When You Have a Free Day

I don't get many free days. Between work and school I manage to stay pretty busy during the week, but I've had the past few Thursdays off while the elementary schools were on spring break. Miraculously enough, my best friend also had the day off so we just had to take advantage of that! Cue the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. This museum is basically my happy place, and is one of the best children's museums in the world! If you're ever in Indiana, I would recommend going. Not only are the permanent exhibits awesome, they usually have awesome travelling exhibits as well.

One of the first things you see when entering the museum is the giant water clock. Seeing it change hours was one of my favorite things to do as a kid. And in the middle of the museum is Fireworks, a Chihuly glass installation. Hella rad.

One of the traveling exhibits right now is the Transformers exhibit, and it was so cool. The entrance an exit were the Decepticon and Optimus Prime heads, and inside the exhibit was one of the Optimus Prime's they used in the movies. I turned around and walked up and he was literally staring right into my soul. I literally stood there transfixed for several minutes until my best friend dragged me away.

There's this hall of mirrors on the top floor and there's a room where you feel like you're in a kaleidoscope and it's pretty much the coolest thing in the world. Oh! And I found Peyton Manning. I love that man so much. #IndyMissesYou

One of the highlights of the museum is definitely the Dinosphere. Full casts of dinosaurs, digging for bones, and there's an area with dinosaur eggs. It's basically every young kids dream, mine included.

And just because, here's a picture of the two of us being dinosaurs. Because I'm always 5 years old at heart.

Reads of 2015 | The First Three Months

How is it already a week into April? I'm seriously in denial, but we're 25% done with the year. Reading is something I absolutely love to do, but unfortunately I don't always have as much time to read during the school year as I would like. I made a goal on Goodreads to read 50 books this year, the same as last year. I didn't quite reach my goal in 2014, but I'm determined to get there this year. I'm slightly behind at the moment, having only read 5 books and currently working on my sixth. 

So far I've read Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry, London's Hidden Secrets by Graeme Chesters, and The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart.

I love the Divergent series, and I was so excited when I heard that Veronica Roth was writing a companion book to Divergent from Four's perspective. Although we all already knew Four liked Tris, seeing his perspective throughout the first book was so cool and exciting, making me love his character even more. It's separated into short little novellas, and can easily be read in a night.

I am a hugehugehuge fan of the movie Stardust, based off of this book. Truthfully, I think that made the book harder for me to read and finish. While I loved it, there are some definite differences, so if you've seen the movie be prepared for those. But even with the changes, this book is an absolute gem. If' you're a fan of fairytales and magical fiction, I would definitely recommend it.

This is technically four books, and I read the last three. I've read The Giver several times and it's one of my favorite books, but I hadn't had a chance to read the last 3 in the series. Each subsequent book takes place within the same universe but with different characters, eventually all linking up together. If you liked The Giver you'll probably like all of the books, but I would definitely encourage you to read them in this format, because as soon as I finished one I had to start the next right away. 

I realize this is a travel book and that I'm not actually heading to England for thirteen months, but my planning is beginning now. This book was awesome for finding cheap (!!) and usually free things to do in London that are off the beaten path a little bit. There are so many museums and things to do just in London, I don't know how I'm going to choose what to do. Also, there are a lot of medical museums across the pond with some kinda freaky collections. If you're planning a trip to England, I'd definitely recommend this book. It even divides London into the different districts -- super helpful!

This is more of a middle grades book, but as I'm trying to build my teacher library I'm making an effort to make sure that I've read all of the books I have for my students. Even though The Honest Truth is geared for younger teens, I think everyone should read it. The book deals with death in a way that I've never seen in a book for people of this age. It was a quick read, but incredibly powerful.

Overall, I've enjoyed all the books I've read this year, including the book I'm working on right now, Lies We Tell Ourselves.

What have you read this year? Have any good suggestions?