A Small Snippet

i am simplifying lunch packing this year, so i bought some things to help me:

i plan to use the Thermos for soup and oatmeal.  i love using these Reuseable Juice Box Containers.  they save us so much money from not having to buy juice boxes all the time, and i can fill them with whatever i want.  the Ziploc Divided Containers are AWESOME!  they come in packs of 2, so i bought 3 packs.  i do not plan to put them through the dishwasher, and i hope they last a long time.  they actually seem really well made, and i love that each individual compartment is totally leak proof.

this is what lunch and snacks looked like for the first day of school:
(Canaan eats alot these days!)
cream cheese sandwich (the Boy’s fave), applesauce, sliced raw bell peppers, fruit leather, dehydrated apples, and grapes.

i’ll be coming back around soon with the recipe for these homemade fruit leathers, as well as the dehydrated honey cinnamon apples.

the new kicks:
Kid’s TOMS Glitter Pink Shoes
Kid’s TOMS Grey Ash Shoes

we are typically Converse kind of peeps, but the kiddos aunt (AKA their personal stylist) surprised them with Toms for the new school year.  they both say its like wearing slippers, and i think they look just down right adorable!

i like to see inside people’s fridges (weird, i know), so in case you are like me, here’s a peek into our’s after back to school shopping was complete:

the contents are actually kind of boring

i bought these awesome Silicone Popsicle Molds on Amazon, and filled them up with our favorite green smoothie recipe.  

it really helped this process to use these Funnels that i had on hand.

(i broke my “new” Cuisinart blender in the process (new to me), and the thought of it makes me want to cry.  if you are my friend and have been around me in the last week, then you’ve most likely heard me talk about my new blender.  the fact that its broken just amplifies the fact that my blender situation has always been a huge thorn in my side.  Blendtec Blenders and Vitamixes regularly dance around and taunt me in my dreams!  someday…)

i store the molds upright in the freezer, and throw them in the lunchboxes in the morning.  by lunchtime, it was perfectly defrosted but still cold, giving the Crazies a little punch of vitamins and nutrients, and servings of fruits and veggies smack dab in the middle of the school day.

our first day of school started with Whole Wheat Banana Walnut Pancakes, courtesy of the Hubs…the Ultimate Pancake Maker.  (recipe here.  we just add walnuts to the batter and cook in coconut oil.)

have you ever read The Kissing Hand?  you can read more about it here.  its become our tradition to have hearts on our hands for the first day of school.  Canaan isn’t as jazzed about the idea of a big red heart on his hand now that he’s in 3rd grade, but he was okay with it as long as i didn’t color it all the way in.  good compromise!

Friday is Bella’s actual first day of school, but she had to go first thing this morning for some testing in her classroom, so we treated it as her first day.  she led the way to her classroom, and this next picture is blurry because she literally ran to her classroom in excitement.

big kid:

and if you come back soon, i’ll give you the recipe for this after school treat that we had this afternoon to celebrate the First Day of School!

what’s your favorite back to school tradition??

ps:  i know some of you have mentioned that you are having a hard time reading my blog on the burlap background.  i am currently working on figuring out how to go about revamping this blog.  so just know that i hear you and hope to have some changes coming soon!  (and if any of you have suggestions on how to do that while not spending loads of money, please let me know!  i’m clueless!)

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i’m writing this post because:
1)  it’ll recap our summer vacay, and i want to document it
2)  this is the kind of post i wish i could have run across when we were planning our trip to DC this summer.  so i’m writing it in the hopes that if any of you are going to DC with (or without) kiddos, this might help you formulate a gameplan!

i’m no travel expert or trip advisor…just a momma who wants to pass along to you a few fun facts that you might find helpful if you ever find yourself planning a trip to DC.

we decided that since we are presently living on the beach, our typical summer vacation to our friends’ beach house just didn’t make a whole lot of sense.  so we thought it would be the perfect summer to enjoy the city life.  so off to DC we went, with the plan to hit up everything we possibly could!

we chose DC for a few reasons:
–  we thought that it would be a great combo of fun and learning
–  almost everything is FREE, which is always great in our book
–  we have sweet friends who live right outside the city and offered to let us stay with them…major fun and major score!!

