Of books and squid...

Friday morning saw snow on the hills behind the house...I knew it wasn't over yet despite the daffodills and hyacynth flowers blloming all around!

Anyway after work, I took the nieces and nephews for a long overdue trip to the bookstore in the next town down the road. Their Uncle Danny,who lives on the mainland, gave them a gift card for Christmas which they still hadn't spent, so off we went for a Friday night adventure...

Aahhh...BOOKS! What can be said about teaching kids the love of reading. I have always believed that if you teach someone to enjoy reading, they will posess a gift which will keep giving all through their lives.

Not only will they escape through the pages with their imagination...

...they can learn to do ANYTHING they want to!

I even believe in comic books as a way to inspire readers...some kids I know have improved their reading skills by reading these short publications. Nick had finished this before we even left the parking lot!

Books can be expensive to buy new and although it's such a treat to have a new book, books can be had from thrift stores for next to nothing and then of course there's the LIBRARY!!

Aren't libraries fantastic?! As many books as you want...for FREE...as long as they are brought back...what a system!

The kids were all allowed to pick out what they wanted for themselves and then I added this lovely book for them all to share..

The illustrations are so sweet as are the words.

After the bookstore it was off to Columbos Taverna for Greek food!

This platter was about as big as a babies bed and had plenty to feed us all...and the favorite item on the plate for all of them was....

Calamari!!

These kids are great eaters and will try anything. Such a joy to see them trying new tastes and finding something exciting and different to eat.

After dinner we went for a dusk stroll on the Lagoon before it got dark...

I am looking forward to those long summer evenings when we can go and explore the evening world...

This was a surprise...someone had made the bridge a gift and attatched it to one of the rails!

Hopefully these memories will remain with the kids to talk about in years to come...