Author Archives: Caitlin

Pumpkin Patch

Way back in October, the kids and I took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch down the street. It is always good for some cute fall photos. Although Campbell was in kind of a weird mood and I had to work so hard to get any good photos. Oh well! They are still so cute!

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Bowling at the White House

Just realized I never posted about our awesome trip to the White House bowling alley. We did this in August–basically Ben’s friend there let us in because no one else was in town!

Cool view from INSIDE the gates:

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Helpful signage:

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Ben was pretty excited about the photos on the walls:IMG_20140814_132201090

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Action shot:
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BYOB:

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Sweet parting gifts:

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Thanks for having us Mr. and Mrs. Obama. We had a blast, just sorry we missed you.


Singing Sweeties

I just uploaded some photos and found these videos from right before Thanksgiving. It was one of those rare moments where the kids would actually sing for me!!

 

Sam’s 5th Birthday Party

I am going to do a 5 year old update post soon but I wanted to post pictures from Sam’s birthday party which are way overdue! This year we decided to have a very small party for Sam. I actually made a big long list of people to invite, addressed the envelopes, and then ended up not sending most of them out. I just decided on the day I was going to send the invites out to keep the guest list to our neighbors. There are four families on our block with kids Sam’s age and they all have so much fun together. It just seemed to make sense to keep the party limited to a few friends this year.

Sam wanted to have an octonauts party this year, so I had fun with the theme. It is a really cute show and it’s educational too!

THE FOOD:

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 (Grandma Katie’s macaroni and cheese)

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(grapes)

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 (blue jello with swedish fish)

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 (this yummy kale salad)

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THE GAMES:

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 (pin the patch on kwazii)

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 (Shellington pull-string pinata)

THE FAVORS:

The mother of one of the kids I tutor is an amazing cookie maker and made these incredible and delicious cookies that we gave away as party favors!


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Two and a Half!

Hey there! I bet you forgot I had a blog! Eeek! I can’t believe it has been over a month since my last post!! I didn’t mean for it to be so long but I was just so busy with Handmade By The Millers (my embroidery business) that I haven’t had time for much else. But Campbell is way overdue for her TWO and a HALF year old post (considering she’ll be three in just three more months!). So without further ado, here is what our little girl has been up to.

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  • Weight and Height: Not sure of her weight but she is fairly slim. And as for height, she is TALL! She is taller than all of her friends! But she got mad the other day when we told her she was tall and insisted that no, she is little (explaining the concept of being “tall for your age” doesn’t really work with toddlers).

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  • Eating: Campbell isn’t a picky eater in that there is nothing she refuses to eat (though she isn’t a fan of spicy). However, she doesn’t eat much at all. She just picks at all of her meals, occasionally devouring platefuls. I don’t worry because she never complains of being hungry!

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  • Sleeping: We are still going very strong on naps. She almost always sleeps for 3 hours (1:30-4:30) and sometimes I have to wake her up! Of course, this also means that she likes to stay up talking to herself way past her 8:00 bedtime. Sometimes Sam will join in but there have been many times we’ve gone to check on them and Sam is passed out while Campbell is 5 feet away belting out some song or other silliness. She is still in her crib but we are thinking about moving her to a big girl bed when she turns three. We’ll see. I have a feeling she won’t be as good about staying in her bed as her older brother has been. But on the other hand, I also worry she’ll try to climb out of her crib.

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  • Behavior: Campbell has definitely been acting like more of a two year old lately. For the most part she is still our happy and silly girl, but she definitely has been showing more attitude! We have even had to do a few timeouts for swatting at Sam or not listening. But when she isn’t being naughty, she is one of the sweetest little girls I have ever seen. She is very cuddly and loves to snuggle and give hugs. She is very silly and even downright weird–whatever it takes for a laugh.

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  • Sibling relations: Sam and Campbell have so much fun together these days. They love to egg each other on and can get really wild. Lately Campbell has really been following Sam’s lead. If I ask them if they like a song, for example, Campbell waits to hear what Sam says first and then answers the same thing. Pretty cute!

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We love you, love you, love you, sweet little girl!! It has been a great two and a half years!!

Halloween 2014

I am playing a little blog catch up. We had a fun Halloween with Nana and Grandpa Jerry in town (as usual, we didn’t manage to get pics that included them! Boo!).

Sam was a pirate and Campbell was Tinkerbell:

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Trick or treating like a champ:

 

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Tinkerbell and her superhero sidekick, Ned:

 

 

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C’s First Dance Class

The day I have been waiting for since I found out I was having a little girl has arrived–Campbell’s first dance class. I am really not even kidding. I have dreamed of having a little dancer! It’s not that I want Campbell to become a professional dancer or anything (though that’s fine if she does), it’s really just that I love the idea of having a sweet little girl in a leotard and tights! Ha! I know. Serious parenting here.

