Baseball with my babes

Americas favorite pastime. Aka a great place to people watch. Most of the time I miss the majority of the game due to watching those around me, my daughter or simply daydreaming. Perhaps our cheap seats don't help since the players look like ants😜 I mean......it's so much easier to watch those around us, see, even PC is watching some ecstatic fans go crazy--- I mean we were there the night that Scherzer tied the record with 20 K's! Also, let it be known that last Father's Day we were there for his no hitter! WOOT!

However, despite how far we are, my husband enjoys it and I think PC does too. But maybe it is also because she eats the whole time she is there.

 **sidenote: ballpark food is expensive!! Thankfully we can bring in our own food and sealed bottled water. 

The Nats ballpark is great though. It has a children's playground and plenty of area to roam/run if need be. Once when it was particularly cold out a nice gentleman let me into one of the lounges.   See, kids do pay off, especially cute ones.

PC still isn't a fan of the big headed fellows, though she will continually ask for the presidents or the mascot, Screech.

Making Bunny dance to some pretty awesome tunes!

We got kinda close.....at least she didn't have her typically EPIC meltdown!

It also happened to be free baseball bat/ball day!  Oohhhh and because we were sitting behind the visiting teams bullpen we also got a ball.....well thanks to the nice man sitting next to me who shouted down, "Hey! Can we get a ball up here for the baby?!"  LOL I'll take it....maybe next game we can get a Nats one....maybe even signed! GASP.....

Another great thing about Sunday games is......Kids run the bases......the line was crazy long.....but, if you were like us who purchased Miss thang and MVP kids package she gets to cut the line! (We know for the future).  Needless to say, she did not run the bases....does you see all those giant headed men out there? HA she was NOT going to step food on that field.  But....I thought it was pretty cool to see the dugout up close and personal and touch the field!

Until next time Nationals! Actually, we'll be back on Monday for our bobblehead.....and this time we are going to get it!

Meals delivered to your door.....

Well....sort of....nowadays people can have virtually everything delivered to their door. If you live in the city....game over!!! I mean one hour Amazon delivery?! Faster than 2 days?! Yes, please!! Sadly in our Washington, D.C. Zip code it is still not available. I suppose that is for the better because do I honestly need those Christmas lights that fast, or a industrial strength stick backvelcro?!  Probably not! I've received coupons for Mini Bar which guarantees any alcohol delivered to you in an hour. Am I that desperate?! You have snacks delivered, bark boxes for dogs, you name it and I am pretty sure you can have it delivered.

Those hard working families don't always have time to prepare meals, that is where all these meals on wheels programs come in. We have Galley which deliver hot meals. I am not rich enough to afford my own personal chef....and I also don't need meals prepared for me everyday. I am not that busy. So when someone offered me a code for a free week of Blue Apron meals I thought, why not? I mean free being the key word. I signed up and could choose which day of the week I wanted delivery. I could also choose which week I wanted my meals to start. 

Blue Apron usually posts about 4 weeks worth of meals at a time so you can peruse. They also have you check meat options or if you are vegetarian. I checked no seafood(sadly the hubs is not a fan). 

The week that I chose came with the following 3 recipes:  seared chicken with sautéed purple potatoes, kale and apple, zucchini and parmesan quiches with red leaf lettuce salad and pink lemon vinaigrette. The last item was grains of paradise-crusted steak with mashed plantain, collared greens and ginger peanuts. The nice thing is if you stay on top of your game you go into your account to view upcoming meals and skip those that you do not care for. We are on the 2 person plan which runs about 60$ for three meals. Twenty dollars for a meal isn't awful, but it also isn't the cheapest. Our dietary plan is omnivore. 

When the box arrived I hurriedly opened it and found......

The recipes for all three meals, as well as a little blurb about the apples and what wine to choose- kinda disappointed that the wine wasn't included....haha

I ended up making two of the three meals while my husband ended up making the seared chicken dish. I will say that some require a lot more prep than others.
*Note: make sure to read through all the directions. Sometimes there are ways to cut corners. For example the quiche called for me to cook the spinach, zucchini and garlic separately- too many steps in my mind. So...I cooked zucchini with garlic first and then added in the spinach(which I had already chopped-Blue Aprons directions say to cut after sautéing).

