Sleepy Bookworms

It's not unusual for Tessa and Annie to be carrying books with them wherever they go these days!  They schlep them in their little backpacks, they bring them in the car, they carry teetering piles from room to  room,  they stack them on their respective nightstands, and they "read" them constantly.  Where are my books?? is often an ugent question around here.  I think the books have replaced cartoon watching for them since we ditched weekday TV.  Instead of waking up to watch a show while they're still a little groggy, they now wake up, immediately gather all of their books from the top of their nightstands, and sleepily stumble downstairs.  Then they proceed to read as much as they can between yawns and maybe a little snack.

It's a rough life.

A constant supply of new library books feeds this obsession.  And our new focus on letters and their sounds leaves them now asking me what the words are on their pages. If I had to guess, I'd say they will both be reading sooner than the older girls did.  Especially if I put just a little effort into it ;) 

They find most books (even those with the most mundane plots) absolutely hi-larious!  They start laughing and then they can't stop.  I am definitely the third wheel trying to read to them when they are acting so silly.

The twins definitely share their love of books with Megan and Bridget, and we love to read to all of the girls together, especially books that were written just for us with our five girls, I think :).  There are two in particular that are (my!) favorites here.  The first is All-of-a-Kind Family, written in the 50's but set in the early 1900's.  It's a good, old-fashioned story of five sisters growing up in New York City.  I love reading this one to the girls, and it's a refreshing departure from the usual Berenstain Bears or My Little Pony stories.  They love that there are five girls, and they remember the little adventures even weeks after we finish a chapter.  Truthfully, we don't read a chapter as often as I would like because of the logistics of bedtime for all five (and competing stories from Daddy who tells the best stories that he effortlessly makes up each night!), so we're slowly making our way through the book.  Luckily, there are plenty of adventures, and even a few more books in the series.

How cute is this cover?  Are there other books with five sisters as the main characters?  I may be missing some gems out there! (Pride and Prejudice is the obvious one, but I'll save that one for when they're a tad older!)

The other book that was written just for us, obviously, is Duck Dunks.  It's an adorable picture book about five little ducks going to the beach.  The watercolor illustrations are so, so cute, and each of our girls has an alter ego little duck in this book!  I think it's so perfect for them because I always call them my little ducks :)  There are a few more books in this series, too.

And...now Tessa and Annie are calling me to read them a book.  And Mary just woke up from her morning nap.  This should be interesting :)