Our Life at Home

Happy Halloween!

 

Teething Woes

Today was rough.  This normally happy little guy is majorly teething and wasn't so happy today.  Aside from a few happy moments in his jumperoo, he boycotted naps and demanded to be held all day long.  Fortunately, I will do anything to keep this sweet little boy smiling and did my best to keep him comfortable BUT his fussiness made today seem really, really long. 

Weekend Opener

This morning, after breakfast, we got in the car and drove to Sky Meadows State Park so we could do a little hiking and enjoy this beautiful fall weather.

Less than an hour away from home and so much gorgeousness, right?

This little guy enjoyed the sunshine.

The little girl had the opportunity to walk Bella all by herself for the first time.

Can you tell how incredibly proud of herself she was?



Mom, are you coming?

He was still having fun and happy as ever.

Stopping to smell the "roses".

Look at this, Mama!

Off the trail, we enjoy an apple butter cooking demonstration, live music and the "mini maze" below.

Perfect for half pints who might otherwise get lost in a really tall corn maze.


We stopped at the Hunter's Head Tavern in Upperville for a late lunch on the the way home.  This place is straight out of the English countryside right down to the menu and mortar on the walls.

 

Grateful...

"Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it". W. Feather



Source: simplyvintagegirl.com via Patricia on Pinterest

 

I love the idea of this "thankful" tree.  Such an easy and inexpensive DIY project for fall.  A little over a week ago, I started keeping a gratitude journal, listing things that I was grateful each night.  I've done this exercise before but I've never suck with it consistantly and it is definitely a good reminder that what you focus on, grows.  It's lovely to live your life through a lens where you are continuely looking for wonderful things all around you. 

It's also interesting to see what shows up when I just write down whatever comes to mind...

This was Day 7, in my 30 days of gratitude journal.

I'm grateful for...

1.  The dishwasher repair man who hugs my daughter's doll because she asks him to.

2.  "I'm sorry, Mama"  No words more precious have ever been spoken.

3.  A newly opened cashier line, just as I'm ready to check out.

4. The sound of mail being dropped in the mail box.

5. GPS

Just a easy way to remind ourselves that there is so much to love and be grateful for and who couldn't use a little more of that in their lives??

Cox Farms Fall Festival

The phone call from our dishwasher repair man at 7:10 this morning to say that he was only a few minutes away from arriving woke up the entire house...dogs, both kids and me.  We were all up and dressed by 7:30.  The dogs wanted to go outside.  Oliver wanted milk.  Ava wanted milk, waffles, to watch "Olivia" and go to the park, preferably all at the same time.  It was just one of those times that I felt like we needed a fun activity or the morning was going to feel really long.

Cox Farms Fall Festival was on my fall to do list, but we haven't had a chance to go yet and the weekend crowds are such that we you do go, you really have to be up for it.  I decided that since both kids were home with me all day today, (no school because of Columbus Day today) I would try to take them both myself.  Call me crazy, but we packed the car and headed out.

We arrived just before 10:00 as Oliver was just about to fall asleep for his morning nap.  Sweet little Oliver slept through most of our two hour visit.

 

There's my girl coming down the slide.  Since I had Oliver with me and couldn't push the stroller up the slide of the hill, she had to be really brave and go alone if she wanted to go down the slide.

 

She was definitely brave and showed no hesistation.
 

When she got to a point on the slide when she stopped sliding, she would stand up and start running
and shouting "I go one more time" again and again and then head up the side of the hill...
 
 

and go down all over again.
 
She also really loved trying to swing on this rope and then falling onto the trampoline.

 
 
 
 
 
 

She also had fun hanging out in the "corn crib".
 
What a busy morning!  I'm hoping everyone, including me, takes a nap this afternoon!

Weekend Round Up

 
We had a great weekend!  On Saturday, we headed two hours south to Charlottesville to Carter Mountain Orchard.  This is a gorgeous (AND BUSY) place.  Check out the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance behind Ava.

 

Ava had so much fun running through the pumpkins and jumping over them.

 

She was having so much fun that at one point she lost her shoe!

Source: mycomputerismycanvas.blogspot.com via Patricia on Pinterest

 

Today, we hung out at home, made lasagna and ran a few errands.  I attempted to make these cute candy corn pretzels above in the top left corner.  My first challenge was trying to find "almond bark".  The first two grocery stores that I went to did not sell it and then I learned it's not called "almond bark" here.  It is often called vanilla candy coating and one of the brand names is "CandiQuik". Good to Know. "CandiQuik" comes with a microwaveable tray - super easy!  I did not have any luck at all trying to use food coloring to dye the white chocolate to yellow and orange.  The food coloring made the chocolate thick and gave it more of a frosting consistency.  Modified plan:  White chocolate covered pretzels with orange and black sprinkles. Yay! I'll post the final outcome sometime this week.

Christmas Photo Cards of Past Years

Before having Ava, we didn't send out Christmas photo cards, only non-photo ones.  We could have, but at the time, I felt a silly having just a photo of the two of us or the two of us with our dogs.  Now, I wish we would've done it because that was how we started--just the two of us.

We've only been ordering holiday photo cards since 2009 and all the extras (make sure you order enough so you leave 1-2 copies for yourself) have been just sitting in a box.  I wanted to come up with a way to display them from year to year and see how we've grown and changed.