I didn't take pictures of all the meal preps, but I did do the steak one.....

I like that the extra "little" ingredients come in a bag labeled knick knacks. 

I don't know if I would have needed all these bowls to prep the ingredients, but being a first time user I decided to do exactly what they said and did on their recipe card.  

I didn't actually think one plantain would be enough....but surprisingly it was....guess the people at Blue Apron know their portions better than greedy America ;-)

The steak was tender, even my husband who was wary of the mashed plantains ate all his helping and helped himself to more!! WIN! I think next time I would use less ginger, it seemed to be a little too much compared to everything else.   

Finished seared chicken curtesy of the hubs. 

Finished Quiche
One quiche for the two of us was enough. Thus allowing us another night of quiche. It was delicious! There wasn't as much cheese as I usually put in my quiches (perhaps for the better). The recipe had me split the 3 tablespoons of shaved Parmesan cheese. Instead I added it all to the quiches. 😊

Al the meals were delicious!!

Pros: 

-takes the guess work out of dinner 

- very well portioned out 

- well packaged-great ice packs 

- ability to skip weeks
- you can sign up for wine deliveries 6 bottles for and est. $66/month, or $11/bottle
- after several orders you get free meal codes for friends
- everything was fresh.....I didn't even make all the meals that week
- You can pretty much recycle everything they send you (at first I was a little overwhelmed by all the packaging) and....if you don't have recycling abilities you can send it back to Blue Apron by printing out a free shipping label- that's pretty Awesome!!! 

Cons:

- more expensive than I typically spend on one meal for the family comes to $60/month or they say $9.99/serving

- more prep than expected
- no leftovers (for lunches, or another dinner)

If you are interested in trying....check out Blue Apron  

Mug Cake- Yup, it is what it sounds like!

There are times when I crave a good dessert.  The problem is, we shouldn't have them in the house and buying a whole box of cookies means eat them, or they go stale.  You see the problem here. So we try and limit the cookie buying/making and brownie making to when guests come over(which is almost never).  If we go out, chances are, if they have a good dessert, I will get it! Creme brûlée forget it- GAME OVER! The thing about getting a dessert when you are out is that chances are it won't make it home, or if it does there usually isn't 1)enough to share 2) enough for more than one night thankfully!

However, as I was cruising around pinterest the other day(or just this morning) I stumbled across someone mentioning this "mug cake" idea....so I pinterested that baby and so many things popped up and I of course had to repin many of them to my pinterest.
I mean....don't y'all have these ingredients laying around?  Oops forgot to include the cocoa powder....

I present to you my Chocolate Mug Cake- no milk, butter, or eggs...it's pretty ingenious and they are all ingredients I have lying around at all times (because I do love to bake!).  The best part....other than the easiness is that it is a single serving! WIN!
Next time I will mix the ingredients in a separate container- doing it all in the mug allowed less clean up, but I still wasn't able to mix everything and so therefore, there was still some unmixed flour in the bottom.  

 I'm not sure why you are supposed to form these three "wells" in which you pour the oil, vinegar and vanilla

I added some semisweet chocolate chips that I had, I did feel that this cake was missing something.  The chocolate chips helped, but I wasn't able to finish it- maybe whipped cream? Maybe some Nutella or caramel? 

I also made Snickerdoodle Mug Cake- not on the same night and this one I finished- maybe it was because it wasn't overly chocolatey?

Running Adventures with PC over Spring Break!

The last few days of my Spring break have been gorgeous! Sunny, warm, maybe a little too warm, but I'll take it.  I even got a little burned today-ooops....sorry skin!

On Wednesday I started out with PC on our normal run around the trail by our house. Usually we do an out and back, but today I decided to loop it.  As I passed the cemetery near our house I decided why not run through.  I always see people walking around in there and it's also the dog park.  People pay and then are able to let their dogs run in the huge area.....I'm not sure how I feel about people letting their dogs pee and poop where loved ones rest.....

