Michael Vey

Harry Potter has nothing on Michael Vey in this house.  The 3rd installment of the series was released this week and it was a much anticipated day around here.  I had pre-ordered a copy from Amazon and gave the pre-order slip to Britton for his birthday back in August.  The date of release was Tuesday, September 18 and it couldn't get here soon enough for Britton.  We assumed that it would be mailed out on the release date so Britton was expecting it to arrive 2 days later but it arrived around 6 p.m. the very day it was released.  I walked in and handed it to Britton who was standing next to Jenna and when they saw it they both starting jumping up and down and screaming.  I know Jenna was screaming like a girl, but I wouldn't be surprised if Britton was as well because it was pretty loud. (He will deny it, of course). With so much excitement Jameson decided to join in and starting jumping up and down and screaming at the top of his lungs. Oh Michael Vey, what have you done to my family?  It's all good, of course. The author is Richard Paul Evans of "The Christmas Box" fame.  He definitely has a couple of Veyniacs living at our house, that is for sure.

Britton and Jenna both love to read but Britton has really turned into a bookworm.  He reads more books than anyone I know and even though I consider myself a fast reader, Britton puts my speed reading skills to shame! There probably isn't a single person for miles that can read faster than Britton. He'll sit down and read a big thick book with hundreds of pages in 4 hours and then answer any detailed question you can throw at him. It is not uncommon for him to read 2 books in a day. He reads so much we have to take away his books as punishment went he doesn't get his stuff done.  I find myself saying things like, "Britton, stop reading your book!" Who tells a kid to stop reading? Me. And you would, too. And he doesn't just read a book once, he reads the same book over and over and over again.  I noticed over the summer that he kept checking out "The Candy Shop War" by Brandon Mull.  I knew he has already read it so I asked him, "Britton, how many times have you read this book?"  He replied, "Uh, about seven."  During the summer he would check out over 20 books from the library and then wonder if he had enough to get him through the entire week.  Yeah, he's a bookworm alright. The fact he still finds time for soccer 3-4 times a week, piano and cello is amazing.

On Thursday night Britton had a soccer game in Layton and so Adam took both Britton and Jameson with him to the game.  The girls and I were getting our dinner ready when Jenna mentioned that Brandon Mull, a popular author whose books my kids have read and adored was going to be at a local bookstore in town for a book signing that night.  On a whim I took the girls to go meet him.  I knew Britton would die when he found out, but I decided you have to jump on this stuff when it comes your way so off we went.  Brandon Mull wrote the Fablehaven series and all of his books have been New York Times bestsellers. 

We waited in line for an hour, but he was so nice and personable and the girls were thrilled to have met him.  Jenna told him that her brother Britton had read all 7 books in his Fablehaven series in 5 days. He was quite surprised and said that was the fastest he had ever heard it being done.  So, Britton is kind of famous now in his own little way.

Jameson can now get himself out of his crib. Oy. This is not good people, not good at all. We're going to have to come up with a plan, and come up with it quick.  The next few weeks may be very interesting to say the least.