(a very) Sweet 16

I have a hunch that Dagny is going to remember her 16th birthday party for the rest of her life. I'm pretty sure I will, it was amazing.  I feel like the luckiest mom in the world, I love that I got to plan this party for her.  It was a lot of work and I couldn't have pulled it off without Steve.  He helped me before, during, and after, with whatever I asked no matter how crazy it was. It was kind of unbelievable how well everything turned out, it wasn't all perfect, but it was pretty close.  Dagny looked so beautiful and happy, and I don't know if it was a trick of the light or the camera, but all afternoon she looked like she was caught in a golden spotlight.  It was her party and she was the golden girl, everyone should have a moment in life like that.  

 party games

 cupcake toast

pretty in pink

dancing queen

 presents

 the end

'Twas The Night Before The Party...

hanging up the lights

 making a rainbow

a refrigerator full of mini cupcakes

the candy buffet

Even More Party Planning

We are less than a week away from Dagny's 'Sweet' 16 birthday party and my guest room has turned into a colorful candy wonderland that Willy Wonka himself would be happy in.  Buying candy is fun, I love the theme of this party.

Flash Mob

A flash mob is “a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse.”  Count me in, I want to perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time in a public place.  Being in a flash mob is so on my bucket list.  


I love when people  spontaneously break out into a choreographed dance, but a Flash Mob can be so much more than that. Sometimes they sing, or act like zombies, they can even have a massive pillow fight. Go to YouTube and look up flash mob, you'll thank me. 

Mothering

Isn't being a mother just about the funnest job in the world? 

(and it even comes with it's very own holiday)  

Happy Mother's Day! 

100 Favorite Books

I am that person who never goes anywhere without reading material, I always have a book with me. If I am stuck waiting around I need to be entertained, hence the book. My mutant super power is that I can read really, really fast. Like crazy, speed reading fast.  It's not something I ever tried to learn, it's just something I can do.  I really am a mutant. Those two factors have contributed to me having read lots, and lots, of books. 


Ever since I posted that Consensus Cloud of books a few weeks ago I've been pondering what would be on my own book list.  After awhile I decided to stop thinking about it and just write one. It turned out that my list kind of wrote itself, and when I looked at it I surprised myself with what I included and what I left out.  The thing all of my choices have in common is that I've read each one more than once.  Lots of classic books aren't on the list (Scarlet Letter, Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick, Lord of the Flies etc...) not because I didn't read them, but because I didn't enjoy them enough to re-read them.  My list is about books that I really love.  I think you can fall in love with a book for a million different reasons; sometimes it's about what the book taught you, where it takes you, the way it makes you feel, the connection you have with a character, where you were in your life when you read it... I also think that memories are attached to books and certain books become elevated because of how you came upon them, or who you share them with. 


I know the list is long, but I figured it's my list and my blog so I could do whatever I want.  


Natasha's 100 Favorite Books
(in alphabetical order)

1. A Farewell to Arms
2. A Room With a View
3. A Separate Peace
4. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
5. All Quiet On The Western Front
6. Anna Karenina
7. Anthem
8. Anthony Adverse
9. Around the World in 80 Days
10. Atlas Shrugged
11. Auntie Mame
12. Brave New World
13. Candide
14. Catch-22
15. Cheaper by the Dozen
16. Clarissa
17. Count of Monte Cristo
18. Crime and Punishment
19. Dangerous Liasons
20. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
21. Don Quixote
22. Dr. Zhivago
23. Dune
24. East of Eden
25. Fight Club
26. For Whom the Bell Tolls
27. Gone With The Wind
28. Grapes of Wrath
29. Gravity’s Rainbow
30. Great Expectations
31. Gulliver’s Travels
32. Harry Potter Series
33. Heidi
34. I Am Legend
35. I Capture the Castle
36. Interview With the Vampire
37. Ivanhoe
38. Jane Eyre
39. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
40. Les Miserables
41. Little Women
42. Lord of the Rings
43. Lost Illusions
44. Mists of Avalon
45. Moll Flanders
46. My Antonia
47. My Cousin Rachel
48. My Side of the Mountain
49. Nineteen Eighty-Four
50. Of Mice and Men
51. Oh, Kentucky
52. Oliver Twist
53. One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest
54. One Hundred Years of Solitude
55. Pippi Longstocking
56. Possession
57. Pride and Prejudice
58. Rebecca
59. Revolutionary Road
60. Robinson Crusoe
61. Shadow of the Wind
62. Sherlock Holmes
63. Slaughter House Five
64. Stardust
65. Tess of the D’urbevilles
66. The Age of Innocence
67. The Arabian Nights
68. The Book of Lost Things
69. The Book Thief
70. The Crying of Lot 49
71. The Fountainhead
72. The Giver
73. The Great Gatsby
74. The Handmaids Tale
75. The Hobbit
76. The Karamazov Brothers
77. The Last of the Mohicans
78. The Little Prince
79. The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
80. The Man in the Iron Mask
81. The Name of the Wind
82. The Other Bolyen Girl
83. The Picture of Dorian Grey
84. The Portrait of a Lady
85. The Princess Bride
86. The Red and the Black
87. The Road
88. The Scarlet Pimpernel
89. The Secret Garden
90. The Shadow of the Wind
91. The Sirens of Titan
92. The Swiss Family Robinson
93. The Thorn Birds
94. The Three Musketeers
95. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
96. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
97. This Perfect Day
98. To Kill a Mockingbird
99. Vanity Fair
100. War and Peace

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you carry away from it  -  James Bryce