Anyway, the class is great and she loves it! All the girls are so adorable in their little outfits. I wouldn’t say there is a lot of real dancing going on, but they are so cute doing whatever it is they are doing!

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Last What We Ate Wednesday

What We Ate Wednesday: Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

Well guys, this is my very last WWAW post! It has been a whole year and I am done. But you can always enter “WWAW” in the search bar and get a year’s worth of vegetarian dinner ideas. And I hope to continue posting a good recipe here and there. Thanks for following along!

Wednesday:  Rosh Hashana

Kind of a weird dinner, but I thought it would be fun to do bagels and cream cheese for dinner. But we also had this potato casserole because I was supposed to make it earlier in the week and didn’t. So anyway, we had a carb heavy Rosh Hashanna dinner. We also had some fruit to balance it out a little 😉

Thursday: One Pot Pasta

Ben made this delicious dinner while I was out tutoring. Yum!

Friday: Breakfast Tacos

Ben used some of the leftover potatoes from Wednesday night to make potato, egg, and cheese tacos (we had frozen homemade tortillas from a few weeks ago. YUUUUM!

Saturday: Family Play Date

We had dinner with our friends the Owens. We all went to their house (even Henry) and played and had pizza and delicious Vodka Gimlets.

Sunday: Bombay Club

My dad was in town so we met him for dinner after the kids were in bed. I loooove Bombay Club (I like the Bombay Thali which is a little sample of everything). I didn’t realize that it is the same owners as my other favorite Indian restaurant: Rasika! They even have the same amazing flash fried spinach/kale appetizer! Highly recommend!!

Monday: Oyamel

Ben had a work event but the kids and I went out to dinner with my dad at Oyamel before he took the train back. Delicious as always.

Tuesday:  Roasted Vegetables with Romesco Sauce and Moroccan Couscous

I made this couscous (super yummy!), roasted some vegetables with olive oil and salt (eggplant, bell peppers, zucchini, squash), and made this romesco sauce (I used canned tomatoes and jarred roasted peppers). Yum! And totally vegan if you sub olive oil for butter in the couscous!

Back to School 2014!

Sam and Campbell had their first day of school a few weeks ago! We were all so excited for school to start. Cue adorable back to school photos:

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However once we actually got to school. both kids got cold feet. This was the best we could do for a family photo the first time.

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We got a little better with the second person we asked. Haha!

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But once they were in their classes and with their friends, they were happy as could be! They have both continued to be really excited about going to school each day. Hooray!
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WWAW

What We Ate Wednesday: Every Wednesday I write a blog post with all of the vegetarian dinners we ate this week.

Ahhh! I realize that all of my posts lately have been WWAW posts and even those have been late and I am sorry. I was just thinking about this today on the way to IKEA and wondering how real bloggers keep up with a blog all the time. And then I realized most bloggers probably really like to write, which isn’t exactly true for me. It is a labor of love and I maintain it so friends and family can keep up with the kids. I will try to do better!

Wednesday:  Masala Tofu and Veggies

This was super easy and really good. I fried up some cubed tofu and then combined that, some veggies (I used cauliflower and carrots), and Trader Joe’s Masala Simmer Sauce. Brown rice on the side!

Thursday: Nachos

This was a rough day and dinner didn’t get made. Ben ended up throwing together some (delicious) nachos at about 9:30pm. Just chips, black beans, and cheese (and because he likes to make them extra special for me: some greek yogurt, pickled jalepenos, and cholula).

Friday: Girls’ Dinner at Table

Some of my best girl friends were in town for Nicole’s wedding shower (woohoo!) so we had a girl’s dinner at Table. It was super yummy!!! The desserts were AMAZING.

Saturday: Date Night at Mission

Tonight husbands/boyfriends were allowed to join the girls! We all went to Mission in Dupont. We had a great time and lots of Margaritas!!

Sunday: One Last Girls’ Dinner at Ghibellina 

Ben was so good to me and watched the kids for one more outting with my girls before they left town! We went to Ghibellina, which was soooo good. The pizzas are fantastic and you get to cut them with scissors!!!

Monday: Salt and Pepper Tofu and Bok Choy Salad

We got Bok Choy in our CSA and I just couldn’t make another stir-fried Bok Choy, so I made this salad. It was FANTASTIC!! I also made salt and pepper tofu, which is one of my favorite ways to make tofu. I double the recipe. (vegan)

Tuesday:  Chili

I don’t have a electronic version of the recipe for this Chili but it is really good: winter squash, beans, tomatoes, chipotles. Yum! I served it with grated cheddar, chips, and greek yogurt (instead of sour cream).