Reston Mom

Family Night #4

This week was "Treasure Island" night.  I had lots of creative ideas for this one, but kept it simple since I was trying not to spend any money.  First, the girls decorated the dinner table with various sea shells.  For dinner we had brown rice islands with carrot/snow pea palm trees and "cannon balls" (meatballs), there were also tropical smoothies and of course Pirate's Booty!  After dinner we taught the girls how to make newspaper sailor's hats and then surprised them with a little treasure map which led them around the block and eventually to the "x" where they found a small treasure box filled with chocolate gold coins.  We finished the night by watching Muppet's Treasure Island. The movie was okay...I had really wanted to get Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (a childhood favorite of mine) but you can't Netflix it and it's nearly impossible to find on DVD, though you can pay a bit for a collector's VHS - ha!  All in all, a really fun night.

Menu In A Box

First, I have to apologize to my friend Ruthie for my procrastination with this one.  You see, she was kind enough to let me download Menu In A Box for free to give it a try....like back in May! and here I am finally getting around to saying anything about it.  And, I definitely think it is worth saying something about - so you should know that there is this great resource available to anyone who is looking to save time and money, get organized, and provide some new, very easy, friendly meals to their family. Go check it out - it's a 100 day meal-planning kit that includes everything listed in the picture here and it is all so extremely neat and organized and accessible.  We've tried some of the recipes and they were easy and tasty.  The entire program will cost you less than $20 and is downloadable, so you don't have to wait for the mail to come...you can have it today.

Me and Maddie

You can just see Maddie's hot pink nail polish - I wish you could see it better - it's soooo cute on her chubby little digits. (and Hope is off doing her own thing behind us :) 

Hope discovered trampoline fun!

fan fun

sunflowers

The girls and I planted sunflowers from seed this year...and they are huge! Seriously, there must be a record-breaker here - do you see how that one reaches up to the second story of our house? It's been so much fun to watch them grow - at times more than an inch a day!!! Can't wait to see the blooms!

7 meals at my house - week 6

here's what we ate this week:

• Chipotle
• steak and mozzarella with onions and peppers on whole-wheat pita
• mandarin orange chicken (Trader Joe's), broccoli and brown rice
• grilled mixed veggies and garlic chicken sausage (also from TJ's)
• homemade pepperoni pizza on whole wheat with peach/pineapple salsa for sauce and spinach salads
• wedding reception
• we had one weird day when Matt was gone, so the girls and I just ate leftover soup

secret languages of siblings

My daughters squabble just like other kids.  But, somewhere along the way they developed a secret code just between themselves....it's called the "sharing calendar."  It has no basis on any object, least of all a calendar - it's just this weird code word.  I don't get it, but basically the rules appear to be that if either of them invokes the "sharing calendar" the other one just obliges to share whatever they have without quip or argument. It's like magic. Seriously...If Hope has quickly devoured her own food and wants in on whatever Maddie has, even the best treats - all she has to do is say, "Maddie, remember our sharing calendar, can I please share with you?" and Maddie says yes and all is good.  It happens in the reverse direction too.  And it can regard anything...food, toys, books, activities, clothes...you name it.  I don't exactly know how this came to be, it's clearly a sister thing. There is no rhyme or reason to invoking it either.  Sometimes they decide to grab and fight and whine and throw fits... and sometimes it's as easy as pie because one brings up the sharing calendar. It's almost as if someone hypnotized them to respond in a certain way to a trigger phrase, because so far it is absolutely consistent and hasn't failed once.  But it's just some weird sibling display of love, because after it's been invoked, they always sit happily together sharing in whatever they have, talking and giggling and having the best of sisterly moments. And I stand by and stare at them dumbfounded as if I've suddenly been sucked into a parallel dimension through the twilight zone.

fish die

Some people say they just don't have a green thumb...everything planty that they touch seems to die. Transfer that sentiment to my fish tank and you can see the predicament I'm in. I just don't have a blue thumb? Honestly, I'm so frustrated right now over this whole thing that it's making me laugh - ever been there? Laughing at how worked up I am over something so small and stupid...because the only other alternative to release it to just pick the starter tank up and heave it right through the nearby sliding door.  Wouldn't that be a sight for the neighbors?
Welcome to my fishy saga: rewind back two years ago to a perfectly wonderful Christmas gift for my daughter - cute little starter tank, graceful goldfish (named Dorothy after Elmo's own)...ah, such great intentions!  Not so long later...yup, belly up.  So, I find myself suddenly standing at the precipice of exploring the great topic of death with my two year old, grasping for a sensitive manner that is both understandable and not life-scarring to a toddler, and like so many before me - instead of jumping right in, I simply orchestrated a secret run to the pet store to replace Dorothy in an impressively classic lie.  In my stroke of genius deception, I directed my husband to choose one fish that looked just like Dorothy and a friend who looked different, so that any suspicions might be allayed by the distraction of presenting a new friend (named Spotty). It was a brilliant plot, except for one thing.  Dorothy II outlived Spotty, but not long.  Of course, I had to give in and just tell it like it is to my daughter (because eventually the multiplication of fish would get overwhelming)..."sorry honey, Spotty died. Sometimes fish do." That apparently sufficed because my daughter only said "okay," and went on happily playing, and didn't seem to care when Dorothy followed suit.  But after three swift deaths, I wasn't ready to buy another fish without figuring out what was going wrong.  Of course, the tank sat empty of fish and full of water in my daughters room for a minium of six months thereafter...likely more.  Eventually it got emptied and moved to a closet...but it never left my mind.  I still retained hope for a lovely little successful aquarium for the girls.
At one point I went and reviewed with a nice, well-informed pet shop employee everything I needed to achieve this success, because surely I'm missing some key aspect...and then another three months later: fast-forward to yesterday: Bought a new filter and asked again what I could do to make this work...feeling good, this is going to be it this time!...get home, restore the tank to it's former glory (imagined glory) and prime it for today.  Today we went to the pet store and bought two new fish...not goldfish. The girls were adamant about this...and I was told that they are kind of "dirty" so you have to change the water frequently - more work for me, not an option.  We proudly brought our new friends home and placed their bags in the tank to acclimate...but not before I once again asked a store employee for tips about how to make sure this works.
One hour ago....dead fish.  One down.  Can this really be happening again?  We've followed all the instructions, all the preparation.  As soon as the other one dies (isn't that so pessimistic?), I'm going to dump the entire tank out, waltz into several pet stores and demand an explanation.   I just can't leave my girls education about fish at this...."so what do you know about fish, girls?"  "they die."

EZ pack giveaway WINNER

My daughter Hope drew #4 to win my EZ pack giveaway - so a big congratulations goes to Linda!
I hope the rest of you will continue to check back as I'll be posting about my next give-away soon!