In through the squeaky gate we ran. There were plenty of paths/roads what-have-you.  It was actually a little hilly too.  It was quiet- no big surprise there, but I mean for being in the city.  We ran past some mausoleums that needed to have their leaves swept out and many a worn tombstone.  It was kind of sad, some have been there so long that you can't even read what they said.  We didn't run around the whole thing, as I was little tired and also didn't know how much longer PC would be content.  I had given her a munch cup full of mix and raisins that she was happily munching on.

 It is a little weird running amongst the graves, but peaceful too (ha! It should be!)

Thursday- another BEAUTIFUL day. I decided to head over to the National Arboretum .  It's ridiculously close and yet G and I have only been once many years ago.   We stuck to the roads, we didn't venture off onto any paths to explore - for the next adventure.  The trees were beautiful. We didn't see all the areas of the Arboretum, it was also hillier than I expected- to be honest I didn't know what to expect.  So I huffed and puffed a long, but running hills should help me when I run on flat ground.

 In case you can't tell, the picture above is of us running up a hill. :-)

What's a run without a selfie by some beautiful trees.  I actually had enough room on my phone to snap off a few to send to the hubs while he was at work (sometimes I feel a little bad sending him pictures of all the fun things we are doing while he is a slave to the man....but he did ask for pictures, so pictures I will give- so long as I have room on my phone).   This picture doesn't really capture the beauty of the trees, nor is PC looking at the camera. You would think with a mama who is so camera happy that she would learn to look straight at it and smile- knowing that I will do my best to get that "perfect picture." 

This picture is a little better, at least she is looking at the camera....the magnolias were gorgeous. I wish they stuck around a little longer, that and the cherry blossoms.  My goal was to run down to the mall over break, but that looks like it might not happen.  

After we finished "our" run I let lil miss thang out of her stroller to troll around.  She needed to get out some of her energy.  

 I was a little worried that these sweet gum balls would hurt her- but it's important to let her explore.  She had no problem with them, even sat down quite hard on some (it probably helps that she has a nice padded diaper on).  

She then decided to check out this Grass display that they had.  They were displaying all the different types of grasses that you can find- PC decided that she wanted to "read" each of the signs.  Ha I was impressed that she knew that there was writing on the posts- or maybe she just wanted to do a few squats.....

Why I don't post enough.....

Some people are AVID posters.  I wish I was better......my problem stems from the fact that I like to post blogs with pictures. Some people read blogs just to read, but I like the visuals too- it's helpful and I get ideas (which can be dangerous too).  I also have a tendency to get jealous then of other people's lives, such as LoveTaza, especially when she goes to amazing exotic places (Ok, Hawaii, but I've never been!).

At Christmas I received a new camera- YAY, but the pictures don't automatically load up to my computer, it requires several steps lol, ok, so it isn't thhhhat bad, but it takes a little longer than uploading from my iPhone.

This brings me to my dilemma.....I still have an iPhone 4s. It's fine and does what it needs to, except that I have NO MORE ROOM! When PC was born it was game over. The pictures and videos took over and I am scared to delete them, even after uploading to snapfish.  I even load them onto a flash drive.  I am slightly obsessed I mean they are my baby's first year- each and every "boring" moment that I captured.   I've started emailing myself videos and also loading them onto Vimeo.

So....because I refuse to delete tons of videos and A LOT of pictures I rarely have room to take pictures of the daily occurrences. I am trying to do better because she's doing a WHOLE lot more now and I just can't capture the moments :-(   I don't understand the cloud- how do I access it?

Refrigerator Raider!

A few weeks ago I was making something, lunch, dinner, snack, what have you and left the fridge open.  Then came the pitter patter of little feet.  Lil Miss PC padded over to the fridge and because I am always curious to see what she'll do (they are quite curious) I left the door open. Yes, our door is full of glass containers, but they are pretty sturdy and she's pretty close to the ground.  She's actually handled glass before and is pretty careful.  She's the little girl who will go to grab her water bottle, but if it feels too heavy will use both hands instead of swinging it down, or pulling it onto the floor.  

Well, she immediately started pulling items out of the door and......then took them over and put them on our step stool- another huge play item for her (simple things right?!). 

I mean, everything is so colorful and in different places- my child's new toy chest. LOL!

