Instead of Blogging. . .

Tonight, instead of writing a blog, I read stories to. . .

this one. . .

and this one. . .

and this one.

Molly, was already in bed!

We finished our reading with The Mitten , a Ukrainian folktale about a young boy who, while gathering firewood in the forest, loses his mitten.  A little mouse soon takes shelter from the bitter cold in the mitten only to be joined on every page by one woodland creature after another.  Finally, the mitten bursts and all of the animals are scattered once more into the cold.  

All three kids were tickled by the whimsical telling of the tale and the simple illustrations.  I was reminded of the scene in our bed every morning as one "Wright-land" creature after another climbs under the covers to escape the mild chill of the early morning.  One of these days the supports on the bed are going to meet the same fate as that poor mitten in the folktale!

(The above caricatures were drawn at a Borders bookstore a few towns away.  We wandered in during a children's book event to find an artist producing drawing after drawing of child after child.  Molly was not captured on the page, however, as she could not even be captured by her mother, who was in tireless pursuit, at that point!)