(before i jump in, i have to ask you to excuse the terrible quality of some of these pictures.  the IPhone is just too easy to cart around and whip out for a quick shot!  looking forward to the day i can update to one with a better cam.  but for now, just thankful i have one!)

as soon as we drove into town, we headed straight into the city, and took our first picture with the Washington Monument:

if you look closely at the Washington Monument, you can see a change in color on the lower part of the bricks.  the construction of the Monument was started in 1848, but stopped in 1854 due to a lack of funds.  building didn’t resume again until the early 1870’s, but by that time, the original materials had all been used up to build bunkers for the Civil War, so a slightly different color rock had to be used to finish the process.  interesting, huh?  there are cool facts like that all over DC.

 we then took the kids to the Vietnam Memorial:

which was completely fascinating.
here’s a little fact for you:
there is one of three symbols after each name, each signifying something in particular.
1) A diamond = a confirmed death
2) A cross = Missing In Action/Prisoner Of War.
(If an MIA/POW’s death is confirmed, lines are etched over the cross to make it a diamond.)
3) A circle around a cross = an MIA or POW who returns alive.

would you believe that out of the 58,183 names listed on the wall, we happened to randomly come across 2 of the 8 who share our last name??

we then headed to the Lincoln Memorial.  in an attempt to connect history with everyday life for small kiddos, we gave them pennies before heading in:

and why he is important to our nation’s history.

my favorite site in DC is the Reflection Pool, which is just outside the Lincoln Memorial.  unfortunately, it is currently under construction, but i can only imagine how wonderful it will be once its completed:

we began the next day at the Holocaust Museum:

here’s my take on this with kids.
there is an awesome, interactive, and very well done children’s portion of the museum on the first floor, before you get to the actual museum.  its called Daniel’s Story, and you basically walk through life as a Jewish child living in Poland during the Holocaust.  its heart-wrenching, but paints a very real but age appropriate picture of the Holocaust in terms that children can understand and be touched by.  they even give you an opportunity at the end to process and write down your feelings about what you’ve seen and place it in the “mailbox” for Daniel.

i think we might all agree that this museum was not necessarily our favorite, but Jake made sure to take some time to give a few history lessons.  afterall, he was a history major and a history teacher, so he can’t miss any opportunity to pass along historical information!

this picture as taken during one of those moments.  i was sitting, far away, because in all honesty, i was beat and could care less about any more history lessons for the day, especially ones that have to do with planes  i guess if our kids have an interest in all things historical, then we’ll know just where that came from

we made a quick trip through the Natural History museum, but we are not evolutionists, so we used alot of our time there to teach the opposite of what a large portion of the museum is about.  however, we did happen upon an impressive nature photography exhibit which was right down my alley and SO WONDERFUL for this momma who was, by this time, completely history-ed out!

bella found this picture and could not handle herself.  she thought it was the funniest picture she’d ever seen:

we had gotten tickets (for free) earlier that day to come back in the afternoon for a tour of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.  this was a highlight of DC for our whole family!!  it was completely entertaining and so very interesting to watch how money is made.  and kinda fun to be in the presence of billions and billions of dollars!!  i highly highly recommend doing this if you are in the area.

i think DC is such a beautiful city overall, and so very clean and well maintained, that its refreshing just to walk around and enjoy some of the parks.  during one of those moments, i caught the kids pretending to be statues and memorials.

 before taking a quick little rest on some benches:

we had a tour scheduled for the Capital, but had a little time to kill so we hit up the National Archives.  SO VERY COOL!!  they don’t let you take pics, so i can’t show you anything, but so awesome to be in the presence of the actual Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  definitely something to put on your bucket list!

we then headed to our scheduled tour of the Capital.  if you ever want to take a Capital tour, just call up your local representative, and they will set you up with a very educated intern from their office to give you an official tour.  (its best to call well in advance of your trip if possible.)

our friends who we were staying with happen to work in the Capital, so we didn’t have to set it up with our representative.  however, we did stop in his office to sign his guest book:

and the office staff was so wonderful and welcoming.  they LOVE visitors, and even took some time to give us a little lesson on our district.