 I turned around the other day, after leaving the fridge open and didn't see her, then I looked again and realized.....yup, she had officially climbed in, that little monkey.  If you look at the bottom left picture, you'll notice that yup, we store all our hottest condiments in the bottom of the fridge, probably because we use them so infrequently.  Try not to judge my fridge too much, it's getting better.  I mean you see those clementines in my bottom drawer right?!

 This is actually PC putting the items back into the fridge, much to her mother's delight.  Maybe she watches me clean up after her waay too much and it just looked like so much fun that she HAD to try.  Given this is like 1 of like 15 time she has been in the fridge, but, I think.....that she is learning....hopefully.

Are You and Avid Consigner?

I have never consigned before, at least not to this extent.  I've taken some of my things to the "higher end" consignment shops here in DC.  My style just doesn't "fit" in with what they are looking for, nor do I feel that the prices are very "consigny" in my mind. 

I've heard about these consignment events here in the DC metro area, but never partook.  It just seemed like so much work.  TRUTH!!! As a newbie to this, it was overwhelming to say the least.  I had already collected PCs clothes I then had to use their online system to make labels. I had to say size, a description, brand, price.  You could also select discount which would be half off at the Half Price Sale or donate.  So I printed out all my tags, hung all my clothes, but didn't affix my tags to my clothes- Rookie mistake! Ugh....I went last night to drop off my items, moms were pulling up with minivans filled with trash bags of clothes- no lie.....people with huge storage containers and wagons full of clothes. WOW! I thought my laundry basket and large bag from Marshalls was pretty snazzy- FALSE! I also brought our extra baby swing, which after seeing the amount of swings feared it being sold.  I ended up only tagging a few items because I was too overwhelmed and hadn't tagged a thing and thus was sitting on the floor as prepared mom after prepared mom went by me. Whomp Whomp! 

People even have their own clothes taggers- you know the ones that attach prices to clothes! Although I can see how it would save A LOT of time with safety pins. 

Most of these big consignment sales are hosted by mothers of multiples, but as I do not have a multiple, I could still participate, which was nice. It also meant that there were a lot of double clothes too. Some were even rubber banded together. Don't break up the team! 

This picture is of the non clothes room- aka gymnasium. There were books, toys GALORE, swings, strollers, walkers, excersaucers, videos, more toys, baby gates, rockers, pack n' plays, I mean the list goes on..... 

Some of the girls clothes, I mean there were racks on racks of baby girl clothes! But they are so organized. They've been doing this for awhile. Everything is run smoothly.  You get an ikea bag to use for shopping- Totally normal- people hoarded, then sorted. Again, overwhelming!

The Calm Before the Storm

So, if you donate you get 30% of the sales, but if you volunteer 5 hours of your Saturday you get 70% of the sales. Win. You also get to shop at 8 am before the public. OOOHHHH! It's worth it! These moms mean business. I got there at 8:30 with my shift starting at 9:30.  There were only like 4 swings left, mine was gone! WIN! I bought a few items, but I really didn't need much as PC is pretty well taken care of. However, I did do a little shopping at the half off sale.  Here's a picture of my loot.  She needs summery items. I tried not to go too crazy.  The gray chevron dress actually has a C on it, very specific, but it works for PC.  

We also scored a few toys, not too many.  PC likes to play with cars, although these aren't the ones I thought they were the ones that rev and then crash into each other, but they do make noise. 

 

 I also scored a Britaxcarseat at half price - it was priced at 65$ I purchased for $32.50. I know I know, it's used and I'm being trusting. But I saved over $200 and it doesn't expire until April 2017, so we can get two years out of it.  It is also rear and forward facing. I think it's the Britax pavilion in cowmooflage. Looks like this. 

Tips that I learned:

1) I may need to start earlier than the day before I drop off items

2) Organize by size, makes drop off sooo much easier

3) Save all baby hangers!

4) Investing in a tagger may not be soo bad, if you intend on doing this more than once

5) Put shoes in ziplock bags, or use zip ties to keep them together

6) If you consign a lot, you also have to take back a lot if it doesn't sell

7) Toys are hit or miss

8) Furniture sells (swings, bouncy chairs, etc...)

The event I attended was the Northern Virginia Parents of Multiples - they have a spring and fall sale (I will be back!)

There is also the Annapolis Mothers of Multiples Sale