This post was sponsored by ThinkFun. I received a free version of their Move and Groove game in return for writing an honest review. The opinions in this post are my own. One of the most difficult things to deal with as a stay-at-home parent is figuring out a way to keep Anouk entertained and active while the weather is less than cooperative. The...
Last weekend, I found myself driving through Chesapeake's South Norfolk neighborhood for the first time in ... well, ever. I'd read a lot about SoNo -- how it used to be a thriving independent small town but has been struggling since it was incorporated into the City of Chesapeake in the 1960s. Did you know that once, a streetcar ran from Ocean View all the...
On our snow-day-before-last (? they've all started to blend together), when boredom was setting in with a vengeance, I learned how to make bagels at home. This might sound really stupid, but I'm not sure I ever really knew that you could make bagels at home. I mean, I guess I knew ONE could, but not an average person like me. I think...
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For the past few months, I've been on the hunt for a very specific item: namely, a set of iced tea spoons in my (seventy-year-old) silverware pattern. Whenever I pass a promising looking antique or vintage shop, I always pop in to check but so far, have had no luck finding what I need (though I have found dozens of other things I...
A few months ago, I posted on Facebook looking for recommendations for books, games, toys, anything, to encourage science, technology, engineering, and math skills, especially for little girls. When I was offered review copies of two new titles from Kids Can Press that seemed to promote just those skills, I jumped at the chance to read them with Anne. And we loved them...
Anouk is turning three this weekend and we're celebrating with her first official birthday party with a few of her nearest and dearest friends in addition to family. I wrote last year when she turned two about how her preemie experience affected me and how I always donate to March of Dimes on her birthday. If you can, I hope you will consider...
It's officially spring today, so I thought it would be the perfect time to share a citizen science initiative that I heard about a while ago. This project -- Project Budburst -- deals with phenology: the study of organisms and how they change with the seasons and with variations in climate or habitat. The creators of this project ask ordinary people to make observations...
If there's one good thing about being sick, at least for a busy parent, it's that you finally have time to read like you used to. Over the weekend, when I wasn't feeling well, I jumped into Jean Hanff Korelitz's new novel, You Should Have Known, and managed to finish it just as I shook off the tail end of the flu. I loved...
I was going to post today about the St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday and our after-parade party at our house. Our first year living on the parade route, a big deal! Sadly, James and I came down with the flu Friday night and spent the weekend in bed while A. went to the parade (and then home) with my folks. So we...
I've never hidden the fact that our little family love love loved going to the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk together (you can see some of our previous outings here, here, and here). The day it closed its doors in 2012 was a sad one. (Just so you can get a scale of things, that photo up top was taken only a few months...
With spring just around the corner (at least officially -- today's cold weather notwithstanding), I figured it was time to put together a list of our favorite places around town to see beautiful blossomy things. There are so many well-curated and cared for public gardens in Hampton Roads. If you are looking forward to spring as much as we are, definitely add these...
Anne and I spent our last snow day learning how to dye carnations with food coloring. We already had a bunch of white carnations, we had food coloring, it was cold and gloomy and St. Patrick's Day is coming up. Enter: a beautiful rainbow bouquet. This was a pretty easy experiment -- we filled jars/cups with about an inch of water, added...
These photos were taken last month on our walk around Pleasure House Point Natural Area. At the end of the walk, Anne was flagging a bit but perked up considerably as we spotted a small playground through the trees; it's amazing how quickly a toddler can go from cranky and tired to full of energy and ready to play, I'll never figure...
It feels strange to be saying Happy Friday -- with the storm on Monday and the resulting snow days, I feel like this week never really got going. I never thought I would say I was tired of snow -- I feel like I spent most of my formative years praying for it and never getting it -- but being cooped with a...
James's mom sent me this copy of My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag: And Other Things You Can't Ask Martha -- almost as soon as I saw it I knew it was destined for a place of honor on the kitchen shelf with my favorite cookbooks. I generally think the idea of being a "housewife" is a little nauseating (even though I am one?) but...
Purists are going to hate this recipe because authentic Irish soda bread has only four ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk. This dairy-free recipe has a few more and comes out a bit more dense and sconelike than the traditional recipe. But my kid can eat it, so that's a plus. And it's also really good. And easy -- Anouk mixed this...
We headed over to the Children's Museum with some friends last week to check out a new exhibit, Look Who Lives in Trees. The traveling exhibit, which features an indoor treehouse along with learning and building stations, is on loan from Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY, and was put together through a collaboration with EEC! The Environmental Exhibit Collaborative. The exhibit allows kids to...
