• Hikes & Trails

    A. J. McEachern Memorial Trail & Conservation Park – Scituate, MA

    I love this trail, it’s one of my favorites around us on the South Shore, it’s relatively easy and has really pretty views of the marsh, the North River and Forth Cliff. The parking lot, especially in the summer, fills up quickly since it’s also a boat/kayak launch so just be prepared if that’s when you are trying to explore this location. The trail starts off down a path with a bridge in front of you over the water and some old bridge footings, if you go in the summer there are hundreds of crabs scurrying along the marshes under the bridge. You’ll also see Conservation Park on your left…

  • Crafts

    Car Wash!

    Our sons new favorite lunch time cartoon is one we stumbled upon on Amazon when I was trying to steere him away from asking to watch Blippi constantly. It’s this show called car wash and it’s basically just cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles even a helicopter going through a car wash. No words, or music, just a car wash…but he really liked it haha, I think he’s watched it like three times since then. So a few nights ago when I knew we’d be stuck inside since the weather was going to be in the single digits I decided to throw together a cardboard car wash for him to play with.…

  • Recipes

    Spicy Lentil Stew

    We have a Nor’Easter hitting us this week so this soup Sunday I was craving something I’d want to eat to keep me warm in the middle of a snow storm. That’s when I knew I wanted to make lentil soup. Welp, I ended up with lentil stew and I’m not even mad about it. We actually really liked the way it turned out and it was even more delicious than I anticipated.  I love lentils, and you cook them basically the same way you do rice and quinoa although you’ll want to soak lentils first for about an hour or two before suing them. The good thing about lentils is that…

  • Crafts

    One year old activities

    It’s been about a month since I’ve had some quality time with my baby girl, thus is the life of a second child with a super silly (attention hogging) big bro 🙂 So, today me and my mini me spent all pre-nap time doing different sensory, sorting and easy to make diy activities. I have four (eek) giant bins in our basement full of craft supplies, premade crafts from Michaels, stickers, paint, markers, you name it it’s probably down there, so we went down and grabbed a few “essentials” to get our morning started. Our first, and I think her favorite activities involved my two reused and cleaned containers, I…

  • Hikes & Trails

    Nava-Stasiluk Conservation Area – Hanover, MA

    I’m constantly looking for new trails. I feel like I spend half my night searching for either a craft or hike for the next day (depending on the weather).  Flashback – we are currently in the process of potty training our son and last week he filled up his potty train tracks with stickers which means he got to pick out his very own prize. He also got a Target gift card for Christmas so we went there Friday morning to pick out a brand new excavator toy. I knew he’d want to go right home to play with his new toy so my best bet to get him to want to…

  • Hikes & Trails

    Hoyt – Hall Preserve – Marshfield, MA

    Last weekend was absolutely b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l! Sunny, warmish (above 40), and no wind! We have been dying to visit the Hoyt – Hall Preserve in Marshfield and it was the perfect day for it. The trail is part of the Wildlands Trust and the overall location is 123 acres, plus it has just about everything. There are views of two ponds (fresh water and a marsh) where apparently a rare bird the American bittern can be spotted, a small waterfall, a few bridges and even travels up a few hills that our almost 3 year old thought were mountains. The parking lot is pretty small and fills up rather quickly and…

  • Recipes

    Stuffed Acorn Squash

    Last week we picked up our (now online because of Covid) order from Holly Hill Farmers market, a locally owned farm in Cohasset Ma. I ordered a daikon radish, which I can NEVER find in the grocery store, a bushel of Siberian kale, and a few other local sauces and grains they had to offer. I’ve used curly kale and lacinato kale before but never Siberian in any recipe and it reminded me a bit of kale mixed with the leaves of broccoli rabe. I’ve made stuffed squash more times than I can count, and back six years ago when I still cooked with meat I used to add sausage…

  • Crafts

    Inauguration Day!

    It’s Inauguration Day! January 20, 2021 I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day forever, boy those four years were tough, but we made it! I really wanted to pop open a bottle of champagne at 11 am this morning and plop myself down in front of the news to watch the entire ceremony. But, as is the life with two toddlers, instead we packed up some snacks and headed out to a local adorable family farm before returning for some crafts. Today, in honor of Inauguration Day, we made a bald eagle out of our hand prints, construction paper and googley and also decorated a number 46 I…

  • Recipes

    Baked stuffed artichokes

    I have to say, I really love artichokes, they are so delicious in so many forms. Baked stuffed artichokes though, really take the cake for me. They are a little time consuming to prepare and cook, but oh so very worth it. Enjoy them as an app or a side dish but either way, just enjoy them! If you’ve never had an artichoke you might be confused at which part to eat since they don’t make it obvious by the way they look in the grocery store produce aisle. An artichoke is actually part of the thistle family, and the ends of their leaves sometimes can be pointy and prick…

  • Crafts

    Matchbox car number matching garage

    My oldest loves counting and he counts just about everything. He’s been able to count to 10 since he was 1 1/2 and recently we’ve been making it all the way to 20. Recognizing the numbers though, that’s a different story. He’s confident with numbers 1, 8 (since it kinda looks like frosty the snowman) and 10 but the other 7 are hit or miss. One thing he’s always counting are his matchbox cars and, thanks to Santa, he’ll be able to learn how to count pretty high with the amount that were stashed in his stocking. We’ve been working on number recognition quite a bit recently and this was…