Secret Agent Josephine

I’ve been puttering away at my desk these days.

With my constant companions: coffee and the very big kitten that likes to sleep in my lap. It’s like she knows I get lonely when Bug is away at school.

I’ve been making all sorts of things for you guys to see along my book tour. I’m very excited about it. I think you will be too.

Production has been a little rough going. Making, fixing, making, fixing…the things I do for you! Just kidding, this is sort of like playing. But I really do hope it pays off in the end because all this playing is not paying the bills!

Five cars later, I finally got it right. Stay tuned. This post will show up on Tuesday of next week!

And this one on Wednesday. So fun! I can’t wait to see what my secret agents do with them!

Bug was inspired by the ninja costume.

Hi-Yah-Wah!

Now you see me…

Now you don’t. Wait. What? What’s going on here? I don’t know. I think she was looking for something.

Anyway, just wanted to pop in (after nearly a week of dead, dead silence) and tell you what we’ve been up to.

We also had a tea party at my grandma’s this week. I should make this a post on it’s own but the way I’ve been keeping up with the blogging…we all know that is never going to happen. So here it is squished in with another post. I hope you don’t mind.

We go over to my grandma’s and aunt Keren’s house every Wednesday for dinner and lately they’ve been doing theme dinners. (I come by my love of theme-parties genetically.) Every Wednesday my grandma asks Bug where she’d like to go for the following week’s dinner. We’ve been to Hawaii (yummy teriyaki), Thailand (for me because I love Thai food so much) and I think Italy (for Saltimboca!). Last week Bug said she wanted to go to London so my grandma and my aunt Keren put on a grand tea party spread. It was so fun! Tiny sandwiches, tea, scones with clotted cream and jam…it was fit for the Queen!

So that’s what we’ve been up to!

Mark your calendars! My book tour starts next Monday! I’ll be posting where to go here on this blog so check in.

You guys all know my neighbor, Boo, right? She’s popped up a time or two on this blog. She’s a super cute girl who lives across the street from us. I love her. Anyway, she turned ten and her mom (my friend Wendy) threw her this fabulous circus-themed birthday party. It was awesome.

I may be a tiny bit biased because there was FACE PAINTING!!!

Done by ME!! I know. You’re rolling your eyes because I have to brag about every little thing but seriously, I have wanted to be a face painter since forever. I have gone to carnival after carnival and paid the five dollars or one dollar to watch some mediocre painter paint some kind of blob on my daughter’s face and call it a butterfly. I have been holding myself back from grabbing the paintbrush right out of their hands and taking over on the spot. You don’t know the willpower that requires! It was painful!

Bethany bought me this kit (I added my own paintbrushes) probably a year ago but I haven’t had the chance to break out until now. I didn’t even get a chance to practice. But guess what? I didn’t need to! It was totally easy and kids are such great sports about things. They were thrilled with everything and if a bit ran or looked funny, mistakes wipe right off with a baby wipe. It was the most pleasant experience ever. I’m going to hire myself out starting tomorrow. Need a face-painter? Call me up. I’m serious. How much do face-painters charge these days anyway?

So right. This party was about Boo, not me face painting. I hope she loved her party because it was super sweet.

Her mom (that’s Wendy on the right) is the best game-inventer ever. I might need to tap into her talent and start a company or something. Too bad we both have plans to move out of town next year.

There was hot potato.

Musical chairs.

Freeze Dance.

You might wonder why Bug is dressed up as a lion. She was part of the show. She was the ferocious lion that Wendy (the lion tamer) led out on a (necklace) chain. You should have seen Wendy play-acting that the lion was growling and giving her a terrible fight in the bathroom before she brought her out. Then this little pip squeak in a tutu came out and everyone rolled on the floor laughing. Bug ate up all that attention of course.

There were a ton of other games too, all carnival style but due to privacy issues and some funky bright lighting, I didn’t get any photos of those. She had tic-tac-toe toss games and a spider toss game that Boo made up herself. It was so cute. You had to throw a spider onto a giant web and if you got it in the middle you won. And of course there were prizes.