 Canaan getting into the spirit, i guess:

 the exact center point of Washington, DC is inside of the Capital:

and there are all kinds of little secrets and fascinating facts that your tour guide will share with you.  can you guess what this fun fact is all about??  (hint…there is something missing from the statue)

this picture was taken in the original Supreme Court.  and of course, the crazies had to act like judges:

 being inside of the Rotunda was so very breathtaking.  its worth the tour just to see it:

this is the exact staircase that the President walks down right before giving his Inaugural Address.  the outside balcony where he stands is just at the base of this staircase:

such a beautiful and intricately detailed building:

later that evening, we headed over to Georgetown, and hit up:

have you ever seen the TV show, DC cupcakes?  this is it!

we knew we’d be breaking some of our clean eating rules while on vacation, and this was the perfect way to do so!  we went with a vanilla birthday, a strawberry, a key lime, and a marble brownie fudge.  wow….there are no words!

the next day we headed over to the White House in the hopes of catching a glimpse of “Arock Babama” as Bella calls him, but there wasn’t much action going on behind the gates that morning:

but we enjoyed seeing the White House anyway.  did you know that there are 132 rooms, 32 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, and 6 levels??  it also has a tennis court, a jogging track, a swimming pool, a movie theater, a billiard room, and a bowling lane.

my one regret was not setting up a tour of the White House in advance.  our family would’ve really enjoyed that!

us beach folk couldn’t leave the city without at least taking one ride on the Metro.  you might’ve laughed at how many different people we had to enlist help from to figure out how to buy tickets, get through the gates, find the right train, and get to where we wanted to go.  we are most certainly not urbanites!!

 totally worth the quick 2 stop ride just to say we experienced it!

our ride took us to our most favorite meal of our entire vacation, everyone agreed!  once again, we broke lots of rules, but we met up with some friends at a place called BTS (Burgers, Taps, and Shakes) and my mouth is still watering just thinking about it.

after lunch, we headed to Ford’s Theater.  here is the balcony where Lincoln was shot.  so crazy cool to be so up close and personal with history, even for one like me who can only handle it in small doses!

right across the street is the Peterson House, which is where Lincoln later passed away after being shot.

they have maintained the looks of the house from long ago, and even have the same bed in the same room where Lincoln lay.  go.  its totally worth it!!

we finished off the day at the American History museum, and we all agreed that we wished we had done that one first.  its one where we could’ve spent alot more time!

Bella and I especially enjoyed the First Ladies Dress Exhibit:

and did you know that Abraham Lincoln created his own Bible?  he cut out parts from these two books and pasted them together to form his own Bible, eliminating anything that he considered to be supernatural.

 and seeing Dorothy’s actual ruby red slippers from the Wizard of Oz was very exciting:

considering all we did, and how much we walked, she really was trooper!  afterall, it was the Boy who finally had it one evening and just plopped down right in the middle of the sidewalk, weeping over how tired he was.  Jake proceeded to carry him to dinner, and once he had some nourishment, he was good to go!  however, i think that sealed the deal for the real trooper of the trip being the Hubs.

on our last morning in DC, we headed to the Arlington Cemetery.  these signs that were posted all throughout the cemetery made me slightly nervous to tote 2 Crazies through a place that asks for silence and respect…

and then stopped by to see the resting place of JFK and Jackie Kennedy, which was really neat for Canaan because he did a large project and report on JFK this past year:

its actually really beautiful grounds, and represents so much life and loss for our country:

we were sad to leave this great city behind, but we sure packed in a whole heck of a lot in a just a few days.

