Proud as a Peacock

Finally all tucked into bed with visions of sugar plums and yes that is Homer Simpson she is cuddling with. She smuggled a dollar bill in her croc and won him with "the claw" in the hotel game room tonight. Not the 'play til you win' type either, the HARD one. To make victory even sweeter, her 8 year old brother spent a significant amount of time and tokens trying to win Homer today. This is one satisfied little lady.... today was great! xo, Brie

PS she hasn't a clue who Homer Simpson really is, which makes it even more hilarious to me

Girl's Day in Williamsburg

While Mr. KB was golfing this am, Gigi (my nice MIL) offered to take the 3 younger kids for the morning so Kay and I could have a girl's day in Williamsburg. Kayla chose to head to one of Yankee Candle's flagship stores for some fun and shopping!


There is plenty of shopping opportunities there and it isn't all just candles! They have a home goods section, toy store, Christmas village, cuckoo clocks, fudge, cafe etc etc etc... it's very easy to spend 2 hours there, there is a lot to see!

A new addition there (as in new since 2 years ago when we last visited) is a section called Wax Works where you can create your own scented jar candle for $10



You can choose your own scents and colors


drag a stick along the sides to create a little design and voila!


We each found out our PerSCENTalities - Kay is midnight jasmine and clean cotton which is described as elegant and classic. Mine was vanilla cupcake which is creative and energetic.

You can have your hand sculpted in wax in any hand gesture you like ..... ok, probably not just any hand gesture you like

Into the warm wax you go

It takes several dips in the wax

Now it's time for the colors.... wonder, what she'll choose?! Pink and............

Green of course!!! She IS her mother's daughter you know

Preppy Peace!

Kay in the Christmas Village where the stars are twinkling and snow is lightly falling inside

We come across some wooden cut outs for photo opportunities and I suggest Kay go into one for a snapshot. She says NO WAY, only if you go in one. I think she has now realized that I have no shame when it comes to photo opportunities...

YOUR turn :)

A very fun day!!! xo, Brie

Letterboxing in the USA

Again, I'm way late to the party on this one but in this case it's really a better late than never! Have you ever heard of Letterboxing? It's a super fun secret outdoor activity that takes you to neat places where you learn a little bit of history and/or geography while following clues in a little treasure hunt.

Here's the gist - Go the Letterboxing website to get started and you can peruse the clues in your home state or anywhere in North America that you might be visiting. People have hidden little waterproof containers or ziploc bags and will leave you clues how to find them. They are well hidden and most likely not be found unless you have the clues and are looking for them! The contents of the boxes you find will contain a rubber stamp and a log book.

What you will need to get started:

• a team name that you will use to sign others' log books - Kayla dubbed ours the Irish Rovers - love it!

• a rubber stamp of your own - the more interesting and impt to you, the better


• your own letterboxing log book to collect your stamps and keep track of where you have been

A few other things you may want to bring along with you

• water (some of these can be quite a hike through trails/parks etc)
• good footwear
  
• bug spray (we almost got eaten alive on one trip by mosquitoes)


• a pen

A few notes about the stamps - some people really get into this!!! We rushed out to get started and Staples offered very little by way of fun stamps to use. It was either PAID or a smiley face. We chose the smiley face, he's cute but quite generic and not nearly special enough for the Irish Rovers ;) This Irish Claddagh is on the way to us!

So while we are on vacation in Williamsburg, Va we decided to see if any were hidden close by and lo and behold there are! We made a visit over to a local state park with lots of hiking paths and some great clues and instructions to find 3 hidden letterboxes!

It is so hot here, I was a little nervous to start our trek, but the kids were really excited to go and it was surprisingly much cooler along the heavily wooded paths of this park!

The boxes should be well hidden, like this.... see you would never know unless you were looking!

After removing some leaves and sticks we discover we are in the right place!

