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  • Hi! I'm Ainsley, and I'm the mother of two adventurous little boys named Wyatt and Dylan. I'm here to blog about the joys of parenting and all the resources out there to help us. But most of all, I hope you'll come back here for a community of friends.

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« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »

September 2007

Before he had his morning coffee

Dylan_birthday__005 

September 30, 2007 at 02:40 PM in Babies | | Comments (2)

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times!

You really must take a moment to watch this video - it is funny, I know you can relate!

September 30, 2007 at 07:44 AM in Parenting | | Comments (2)

Lesson learned

Having a yard sale in northern Virginia is like Market_3 haggling at a market in a foreign country.

This morning a friend and I joined forces to have a killer yard sale. Despite some really great furniture, linens, and clothes people mostly wanted the baby gear, toys, and computer parts (they just didn't want to pay anything for it!) One man loaded up a huge laundry basket for sale with at least 30 toys and a set of wooden blocks, and then asked if $1 was good for all of it. What??? I finally got him to pay $3.50 for the lot (minus the blocks) and he came back with pennies - no joke. So much for making money=)

September 29, 2007 at 02:47 PM in Shopping | | Comments (2)

Just hangin' out

Lovin' a day off, chillin' at a local playground....these are the days I live for!Hang1 Hang2 Hang3 Hang4

September 29, 2007 at 02:30 PM in Family | | Comments (1)

Because you asked me to

Now that the votes are tallied and the Winner has been posted, I've decided to go ahead and fulfill your request to post all four pumpkin recipes. I just can't help myself - they are all awesome and I love anything autumn! I hope that you will enjoy them as much as my family has.

I'll start with the Runner-Up: Pumpkin Roll. Honestly, I don't take this one to fall events with family and close friends anymore - because they've all asked for the recipe and will already be serving it! This recipe tied for second place with the cupcakes, which are still to come. But this Pumpkin Roll has achieved a certain fame.

WHAT YOU NEED:
small to med. jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with edges
lint-free tea towel
wax paper
powdered sugar
CAKE:
3 eggs or whites
2/3 cup pumpkin
1 C. sugar
3/4 C. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
FILLING:
8 oz. softened cream cheese
2 tbls softened butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 C. powdered sugar

WHAT TO DO:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Grease cookie sheet and line with wax paper
  • Mix cake ingredients together, pour evenly onto cookie sheet and bake for 15 min.
  • Smooth out dish towel across counter and sprinkle with powdered sugar
  • Tip cake from pan directly onto towel while hot and roll gently (jelly-roll style, the towel and the wax paper will become wrapped within the cake roll for now.) Refrigerate for 1 hour.
  • Beat the filling ingredients together until creamy
  • Gently unroll cake, peel off wax paper, spread on filling, and re-roll (minus towel :)
  • Sprinkle the outside of the cake roll with a little powdered sugar (to absorb moisture or it will stick) and wrap in wax paper first and then again in tin foil. Refrigerate  until ready to serve. Slice into 1/2 inch servings.

September 28, 2007 at 02:37 PM in Food, Recipes | | Comments (0)

The Winning Recipe

And the winner is...  

Triple-layer Chocolate Pumpkin Pie. Watch-out - Thanksgiving dessert will never be the same! It is gorgeous and definitely worth the time involved.

WHAT YOU NEED:
8 or 9 in. pre-baked pie shell
2 Tbls unsalted butter
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate
12 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 C. sugar
2 large eggs
1 C. canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, salt
1/8 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 C. sour cream

WHAT TO DO:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  • Melt butter and chocolate over low heat until smooth.
  • Beat cream cheese in a separate bowl, adding 1 1/4 C sugar. Beat in eggs, then blend in pumpkin vanilla and spices
  • Pour slightly less than half of the pumpkin mixture into the chocolate and blend
  • Pour chocolate filling into pie shell and bake on the center rack for 20 min. Let cool on wire rack 15 min.
  • Carefully ladle remaining pumpkin filling over top. Return to oven for 35-40 min. When done, the filling around the perimeter will have puffed somewhat, but not so much that it develops large cracks. Place on cooling rack until filling levels, 30-40 min.
  • Combine sour cream and 1/4 C. sugar over very low heat for about 2 min. until fairly thin and slightly warm. Carefully pour over top of the pie. Cool pie thoroughly, then chill at least 4 hours.

