One Silly Me is just an abbreviated mesh of the books below.

May 20

“One Special Day” by Lola M. Schaefer is fun because it starts of showing the main character being a rough a tumble boy. There are animal pictures which fill in the words. This makes it a fun read with my 2 year old.

The special day involves the little baby in the book, so I decided to make a baby shaped snack. I used an apple for the face. The blanket and eyes were made from cottage cheese.  Funny side note, I left the cottage cheese in the back of our fridge. Our refrigerator has two temperatures 1: CDC approved cool and 2: ridiculously freezing.  Water froze on the cottage cheese and made an interesting bumpy ice shape. At least interesting to me.

May 21

Why did I like “Silly Tilly”? That’s easy, the goose likes to put her feet in mayonnaise. It’s fun to say and is a great visual.  The picture book by Eileen Spinelli is about a silly goose who waddles to the beat of her own amusing drum. Possibly even a kazoo.

For the snack I used mozzarella cheese for the body. I made the eye out of a halved grape, and used hummus for the beak and feet.  A silly combination? Yes, I suppose it is.

May 22

Last of all for this post is “For Me?” I thought it was the perfect way to end the mass eats and reads post. A duck gets a rose. He takes it to Toad’s house, where his friends are.  They have received rose’s as well.

Every secret gift or quiet act of kindness has always lifted my mood for the day. Perhaps I should sneak out and deliver a few  secret flowers or other gifts.

For the snack, I made a toad in honor of Duck’s friend. He looks more froggy, but he’s still cute.

Instead I’m talking about that lovely thing known as technical difficulties. Sometimes the computer or my phone have had enough of my shenanigans and decide to go on strike. They are quiet efficient at it too.

May 15

“The Skin You Live In” by Michael Taylor is a brilliant picture book. It shows how beautiful everyone’s skin is. One of my favorite parts is that it talks about skin in such a positive and empowering way. It has wonderful themes, but the best part it that they are woven in seamlessly in the text.

For the snack I made a person out of cheese, apples and grapes. I left the skin on the fruit which I think is most appropriate.  The hair was made from red cabbage.

May 16

“Millie Gets the Mail” by Alexander Steffensmeier is so funny that it has to be described in syllables, Hi-lar-ious! Millie the cow has one favorite hobby, scaring and chasing the mailman. She gives him quiet a scare. The pictures are entertaining as well with subtle comedy. Every time I read it I see something new. I’ve read it at least five times, and sometimes I even took the time to read with my kids.

For the snack I decided to make a bike, in honor of the mailman’s mode of transportation. I shredded carrots for the body of the bike and sliced a grape in half for the wheels.

May 17

“

A Cat Like That” by Wendy Wahman is told from the cat’s purr-spective. Yeah I know, but sometimes I see a horrible pun and I can’t help myself.

The cat talks about the sort of friend it wants. While I was reading it to my 7 year old, she kept on saying “I wouldn’t be rough” or “I’d take care of the cat like that.” The story touched her. That’s one of the joys of doing Eats and Reads.

The cat is made out of an apple and peanut butter.

May 18

There aren’t any words in “Chicken and Cat Clean Up” by Sara Varon. The story flows easily. The poor cat has my sense of grace, which is to say that it keeps on messing things up and breaking things. Maybe messing up is too strong of a word. Is spirited better? Either way, the cat ends up finding his own way, but it does take a bit of time.

For the snack I used red potato salad and reshaped it into a chicken. The red potato skin made a brilliant beak. I used red cabbage for the legs. The eye was made from a carrot.

May 19

“Lady Hahn and her Seven Friends” by Yumi Heo

While Lady Hahn stops sewing, the tools argue over who is the most important. The fight gets worse when Lady Hahn insists that she’s the one everyone needs.

For the snack I made a pair of scissors out of carrots and grapes.

Tune in tomorrow as I attempt to get all caught up.  Dun Dun Dun…

When I stepped into a public garden a few years ago there was a toad at the entry. He was sitting there and didn’t bother to move as I approached. The rough and bumpy skin was enchanting.

