Friday Odds and Ends

Whew, it's been a week. Chris is on his way home after spending the first half of the week in DC and the second in Puerto Rico. We're pretty used to him being away, but the full week trips are sort of brutal. This one started out pretty rough but the kids (and I) have mellowed and are coasting into the weekend. Doesn't hurt that I hired a babysitter for a few hours this afternoon to get a couple things done sans ankle-biters. It never fails to amaze me how much faster things go without having to buckle/unbuckle/bribe/cajole anyone along with you.

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I was hoping that doing some food posts would inspire me to get out my recipes and cook more but...it hasn't. Especially when it's really just me eating (if possible P and B are getting more picky so it behooves no one to make an effort on their behalf), it's hard to get any oomph.

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On the topic of food though, I hosted a playdate for the MOMS Club I belong to. Since it's apple season, I organized an apple tasting with six different varieties. The kids were a little young to really *get it* but we had fun comparing the different flavors (unfortunately the non-organic beat out the organic varieties every time). Anyway, preparing for this playdate led to a fantastic discovery at Trader Joe's:

Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce. This takes caramel apples to a whole new level...I particularly recommend it with a good tart Granny Smith.

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 In other sort of food-ish news, it's been in the mid-80s here this week and so I took the kids for one last after-school ice cream outing. For some unknown reason (temporary insanity, perhaps), I suggested that the kids might want these star-shaped popsicle things instead of the usual tiny (at my request) vanilla cone. Naturally they both thought frozen sugar and food dye looked awesome. Pacey took one lick of his and then proceeded to stare balefully at my cone until I turned it over to him.

And Brighton looooooved hers, but kept getting distracted and ended up wearing most of it. We won't make that mistake again...I may have to impose a moratorium on DQ trips for as long as it takes them to forget that there might be anything available other than vanilla ice cream!

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I posted this photo on Facebook when I heard that Steve Jobs had passed away. Photo of Pacey using the iPad taken with my iPhone, Pandora playing in the background on our iMac. As you can tell we are 100% an Apple family. 

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And finally, B fell asleep after dropping P off at school on Wednesday and then woke up crabby in her carseat because she hadn't slept long enough. I pulled her into the front seat with me and curled her long legs around so she could keep snoozing. Oh, these days are limited. 

Happy Weekend all!