September 27, 2007 at 01:30 PM in Food, Recipes | | Comments (4)

Thankful Thursday

Outdoor_fun_013 Today I'm grateful for:

  1. Happy babies
  2. Tomorrow's Friday
  3. Wyatt loves preschool
  4. Dylan's auburn hair and warm skintone
  5. Pumpkin Loaf from Starbucks
  6. How cute Wyatt is when he stumbles into our bedroom half-asleep at 7am and asks for his milk and bar
  7. A new batch of October magazines (our mail is being forwarded so they're late=)
  8. Dylan and Wyatt love playing together now
  9. Looking forward to our annual drive to Skyline Drive
  10. My hard-working husband

September 27, 2007 at 07:29 AM in Thankful Thursday | | Comments (2)

New favorite play spot

Most of you may already know about this, but since Wyatt recently turned 3 we've discovered WKids at Wegmans. It's basically a Fun Center (ball pit, toys, kids shows, activity tables) for kids 3+ and potty trained to go while parents shop (or get coffee=). Wyatt loved it and was pretty bummed that I only had to pick-up a few things, making his visit all of 20 minutes. But they will keep your child for up to 1 1/2 hours and give you a pager if your child needs to go potty.

The Sterling location is the only one that has WKids locally, but hopefully Fairfax will get on the bandwagon soon. You can search for a store near you [here].

September 26, 2007 at 02:05 PM in Places to Go, Potty Training, Shopping | | Comments (4)

I'm keen on Keen

I saw this Keen Irvington shoulder bagShoulder_bag  in R.E.I. the other day and thought it would make a great diaper bag.  I really liked it regardless. It has a sleek, eco-friendly design and is totally roomy. A couple of side pockets just the right size for slipping in a bottle, a moderate front pocket with some nice features, and one truly deep pocket to hold whatever you might need to tote everywhere. Plus, what really caught my eye was that that deep pocket has a nifty little light that comes on whenever you open it so that you can always see down in there to find what you are looking for, like say... that pacifier or your car keys that just got chucked in there when you were busy attending to your child. 

September 26, 2007 at 07:46 AM in Products | | Comments (0)

Big Man on Campus

Outdoor_fun_028

September 25, 2007 at 03:35 PM in Preschoolers | | Comments (1)

Blog Action Day

In case you hadn't yet heard, October 15th is Blog Action Day.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

As a mom, I'm becoming more and more conscientious about doing my part when it comes the environment. I think it's because I'm raising little ones and I want them to have a safe place to live. Don't forget to register your own blog, too!

September 25, 2007 at 02:51 PM in Environment | | Comments (0)

I wonder where he got that from

The other day in the car, I gave some instructions to Wyatt who then turned to Dylan sitting next to him... and with a pointed finger said, "That means you, too, Mister!"

September 24, 2007 at 05:14 PM in Babies, Preschoolers | | Comments (1)

Affordable diaper bags you'll love

You don't have to sacrifice a great looking diaper bag in order to stay on budget. Diaper_bag3_4 Just recently I've come across quite a few chic-looking bags that had a super-friendly pricetag. I noticed in Target the other day some REALLY CUTE ones that didn't look too diaper bag-ish. Both were from Amy Coe - the Foldover Slouch Diaper Bag for 29.95 and the Bucket Tote Diaper Bag, also for 29.95.

Diaper_bag2_5 I also found 2 great finds at Babies R Us. One is called the Cocoa Dots Tulip Tote for 49.99 and the other is the Ima Rose-N-Bloom II Diaper Backpack & Shoulder Bag for 44.99.

September 22, 2007 at 09:56 PM in Baby Fashion, Baby gear | | Comments (1)

What's in your diaper bag?

When Wyatt was an infant, I carried around something like this, Diaper_bag_6 but I found after a few months that it was unnecessary to have a bag so big. I couldn't even fit it in the stroller storage compartment! I remember putting in "the essentials" - I think I had something like 20 diapers!

So I deliberately bought a small diaper bag (different color) when I was pregnant with Dylan that I'm still using over a year later. It's plenty big for what I need - a pair of clean undies (for Wyatt) a few diapers and a pack of wipes, some small snacks and a bottle or sippy. There's even room to toss my wallet in if I don't want to carry a purse. I realize it's time to clean it out when I can't jam anything else inside.

I did this today and found a bunch of extra stuff that had made it's way in there: 3 pacifiers, 4 pairs of socks, a superhero figurine, an old bottle, a wet diaper, 2 lipglosses and some granola bar wrappers. Which leads me to this question: What's in your diaper bag?

September 22, 2007 at 03:35 PM in Baby gear | | Comments (4)

Not my kind of party

While we were out today, I ran by The Party Store to pick up some tissue paper in a specific color for a project I'm working on. Walking into the store, with my very young daughters in hand, I suddenly felt my stomach twist into an uncomfortable emotional knot that I recognized from the same experience last year. Really, I should have just turned and walked right out, but having searched several other places beforehand for a simple pack of orange tissue paper, I decided to just grab it and go as quickly as possible. 