Jackpot!We stamp our book first with their enclosed stamp which is a frog, we mark the date and sign our names along with the town and state we found it in

Next we stamp their book with our stamp and sign our names

We found 2 more boxes (all hidden by the same team) which took us full circle through the park with a short walk back to our car in the parking lot

We had a great time searching, stamping, and logging in the books

Be sure to reseal everything tightly and put the box back where you found it, be secretive and make sure nobody else in the park sees you! Conceal the box well so only others looking for it will find it :)

Upon returning home, you can log in your "status" of the letterboxes you found or attempted. It's actually a good idea to check the latest stats on the box your are heading out to search for prior, some go missing and you may end up on a wild goose chase.

It's very easy to create your own letterbox and submit clues through their database. I can't wait to get home and hide some boxes of our own for others to find! It will be fun to check the log from time to time and see how many travelling letterboxers have discovered ours!

Definitely try this!!!!!!! xo, Brie

Calling All Pirates

If you are on the Cape and looking for a fun way to fill part of your day, I highly recommend a pirate cruise aboard the Sea Gypsy Pirate Cruise that sets sail daily seasonally out of Hyannis. The cruise is approximately and hour long, about 20 dollars per person - plus and extra 8 for the pirate head scarf. It's a very kid friendly and interactive event. You must make reservations in advance by calling as space fills up quickly.

Keeks and I took her 2 daughters, Molly and Sadie along with Caroline for the cruise last week and we all had a fabulous time. The girls were all the PERFECT ages for this (Molly and Caroline esp at 4 and Sadie had fun too age 2)

Here are the innocent travellers at lunch before the cruise....(we ate at an outdoor place called Spankys which I also highly recommend!)

suddenly transformed to into these wicked swashbucklers!!!!!

Can I tell you, how DELIGHTED I am that they went for the mustaches? They weren't sold at first as they didn't want to be mistaken for boys, but in the end they went for it!!

On our hour long cruise there were naughty pirate sightings...........

Some apprehending of said naughty pirates with a couple of blasts from a water cannon

Some searching for buried treasure

Some finding some buried treasure

Some celebrating the finding of the buried treasure

This looks like a good place to stash some treasure telescopes - she didn't even know it was there for quite a bit!

We enjoyed some "Shark's Blood" aka cherry soda

A limbo stick suddenly appeared for an impromptu dance party aboard the high seas

The proud crew mostly sporting crocs. The preferred foot wear for pint size pirates!

Molly proudly sports the flag

The crew playing dead as we dock to scare the next group of unsuspecting wannabe pirates on the 2pm tour

Celebratory ice cream cones at Smittys back in Falmouth. Warning: Eating ice cream can be hazardous to your mustache! xo, Brie

Unicorns

My daughter went to a bday party tonight and there was a pinata there in the shape of her very favorite animal. Instead of the candy, she took home his head. Not sure what to make of it :) Here is a pic of the goody bag! xo, Brie

Savory Palmiers - Looks fancy but easy to make

Please bare with me as I am slowly easing back into blogging. It's hard not being in your own environment with your own cords, cameras, laptops etc - I'm having some major troubles with the adjustment!


On Monday we hosted a shower for our cousin who sadly lost pretty much everything in her condo to a fire due to a lightening strike to the roof. She needed so much replaced and it seemed like a great excuse for a fun get together!

We had a great spread of food and the party was really fun - the pictures are hilarious, there was dancing, costumes, and some props involved, hope to show more from this party very soon!

Here is one appetizer I made that looks fancy but is pretty easy. Recipe by my favorite Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa who is famous for great food with not so many ingredients.

Here is the cast of characters.....

• puff pastry (I ask you, what DOESN'T taste good on delicious puff pastry?)
• sun dried tomatoes julienned
• pesto (store bought is great, my mom happened to have some handy
• goat cheese (I prefer Vermont Butter)
• pine nuts
  

roll out your puff pastry and spread and sprinkle

fold each in half like so



Then fold each half into the center again, like so

then one more time over to make a cute little log

wrap this little log up in saran wrap and put in fridge for at least an hour

slice her up (preheat your oven to 400)

place onto your cookie sheet and bake for about 15 -20 minutes (recipe calls for closer to 15 but mine were not done and raw puff pastry is not so good, I know this b/c I have eaten it)

Here is the finished delicious product! So good, eat a few before you leave b/c they don't last for long! Full recipe can found here Enjoy! xo, Brie