The Eric Carle Museum

Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?  Polar Bear, Polar Bear what do you hear?  The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The Grouchy Ladybug.  My kids love these Eric Carle books.  When my sister-in-law, Sheila, suggested that we meet at the Eric Carle Museum, I thought how perfect! 

My husband's brother and his family live in South Carolina.  Last month they were making a trip to the Berkshires for a wedding.  We each drove 2 hours and met in the middle, in Amherst, MA at the museum.

I was so great to see each other!

The museum was really cute.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibit hall.  The kids were given a hunt and find list that kept them busy, giving the grown-ups a chance to catch up.

It was really interesting to see how Eric Carle created the illustrations for these books.  It's a collage technique, using hand-painted papers.  He cuts and layers them to create his bright and cheerful characters.  I little bit like decoupage!  This video shows his unique technique.

There is craft room and a gift shop.  We went to the gift shop but never made it to the craft area because we were all starving! 

If you are visiting the western Massachusetts area this museum is worth a visit.
www.carlemuseum.org

A few more pictures from our visit.
My boys Nolan and Sean are their cousins Bridie and Molly - (this was outside the museum, pretty sure they were not suppose to me picking those apples...oops!)

   

Great day!

TANABAR Granola Bars Review - peanut/tree nut free

Since finding out Nolan is allergic to nuts we have been searching for a safe nut free granola bar.  So when Vermont Nut Free Chocolates sent us some nut free TANABAR granola bars to try we were beyond excited!!

After school today, before he even took off his backback, Nolan tried the chocolate chip.

He LOVED it!  These bars are not skimpy either, they are close to an inch in thickness.  He was begging for another!

After dinner Nolan tried the Sweet Raisin, another winner!

Since so many classrooms are now peanut/tree free, these granola bars are a tasty, nutritious and best of all, a safe snack to send to school.

For more information or to order TANABARS or other nut free treats go to Vermont Nut Free's website
www.vermontnutfree.com
or you can find them on Facebook
www.facebook.com/pages/Vermont-Nut-Free-Chocolates

Unfortunately, my other son Sean can't have these granola bars as they contain wheat & soy.  The following are the ingredients:
Triple Berry: Rolled oats, honey, sunflower seed, dehydrated cane juice, salt & natural mixed tocopherols to preserve freshness, brown sugar, soybeans, crisp rice (milled rice, sugar, salt, barley malt), wheat germ (wheat germ, vitamin E acetate, folic acid), cranberries, sugar, citric acid, natural raspberry flavor with other natural flavors, elderberry juice concentrate, blueberry juice from concentrate, grape juice concentrate, sunflower oil, vanilla extract, cinnamon. Contains: wheat, soy. Processed on shared dairy equipment. Chocolate Chip: Rolled oats, honey, sunflower seed, dehydrated cane juice, salt & natural mixed tocopherols to preserve freshness, brown sugar, chocolate chips (sugar, chocolate liquor, dextrose, cocoa butter, soya lecithin, vanilla extract), wheat germ (wheat germ, vitamin E acetate, folic acid), crisp rice (milled rice, sugar, salt, barley malt), soybeans, vanilla extract, cinnamon. Contains: wheat, soy. Processed on shared dairy equipment. Sweet Raisin: rolled oats, honey, sunflower seed, dehydrated cane juice, salt & natural mixed tocopherols to preserve freshness, brown sugar, raisins, soybeans, crisp rice (milled rice, sugar, salt, barley malt), wheat germ (wheat germ, vitamin E acetate, folic acid), , vanilla extract, cinnamon. Contains: wheat, soy. Processed on shared dairy equipment. 

I was not paid for this review.  Vermont Nut Free sent me free samples of their granola bars to facilitate this review.

My First "Tweetup" at Nordstrom Rack

I was very excited to be invited to my first social media event!  Last (very rainy) Tuesday night, my very good friend Laura (Being Loopy) attended a "Tweetup" at Nordstrom Rack in Burlington, MA.  

What is a Tweetup you ask...I was asking myself that same thing when I got the invitation.  I knew it had something to do with Twitter which I am still not completely comfortable with yet, so I was nervous.  (fellow bloggers I'm sure are laughing at me right now) The urban dictionary defines a tweetup as - A meet up of people that 'tweet' using Twitter or a real-life meeting organized on the social networking site Twitter.

Essentially we were getting a sneak peek at the new Nordstrom Rack store in Burlington, MA the night before it's grand opening and we were asked to "tweet" about it.

Here is how the evening went down.  We signed in and were greeted with a generous "swag bag" that included a gift card to shop!  There were also, yummy appetizers, cocktails and fun music.

We were asked to take pictures and tweet them.  So Laura and I got busy!  As you can see from the above pictures and these few others, at first we were being silly taking pictures of each other.

Then they announced that Jodi tweeted about an awesome bag and won it!  So then we started taking pictures of all the great things were we finding and tweeting like crazy.

Shoes, shoes and more shoes...and boots, lots of boots!

Uggs

cute rain boots

 Chocolate brown down vest that I wish I got...I'll just have to go back, who wants to come with me?

 very cool watches at very frugal prices

Adorable kids clothes and shoes

 Laura ended up getting these fab leather gloves, aren't they awesome?!

 She is ready for winter...

We didn't win anything but we had so much fun spending our shopping and checking out this fabulous store.  The selection is huge, tons of brand names with extremely reasonable prices.

I ended up getting some workout clothes, a very comfy bra and this Skagen watch, the bargain of the century.  The watch was originally $100 marked down to...drum roll...$15!!!  That just goes to show the deals to be had at the Nordstrom Rack. 

Nordstrom Rack I will be back!

You can follow Nordstrom Rack on Facebook www.facebook.com/NordstromRack

and on Twitter nordstrom_rack

or visit their website 

http://shop.nordstrom.com/c/nordstrom-rack

  

Never Forget

September 11, 2001--I was working at a law office in Boston.  One of the attorneys came out of her office and said there had been a plane crash, that a plane hit a building in NYC.  After the news another plane hit another building, we went into the conference room and turned on the TV.  The owner of the firm, my boss at the time, was not the most pleasant man to work for (that is putting it very lightly).  He finally let us go home at 1PM.  By that time, Boston was a ghost town.  I remember riding the train with a few other terrified people in silence.  I was so scared...I felt like the world was about to end.  I was living in South Boston at the time but didn't want to be in the city alone so I took the train to Quincy to my cousin's house where we were glued to the TV watching this horrifying tragedy unfold.  


I cannot even imagine how scared each and every victim must have been on that day and the loss that each loved one felt and still feels.  My heart goes out to them...we will never forget.


Where were you on that very sad and scary day?

In Nolan's Words

Nolan (my 5 yr old):  "Mom you know what kind of car I'm gonna get"
Me:  "What Nolan?"
Nolan:  "A convertible"
Me:  "cool"
Nolan:  "How old do you have to be to drive?"
Me:  "16"
Nolan:  "Well when I'm 16 I'm going to get a convertible...and Mum you know what Me and Sean (my 3 yr old) are gonna do?"
Me:  "What Nolan?"
Nolan:  "Hide candy in the truck"  "I'll take Sean for rides and I'll let him sit in front"
Me:  "That will be so nice"
Nolan:  "But Mum, I will always be driving...we'll go to the arcade all the time...we are gonna have a lot of fun in that cah" (he's got a little Boston accent)