing up. So that my children would not suffer the same fate, I started blogging. They will now have this snapshot of our lives together and the special times we shared.

"The Eiffel Tower? Really Mom, I don't want to do touristy things. Can't we go see Napolean's Tomb and the Military Museum?" 

"Well they're in the same neighborhood and you know dear boy that for one who loves to construct things the Eiffel Tower is a marvel? Let's compromise? We can do both" 

And with a bit of prodding, a metro ride, and a walk, we arrived at what became known as "The Tourist Attraction".

As we came out of the metro there was silence and heads craning upwards to have a view at one of the most famous sites in the world.

"I didn't know it was so large. How big is this thing?  How did they build it? Can we go to the top? How many visitors does it get a year? What to the Parisian's think about it? Was Eiffel a person? ...... and on and on went the questions. So now he was interested. (mother smiles :)

As big sister actived her smart phone to get some answers for the inquiring mind, his attention diverted to the fact that all he really wanted to do was go underneath the tower to look up inside the giant structure.

I was happy with the close up view but I knew this would not work for my husband Fiber Boy. Tradition has it that he likes the long range view which throughout family vacations has had us hiking miles at times to be able to turn around and say "Wow ! Look at that".  And there it was.....the suggestion...."Let's cross the Seine and walk up to Troccadero so we can get a good view.". 

While we make our way to the "good view" let's share some of our discovered Eiffel Tower facts.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, is nicknamed 'The Iron Lady', and is considered to be the most-visited monument in the world. 

The Eiffel Tower was built as the entrance arch for the 1889 World Fair - Exposition Universelle, which marked the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. It was said to be the 'symbol of our achievements in the field of science and engineering'. Out of a number of designs submitted as part of a competition, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel won, and was responsible for the construction of the Eiffel Tower. It was a temporary structure with a permit of 20 years, after which it was to be demolished - and that nearly happened in 1909. Had it not been for its use as a telecommunication tower, the Eiffel Tower would have had been long gone!

• Construction of the Eiffel Tower began on January 26, 1887, and was eventually completed on March 31, 1889. It took 2 years, 2 months, and 5 days, for the 300 workers involved, to complete the Eiffel Tower.
• Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (the person who had created the internal frame of the Statue of Liberty in 1885) was the main architect.
• The Eiffel Tower stands 1063 feet tall, inclusive of the 24 m antenna, and weighs 7,300 tons. With that height, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world when it was built - and continued to be so until 1930.

• The Eiffel Tower was built using 9441 tons of wrought iron (puddle iron) of the highest quality. A total of 18038 pieces of wrought iron were joined together to create it. The base of the Eiffel Tower covers a square area of 100 m.
• The Eiffel Tower is painted every 7 years, in 3 shades of brown with darkest shade at the bottom. Approximately 60 tons of paint is required to paint it. Even today the Eiffel Tower is painted using mere brushes.
• The Eiffel Tower has a total of 1710 steps to the third level small platform at the top, 674 steps to the second level, and 347 steps to the first level, all counted from the ground.
• The names of 72 prominent French scientists and famous personalities are affixed on the sides of Eiffel Tower just beneath the first platform, 18 names per side.
• The Eiffel Tower belongs to the city of Paris, and is given a renewable contract to a limited company named Societe d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.
• In clear weather, you can see approximately 42 miles from the top of the Eiffel Tower. 

• During gusty winds, the Eiffel Tower sways up to 15 cm at its summit.Due to the height of this structure and gusty winds, the chances of accident during the construction of Eiffel Tower were high, but precautionary measures ensured that there were no accident-related deaths during the  construction. 
• The temporary relocation of the Eiffel Tower to Montreal, wherein it was to be used as a landmark and tourist attraction during 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, was attempted in the 1960s. However, the company which was in charge of operations ruled this move out of  fear that the French administration may deny them  permission to restore it to its original place.
• You can use the steps or elevator to reach the top, but these stairs are only available to the second platform, and the third platform is accessible only via elevators. 

•  Victor Lustig, a con artist notorious for his scams all over the world, posed as the deputy director-general of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and sold the Eiffel Tower to scrap dealer - Andre Poisson, citing that the city could not afford the maintenance of this structure anymore. Lustig is widely known as 'The man who sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice.'
• The Eiffel Tower has restaurants on the first and second platforms. The restaurant on the first platform is 'Altitude 95' and faces the river Seine. The restaurant on the second platform is named 'Jules Verne' (prior booking is a must in this restaurant).

Over 200 million people have visited the Eiffel Tower Since its inception, with the 200,000,000th visitor arriving on November 28, 2002.

Now let's turn around for our long view shall we?

Happy Spring Renewal

A Scandinavian tradition,Spring is brought in by making a flower and feather tree on a pussy-willow branch. After all that work it's time to eat the traditional meatballs, mashed potatoes, ligonberry jam or linkin berry jam as Mia calls it, knacke bread and of course a spring salad.

A very special thank you to Sanna for hosting the Scandinavian Pask, and for making those incredible cinnamon and cardamom buns.

Happy Spring !!!