I recalled this small moment in my life after reading “Gem” by Holly Hobbie. The book is presented as a gift of illustrations for a granddaughter. It’s the sort of thing I could see my own mother or aunt doing. This only added to the charm.

The treat itself is a simple celery frog with mozzarella cheese eyes. I don’t know why, but the term “mozzarella eyes” makes me giggle. The flower is made of cheese and an apricot.

May 14

Another trip down memory lane? Why yes, lets. The mom “Clip Clop” is about a bare back ride taken by several animals. I’ve gone bare back riding precisely once in my life. It was on a debatably ornery pony. The ride itself was fine, until the pony decided to stop. Suddenly I was on the ground staring up at his muzzle. It didn’t hurt, it was startling though.

I used apricot and mozzarella cheese to make the pony.

I came across “Ella the Elegant Elephant” while waiting in the school office for my daughter. There’s a book case and an aquarium.  After all, what else could you possibly need for hours of entertainment?

“Ella the Elegant Elephant” by Carmela and Steven D’amico is about an elephant who’s teased for wearing a large hat. What I love is the fact that the other girls who tease her, call her “Ella the Elegant.” I don’t love it because I find teasing humorous, I don’t. However, the name isn’t harsh. When I think back to the names I was called as a kid, most of them were pretty sad attempts at mockery. Yet, she of them still bothered me and got under my skin.

I like Ella’s spunk and her compassion.

For the snack, I made the hat out of an apricot. For the mini flower I used a sliver of a date and a cheerio on top.

May 12

Today I realized that I haven’t done anything Suessical.  What an autoricty.

I decided to use “Oh the Places You’ll Go.” The class presendent for my High School read it for his graduation speech. At the time I remember thinking that the book was apt. I also remember thinking that it was a bit lame that he read the whole bk instead of putting snippets of it in his talk. (Yeah I know, glass houses, but I didn’t throw stones. Maybe just a few bits of sand) I love “Oh the Places You’ll Go”and intend on giving it to my own daughters when they graduate.  It’s just that reading a whole book and calling it your speech seemed a bit like phoning it in.

Turns out I was right, kind of. I chatted with the Class President last year and found out that he didn’t knw he was supposed to give a talk for graduation. He found out that day. I think it was an hour before, but it might have just seemed mre dramatic that way. So he grabbed the classic book and read it to fill up his allotted time.

Point? Sorry, I’ve already hit that stage in my life where I tell stories without a point. I do expect others to be enthralled with these meaningless tangents though. Or at least not sigh and roll their eyes too much.

For the snack I sliced up a carrot and apricot. Then I pieced them together using a sliver of a date in some places. The rest were help together by the pure power of creative need. They weren’t standing up though, so the need wasn’t exactly crucial.

The fun thing was rearranging the pieces a few times until it looked just the right amount of Suessical.

We shredded up some carrots and brought out some mozzarella cheese. I sliced the mozzarella into a tusk shape.

The book, “Kali’s Song” by Jeanette Winter is about an ancient hunter-gatherer boy named Kali. His mom paints animals on cave walls and his dad wants Kali to learn to hunt. Instead of learning to hunt, the boy learns to use the bow as an instrument.

My daughter was enchanted by a part where the stars gather to hear him play.

I read the book “More” by I. C. Sprigman. A raven receives a marble as a gift from a mouse. The gift quickly turns into an overboard mission by the bird to acquire more stuff. Hmm how very Amercian.

I did you know that celery isn’t easily turned into a marble? I guess I could have used a naturally round fruit or vegetable, but where’s the fun in that? I used dates for the swirls inside the marble. Dates are awesome, so sticky, easy to mold, and crazy sweet.

May 9

If someone could take pictures of my memories, it would look like the images in “Garmann’s Secret.” When I say pictures of memories, I don’t mean old photos, but the actual way it feels when I try to recall an image or moment from my childhood. There’s an etherial and magical quality to Stian Hole’s illustrations and storytelling.

