This past week has been a wonderful one, full of family and friends from near and afar. The annual Hess reunion started on Thursday as the family started to arrive at Nookside for a time of togetherness, love, laughter and lots and lots of swimming! Thankfully other than I rain storm Friday night the weather held out for us and brought some cooler temperatures to...

Ava: "Mom! I'm hungry!"  "Mom, can we have a snack?" Charlotte: "Snacky, Snacky!" "My tummy is growling, can I have a...SNACK?" Do your kids sound like mine? They are serial snackers and would prefer to snack all day instead of sitting for an actual meal. It drives me a bit looney. And, I get it, I like to snack too but I feel the snacking...

Well, it's Wednesday morning again...The weekend went way too fast as well as the first part of the week. Tomorrow is the last day of swim lessons for the girls and I'm actually really sad to see it end because they have enjoyed it so, so much. Ava was bumped up to level two after the first three days and Charlotte is finally going under water...

This year to celebrate my birthday Aaron suggested we get a babysitter and go somewhere for the day, on the rare occasion when we decided to do something like this we usually just go with our 'tried and true' day trip to Inner Harbor, Baltimore because it's an easy drive. This year we thought we should switch things up and after debating many options we...

Happy FriYAY! Today I'm sharing 'my' favorite summer essentials but since I have more than just 5 favorite summer items I'm going to be splitting this into two separtate posts. Next week I'll share my five other favorite summer essentials. Enjoy! [1.] HAVAIANAS 'Slim' Flip Flop What can I say about these flip flops except they're, AMAZING? Seriously,...

In a world where drive-thru hamburger joints and $1 pizza slices outnumber farmers markets and grocery stores, eating healthy can be a challenge. Even when you make up your mind to resist deep-fried temptation and go for a salad, you too often end up in sticker-shock. Trust me, I know how this goes — I’ve been that person in shock at checkout. A small...

Oh, sweet Charlotte, my second born baby girl, my soul sister and moon child.   She has a heart of gold; which she gets from her dad of that I'm sure. She's shy, sweet, easily hurt but very quick to forgive. If you get her giggling she has this belly laugh that resonates throughout her entire body, it's intoxicating; in fact, I wish I could bottle...

This weekend we are headed to our family mountain house with our girls, their godparents and family to relax and celebrate Charlotte's 3rd birthday. We have a lot planned and it includes... relaxing; and lots of it. The guys have been going non-stop on the farm over the past few weeks now and they are in need of a break and some undivided family time. So,...

July is 'National Anti-Boredom Month' - well, when you have kids at home during the summer and not in school boredom can be a very real reality. Especially on those rainy days when outdoor activities aren't an option and that stack of books and puzzles just don't cut it. For days like that we love to get out our Kiwi Crate box! Kiwi Crate is a monthly...

Since tomorrow is the Fourth of July I thought I would share with you two new recipes that I've recently tried out that play on the red, white and blue theme. First of all, I love watermelon and I also enjoy a good mojito. This fruit salad gives you the best of both worlds while still being acceptable for the whole family, littles and non-drinkers! I grow...