Cone Tree Advent Calendar

I don’t usually post on weekends, but I was determined to have this year’s Advent calendar post up before December 1. And it’s a really simple one, so if you just happen to reading this on November 30 and you also happen to be looking for an Advent calendar to make, you could easily knock this one out before tomorrow … Continue reading

Our 2014 Christmas Card

One afternoon last week, I looked out the window, saw that the light looked decent for picture taking, noted that it was nearly halfway through November, and ran upstairs to grab clean blue shirts for all the kids. Milo and Gus had a friend over, so we left the poor kid inside eating nachos while I herded everyone outside to … Continue reading

DIY Harry Potter Wands

post contains affiliate links This weekend Milo is having a very belated birthday party (his actual birthday was back in May, but we waited until now for the party for assorted reasons too boring to get into). He just turned eleven so, naturally, he’s having a Harry Potter party. Next week I’ll be back with a full recap of the … Continue reading

Summer Road Trip, Part FIVE! Washington, DC: Airplanes and the National Postal Museum

Here’s the penultimate installment of my recap of the big road trip we took way back in June! Today I’m covering our last two days in the DC area, and then next week I’ll finally wrap this thing up by telling you about a couple of places we stopped on the trip back down. National Air and Space Museum: Udvar-Hazy … Continue reading

Washington, DC: National Zoo and National Museum of Natural History

National Zoo: I feel like the theme of the day at the zoo was bad pictures: See? Abe has never been to the zoo in Atlanta, because he’s mostly been too young to care and because it costs a bunch of money. So we drove 11 hours north instead to where the zoo is FREE! Sometime we’ll take him to … Continue reading

DIY Toddler Water Table from Recycled Wood: The Backyard Just Keeps Getting FUNNER

It is not lost on me that this has kind of been the summer of kid stuff here on the ol’ blog. I feel like maybe I need to apologize to readers without kids for being so relentlessly child-focused. We painted grown-up friendly chairs just last week to appease you! And, honestly, I might have more kid stuff coming up … Continue reading

Washington, DC: Monuments, National Archives, and Spy Museum

Another installment of our summer roadtrip re-cap! It won’t be summer anymore by the time I finish these! But that’s okay. I’m pretty sure all the stuff I’m talking about will still be around whenever you’re reading this. So when we left off, we had just finished our visit to Colonial Williamsburg. We left Williamsburg in the evening and made … Continue reading

Abe at ONE AND A HALF! Also, other kids and a fence

(This was going to be a post about our trip again, but then it got late. Maybe because I was taking so many pictures of my one and a half year old. Next week!) Abraham Barry is ONE AND A HALF! So that’s pretty crazy. I’ve had it in my head that 18 months is when they start to get … Continue reading

Colonial Williamsburg: Summer Road Trip, Part 2

So when we left off, we had just spent a fun/history-filled, ridiculously hot day touring Jamestown and Yorktown. The next day, our designated Colonial Williamsburg day, was overcast with a high of around 80–a very pleasant change from the day before. You start out at the Visitor’s Center in Williamsburg, where there’s plenty of parking and a building with a … Continue reading

DIY Bullseye Tie-dye T-shirts for all the Cousins

I was compensated for this post as part of a campaign by Tulip and Blueprint Social. I have a few tie-dyeing experiences under my belt. I remember most all of them as involving giant messy vats of dye and results of….questionable beauty. But I have a lingering affection for tie-dye that maybe dates to a special class on the sixties … Continue reading