The Real Housewife of DC

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Uncle Adam

Dear Uncle Adam,

I love you!

Love,

Elizabeth

Sunday, June 8, 2014

I have been wanting to take Elizabeth to pick strawberries for awhile now. However, here in Northern Virginia, the season didn't really hit until this week. We went to our favorite farm, Butler's Orchard to pick strawberries with Elizabeth. We go there every year for our pumpkins, but this is the first time we have been for strawberries.

Let me just say, we were totally unprepared for the large (large) number of people out at Butler's Orchard. This was a highly organized operation that transported thousands of people (easily) through the rows and rows of strawberries.

When we arrived, we park and then followed the signs to purchase our crate. You could pick from several different sizes. The strawberries are $2.59/pound. Then you got in line to ride the tractor pull out to to the strawberry fields. You could pick strawberries as long (or short) as you wanted and then hop onto the tractor pull back to the parking fields to pay.

Even though we didn't try them out; we noticed huge slides for the kids (kind of like a long slip n slide), a food barn that sold hot dogs and drinks, a playground, and some other farm games for kids.

Here are some pictures from our adventure today:

Strawberries are this way!

On the tractor pull (we got a hay ride!)

Doesn't Elizabeth look thrilled?

View from the hay ride

All strawberries...

She is "helping us"pick strawberries...

Picking more strawberries

Two crates of strawberries

She loves her Dad!

So fresh and yummy!

I think Elizabeth had a good time

We had a great time! I hope you can get some strawberries too.

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Why buy it, when you can get if for free?

I did a little shopping today at Harris Teeter.

I had coupons for everything that I picked up, so everything was FREE!!!

We picked up:

Five (5) boxes of Horizon Organic Mac and Cheese

Five (5) Revlon designer nail files

One (1) box of Snickers Ice Cream Bars

Total before coupons: $24.81

Total after coupons: 29 cents (the tax)

The details:

The mac and cheese is on sale for $1.00

I had coupons for 55 cents off one, which doubled to $1.10 off each box

The nail files are on sale for 99 cents

I had coupons for $1.00 off one Revlon nail product, making each one free

The ice cream was on sale for $2.35

I had a $1.00 off coupon and Harris Teeter had a $1.50 off e-coupon

Making a 15 cents profit for the ice cream

I got all the coupons from coupons.com and the newspaper

Monday, May 26, 2014

Big girl bed

We have been planning for a while to put Elizabeth into a "big girl bed" and move her furniture into the babies' room. We had been going back and forth with what exactly to do. Do we:

A) Buy her a toddler bed (her crib would not convert, which is another story)
B) Buy her a single bed
C) Put her into the full-size bed we already own

We decided the easiest and least expensive option would be to buy Elizabeth a full-size bed and chest of drawers. We already had a full-size bed but we wanted her to have matching furniture. I found some furniture I liked at babies r us (online) and then looked to see if Amazon offered it. We were in luck because Amazon would ship it to our house for FREE!!! Woo hoo!!!

So, baby girl #2 is getting Elizabeth's crib, changing table, and chest of drawers and Elizabeth has received some "big girl furniture".

In order to prepare Elizabeth for the big change of going from a crib to a full-size bed, we talked to her for a week straight about her "big girl bed". Ben had a great idea of taking her shopping so she could pick out her new comforter/ sheets/ pillows, etc. Well, this turned out to be a super, fantastic idea! We talked to Elizabeth about her bed and asked her want kind of new blanket she wanted for her bed. She told us all week she wanted horses.

(Now, neither of us have any idea where this horse obsession has come from, but she said the same thing everyday for a week)

So... Saturday morning, Elizabeth and I went shopping while Ben built her bed and chest of drawers. She immediately saw a horse pillow in target that has matching bedding and we were off and running on the horse theme.

She slept great Saturday and Sunday nights, and even napped on Sunday. Today she did not nap and played in her room. Overall, I think the change has gone well. She stays in the bed (most of the time) and tells us she loves her horse bed.

Below are some before and after pictures. We have not hung anything back up on the walls yet, I am still trying to decide where I want things to go.

Little girl room...

View from her door way.

Crib

View from the window

Another view from the window

View from closet

Big girl room...

New bed and we moved her book case

New bed

"play corner"

We are going to bring up some more toys and her toy box

New chest of drawers

View from closet

The "horse bed"

Our big girl loves it!

Once we are done with all the details, I will post some updated photos

Friday, May 23, 2014

What I've been watching

Spring TV season is coming to a close and we have been enjoying the season finales of some of our favorite shows.

I really like all of the Marvel movies for the Avengers/ Captain America/ Iron Man, etc. And since I enjoy those movies, Ben and I decided to try out Agents of SHIELD at the beginning of the season. It took a few episodes, but it got really good (especially the end of the season). The show ties into the movies and I have really enjoyed this new show. I am looking forward to the premier next season, as the season finale was really, really good.

CASTLE is another good show on ABC. We have watched this show since the beginning and have really gotten into it. The season finale was great and I cannot wait to see what happens next season. I hope Castle and Beckett get to have their great love story, but who knows what the upcoming season holds...

NCIS is probably our favorite show. It is on CBS and has been the number one show for I think 4 or 5 years in a row. I really, really miss Ziva. Ellie is okay, but her eyebrows are too dark for her really blonde hair and I am having a hard time ~~getting over that fact~~ ignoring it. I really liked the intro to NCIS: New Orleans and will be watching that in the fall.

* Side note about NCIS*
Ben tells me that Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, and Cote de Pablo have the highest Q Ratings in the business.

We have been binge watching How I met your Mother on Netflix. We are on season 7. We had to turn off all technology during the last few weeks of the show this year because it ended and we didn't want to know what happened. I am excited to find out (we are probably the only people in America that don't know what happened). This show has been great to watch and the writers do a fantastic job of carrying over jokes and little nuances. The writers on this show are great! I cannot state that enough.

MOVIES...

We saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier today. It was really good! I had been putting off seeing it because I don't think Scarlett Johansson is a very good actor and I didn't want her to ruin the movie. Well, I was wrong- this movie was great and she did a decent job in it.

Other movies I might want to see this summer-

I am also looking for summer TV recommendations. We need to catch up with the new Burn Notice episodes on Netflix and I am hoping that Pretty Little Liars is coming back for a summer run. Anyone have any good suggestions for summer shows?