The grotesque and disturbing Halloween displays are one thing to me, and quite another to my impressionable and sensitive young girls, I'm sure. And, it would be one thing if it were contained to the costume section, so that I could avoid it if I choose, but from the very front door and cascading down every isle from wedding items, princess birthday supplies, and disposable tableware, we were confronted with hideous, evil-eyed skeletons hanging menacingly above us to garish displays of dead, bleeding figures hung upside down by their tightly spun spider webs - not to mention the creepy, animated horrors of the actual Halloween section which we tried hard to avoid but were nearly forced to walk into to get to the rest of the store. 

Now, I'm really not trying to bash The Party Store, as most of the year, I find it a colorful host to friendly festivity... but I have felt terrible now for two years in a row upon walking in there unsuspectingly and exposing my daughters to visions of terror, and I am making a promise to never set foot in there again in Sept-Oct. Honestly, it is a bit much even for me and I don't want to have to look at that junk either.

September 22, 2007 at 03:08 PM in Parenting | | Comments (3)

Boys and Trucks

In honor of Child Passenger Safety Week, Dulles Town Center had the Sterling firefighters and a firetruck outside today. They gave away free fire hats, coloring books, and a tour of the truck. Wyatt was first to get the tour, so he stayed inside and explained to the other children what everything was - even though this was his first firetruck experience. Now instead of Pablo, he wants to be a fireman for Halloween. I wonder how many more times it will change before then.Outdoor_fun_080_2 Outdoor_fun_068

September 21, 2007 at 04:04 PM in Events | | Comments (0)

Unleash your inner treasure-hunter

I just learned about letterboxing, an interesting new fad that I'm sort of tempted to rush right out and participate in.  It is really very simple - people have started hiding boxes all around the country that contain a small journal and a stamp. The idea is that using the clues provided, you go and hunt down the location of said hidden box, open it and leave a stamp of your own in the journal residing there and also use the stamp provided to create a collection in a journal you keep.

I think this would be a fun, great problem-solving activity for kids and/or families. The really amazing thing is that there are TONS of boxes hidden right here in our area... enough to keep you busy for a seriously long time and to accumulate a massive collection of stamp marks and hopefully fun Saturday memories.  There are 17 boxes in Reston plus 6 in Herndon, 18 in Great Falls, 11 in Vienna, 10 in Ashburn and a whopping 24 in Leesburg, plus more in almost every other neighboring city. 

Probably my most favorite part of this whole game is the clues - some are so truly clever and creative! Beyond straightforward directions, you'll also find poetry ( as in this one ), plus other creative options such as if your kids are really into Harry Potter you'll love this one. And, if you are really into it, you can hide your own and see how many people make their mark in your own little book. You really must go check out the website, the whole concept and the fact that it is working is really quite fascinating.

September 21, 2007 at 03:51 PM in Activities | | Comments (2)

Suburban family seeks hip child-friendly vehicle

Van We're currently looking for a new family automobile that will satisfy all our desires - fun to drive, not a car, comfortable and child-friendly, affordable, cool, and ideal for both road trips AND toting little ones around town. 

I know all you moms (and dads) are driving in style, so I need to know: What do you drive? Or better yet, what should we drive?

September 19, 2007 at 04:09 PM in Family | | Comments (7)

mini people love mini gourds

Gourds Two years ago, when Hope was Maddie's age (nearly 2), I took her over to Frying Pan Farm Park on a Wednesday morning and stumbled across the farmer's market that continues there in season even now. I bought her 3 of those little gourds that resemble miniature pumpkins for $1... and it was very nearly the best buck I've ever spent on her. She played with those tiny pumpkins to the complete discard of any other toy for nearly a month. She had to take them everywhere with her - in the car, to her bedroom, to the dinner table. I had never at that time seen her so enthralled with anything before.

Today, we visited the park again and took home 9 tiny gourds of various shapes and colors (for $3). I plan to use them for some seasonal decor at a get-together I'm hosting soon, but I let the girls pick them out and play with them. When we got home, Maddie went down for her nap and - I kid you not - Hope spent nearly an hour completely oblivious to the world around her, absorbed in play with these tiny gourds. She made them into little families with parents and babies and cousins and role-played events such as going to school and church, she made them dance and play. Apparently, she hasn't grown out of this fascination, and also apparently she's inherited my country genes seeing as how she would rather just toss the Cinderella aside to play with the pumpkin. 

September 19, 2007 at 03:17 PM in Places to Go, Preschoolers, Toddlers | | Comments (1)

Kids fall for fun

Leaf_stamps_2 I found a great site that has a whole section called Love the Fall - including fun ideas for activities, crafts and recipes. Your preschooler will need your help with most of the activites, but they're perfect for children a little older. Wyatt loved making these leaf stamps last year.

September 18, 2007 at 02:21 PM in Activities | | Comments (0)

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