I'm not a scrapbooker.  I do order prints but the majority of our photo books are printed digitally so I felt a little out of my league here.  It was important to keep this project super simple. 

I went to Michaels and picked up a 8 X 8 scrapbook album.

 
I removed the photo image in the front cover and replaced it with white cardstock paper stamped with "Merry Christmas".

 
Next, I removed the black paper that is inserted in the pages and use it as a pattern on a piece of Christmas scrapbook paper so I could cut it to size.

 
Then, I glued our Christmas card on to the scrapbook paper, added a few highlights from that year and inserted the paper back into the sleeve.  Here's one page for 2009:

 

2010
 
This album has 10 pages so if I use both back and front, I'll have enough room for Christmas cards for the next 20 years! Don't laugh!  It's not like I'm getting ahead of myself or anything! If I keep up with it, this is a 20 minute scrapbooking project that comes around once a year.  I am hoping that much I can handle.

 
I look forward to putting this out on my coffee table every year.

What do you do with your old Christmas photo cards??

 

Moms of toddlers, have you been to Ikea lately?

Wow, do they have good toys that are exceptional well priced!  I have a real weakness for traditional and wooden toys and often, those are the most expensive.  Although Ava has some "girl" toys like a Danish doll pram and kitchen set, I usually try to buy a selection of gender neutral like these nesting owls (a modern take on Russian nesting dolls for toddlers) and even some "boy" toys like airplanes, train sets and a fun London bus that we bought from Habitat in London. It was a huge surprise to find such well made toys, especially wooden ones, for such great value at Ikea of all places. 

Here are some of our favorites:

 

 

Abacus - $9.99

 
Bead roller - $7.99

 
Train Set - $14.99

 
14 piece vegetable set - $7.99

 
Plate and Bowl Set - $9.99 Gorgeous set and made of stoneware.  I serve Ava's snacks on the little plates from time to time.

 
Rocking Moose - $39.99

Tray - $4.99 - I had to throw this last one in even though it's not technically a toy.  You can find it in the kitchen section.  I bought this fun tray not knowing what I was going to do with it.  Ava uses it as a baking sheet, to serve lunch and also as a "counting tray" similar to the way it is used in a Montessori environment.

Thinking of Fall Comforts Foods - French Dip on My Mind

The weather here is so strange.  Last weekend, it was 50 degrees and rainy.  Today, it was 70 degrees and sunny.  I put on a sweater with jeans to take Ava to nursery school thinking it would be really cold outside and I was roasting by the time I got home.  

I started to stock up on some of the basics for fall comfort foods so they are handy in my pantry when I need them.  Chickpeas for butternut squash soup, diced canned tomatoes and lasagna noodles.  A friend gave me a really, really easy slower cooker french dip recipe. 

 
Ingredients:

*3-4 pounds of boneless beef chuck roast, trim off the excess fat (not shown because raw meat is gross)

*1 beer

*1 can of beef broth

*1 can of condensed french onion soup (you'll notice I slipped up and bought regular french onion soup)

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker on low for 7 hours.

 
After cooking for 7 hours, take out the meat and shred it with two forks.  Also a good time to remove any excess fat you may have overlooked initially.

 
Once shredded, place meat back in the slow cooker and mix together.

 
Next step and probably most important, grill/toast your bread.  I had some hoagie rolls on hand so I used those.  A french roll would work too.  Butter and grill your bread.  Don't be tempted to skip this step, the moisture of meat will make your bread soggy and then it's no good.

 
Spoon out some of the "au jus" from the slow cooker and you are good to go.  Add cheese if desired.  Homemade French Dip.  The verdict?  Considering there are only 4 ingredients, it's very, very good.  It's a little "beery" as one might expect when you add a can of beer. I'm used to all beef flavor but I like it.  Quick (prep) and easy comfort food.  Can't beat that!

Oliver is 4 months old!

 

Oliver turned 4 months old on September 11, 2011.  I'm only three weeks late with his update.  Oops!  These past four months have been the fastest of my life.  How did you turn into such a little boy with your blond tuft of hair and your mischievous grins?  Your sister makes you laugh harder than anyone.  All she has to do is look at you and you crack up like it was the funniest thing anyone has ever done.
 

You don't like laying on your back.  If anyone puts you on your back, you roll over as quick as you can. Then you kick your legs wildly and scream because you cannot move.  Nothing delights you more than having someone sing to you.  You smile, coo, laugh and try to sing right back.
 

Taking a bath is the worst part of your day.  It's so bad in fact that I started to only bathe you twice a week because you hate it THAT bad.  I've tried putting you in the bath with your sister, who loves the bath, so she can show you all her best toys.  I've tried the sink, the tub, various contraptions in the sink and the tub and you still scream as though this is the worst thing anyone has ever experienced in the history of the world.  All I have to do is walk into the bathroom with the bathtub water running and you start to cry.  I hope this is a phase or the swimming lesson years are going to be tough.

You are a great napper and a good sleeper at night and despite how much sleep you get, I'm pretty sure this is the most tired I have ever been.  Even still, I feel so lucky to be your mom and to be able to witness your precious life.