Today I dragged the girls to the National Book Festival on the Mall in the middle of the afternoon in 90 degree weather. It went better than I expected. The Book Festival itself wasn't that great, but we had fun in a tent where there were booths for each of the 50 states. We visited every booth and got our map stamped at each one. The girls picked up some goodies along the way – some bookmarks, Silly Bands, posters, and a Mardi Gras bead necklace at the Lousiana booth.

We also went to ballet class, made cupcakes, cleaned up a bit, and finished All-of-a-Kind Family in anticipation of the first meeting of the Mother-Daughter Book Club tomorrow.

Daddy came back from NY last night and left this morning for Aunt Deb's 40th birthday in Seattle. I am sad I am not there, but am glad Daddy is able to celebrate with Deb.

Tonight we made the cupcakes for the sunflower cupcakes and made the little leaves for them (I cut them out of fruit roll-ups and coated them with sugar). Tomorrow comes all the frosting.

Big news – the girls want to try out for The Nutcracker!