my final take on DC…Canaan at age 8 was the perfect age.  he enjoyed everything we saw, and really engaged in the learning aspect of what the city had to offer.  Bella at age 5 was a bit young to grasp the historical significance of most things, and some things quickly became boring to her, but overall, she was totally engaged and entertained.  Washington DC as a family vacation = well worth it!

we continued our journey north to the Eastern Shore of Maryland:

 to visit my brother and sister in law.

who were great hosts, and took us to all kinds of local hot spots!
our first stop was the Ocean City Boardwalk:

Ocean City Boardwalk is apparently known for Thrashers Fries.  they don’t have ketchup, and i’m warning you…its best to not even ask.  in fact, be careful if you happen to order a large but then want to change it to a medium.  they don’t seem to handle annoying tourists all that well.  but their fries sure are good.  especially if you put vinegar on them, which is what i guess you do when you don’t have access to ketchup:

and we couldn’t possibly be in Ocean City and not indulge in some Salt Water Taffy:

we also tried our very first Fried Oreo.  i mean…what’s the point of going to a Boardwalk if you aren’t going to taste the local fare? (clean or not??)

we hit up lots more in Maryland, such as Assateague Island (a state park on the beach where wild horses roam), and the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, which was like a scavenger hunt for wildlife.  unfortunately, i forgot to bring the Nikon along, so there are no photos to show, but we saw tons of wildlife, and even kept score on who saw the most, with more points going to the most unique creature found, which we decided was a family of about 10 raccoon putting on a show for us!  super fun!!

on our way back down south, we stopped for a night in Jake’s old stomping grounds at W&L:

we took the kids the next day on a tour of the campus, which is seriously the most beautiful college campus i’ve ever been to.  Jake got to show them his dorm where he lived his freshman year:

and Lee Chapel, which is where Robert E Lee is buried:

and we had to stop in on Jake’s old football field to toss the ball a bit.

bringing back lots of memories for Jake:

i have always said that i SO wish we had gone to college together.  i think that would’ve been a blast!

love this pic of my boys.

the Bug and i had to stop in at the Chi O house just for kicks:

this is the house where Jake lived for a few years with all his buddies.  the stories that have come out of that place can keep you laughing and entertained for many hours!  wish i had gotten to experience them all firsthand!

after our stop in Lexington, we headed to our last stop in Greenville, SC to spend a few days with our dear friends.  a yummy Italian dinner was awaiting our arrival:

Greenville is such a fun fun city!!  the little downtown area has so much to do.  there is a park with natural waterfalls called Falls Creek park:

and the cute downtown area boasts what they call Mice on Main.  there are 9 mini statues of mice all along Main Street, hidden in different places, which was right down the Crazies alley.  we had a little book with clues, and we got to search the area for all the mice.

 and made it home with lots of goodies:

we wore the Crazies out completely, and they slept a good portion of our drive home.

sad that vacation is over, and that summer is ending.  school starts for us too soon, so hoping to find some time this weekend to share some back to school stuff with you!

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…and because i’m well overdue for a blog post (seems to be the story of my summer!)
…and because i still haven’t finished editing photos from our trip.  in fact, to be honest, i haven’t really even started.  i just haven’t been motivated, and other things have taken their place.
…and because i’m trying my hardest to soak up every last bit of beach time with my kiddos before both of them head off to full-time school…AHHH!

so because of all that, tonight you’re getting some photos from some recent shoots.  i’ve told you this before, but i’m not a professional photographer….not even close.  and even if i wanted to be, i lack the skillzzz and the equipment needed to be one.  however, when you get to shoot beautiful people like this, and end up with photos like these below, it reminds me that it has everything to do with the subjects, and nothing to do with the one holding the cam!!

this sweet girl was SO easy to shoot!  she really was one of the happiest little babies i’ve ever met!

 and her striking eyes melted my heart:

 they were also celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary…

 so we captured some sweet moments!

hope you are all enjoying the last stretch of summer.
and by golly…i’ve got to come back and share with you some recipes that we’ve tried recently.  i think you’ll want to add them into your repertoire!

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