It is what I aspire to be with the children’s books that I put together and send off to that unknown world called submitting.

I used an apple for a rocket pod. You’ll get the reference once you read the book. Well, I guess I can say that Garmann finds old scrap metal with the help of his friend Johanna.

I used flipped over apple slices to simulate fire. The pistachios are the people.  Plus they are protein which helps to balance out the whole snack.

However, that wouldn’t be honest. The truth is that my room was probably “mom worthy clean” about 10…maybe 6 percent of the time. I ate food in my room, including a marshmallow which was left on the floor and was repeatedly stepped on by my brother. Sorry mom.

I also laid out intricate Barbie and Sylvanian villages which usually covered several different surfaces in my room.  Despite the hectic disarray, I knew where the important items in my room were. True, I couldn’t always find my assignments or a clean pair of pants, but I could find my model car or stuffed animals without any issues.

For this reason, I completely connect with the book “Tumble Tower,” by . The family is highly organized. Everthing is in its place, except for the princess who lives in a tower. Where she lives, it looks like a chaotic mess, but it works for her. In the end, the family sees the value of letting things get a little messy now and then.

For the snack, I made kabobs. I cut up cheddar cheese in the shape of the top of the tower. The raspberries, bananas and cheese on the stick don’t have any pattern. Putting a few banana on askew would be a great way to give the snacks some character too.

* Technically I’m too young to be a curmudgeon who waxes nostalgic about the “good old days” Truth be told, I’m as guilty as anyone for excessive photography.

So you’re probably thinking, “super, thanks for the rant, but I’ve got tons of you tube videos and tweets to get to. If there’s a point, getting there quickly would be preferred.” Well I’m sure you wouldn’t say such a thing.  I know you’re a patient reader. That’s the sort of thing my inner critic would say though. His name is Pike, he lives in long beach and went to Yale. He’s tapping his foot at the moment though and waiting for me to get to the point.

One of the things I’ve heard often is “There are two kinds of people, dog people and cat people.” Again, there are plenty of disagreements. I know some people are of the fish, snake, bird or rock persuasion. Personally I adore all creatures, even the ones that freak a lot of people out. Maybe even because of that.  However, I did grow up with a lot of cats. I wasn’t adopted by them or anything, but still there were plenty of them around as I grew up.

Recently I’ve done a lot of dog books, and there will be more to come I know, but for today I wanted to give a cat book it’s day in the sun. That’s where they like to be the most, so they can stretch out and bask.

“Ginger and the Mystery Visitor ” by Charlotte Voake is about a grey cat who invites himself into a house with a ginger cat and kitten who already live there. He stays long enough to snack on their food and occasionally sleep on their beds.

It reminds me so much of the cats who would come sniffing around our own front door when I was a kid. I fed scraps to more of them than I should have, and I wonder how many homes my own kittens charmed their way into as well.

One of my fluffy little balls of fur was a rather quirky cat named Cloie. She adored cubes of bread and would sit on her hind legs to catch them. That cat would have lived off of cheese and bread if I would have let her. A girl after my own heart. So I decided to make this snack out of bread. I used mango preserves to get the ginger fur appearance.

Cloie wouldn’t have approved of that addition, but no sense in wasting too much time pleasing cats.  Seriously, I think that’s a proverb somewhere. If not, it should be.

The deadline is still looming, but I need to relearn the art of squeezing in little minutes of creative time.

So for today I wanted to share the book “Room on the Broom.” It’s about a witch who keeps dropping things while on her broom.  Each time she goes down to retrieve them an animal finds them instead. They each ask if they can ride on her broom.  The goodhearted witch lets them each hop on, despite the problems it causes.

I have family members who are Wicca, so in our family there’s always time for a story about friendly witches.

It’s nearing the end of the week which means less options for food. However, I managed to put together this broom with sliced grapes and carrot sticks.