Alayna's Adventures

Broken crayons...  I think anyone who owns a box of crayons, also owns broken ones.  I like to keep things in order, nice and neat, and if it were up to me, the crayons would always be in color family order in the big box of 64 Crayola crayons with the mini sharpener on the back.  But apparently, I had to lay my desire for nice and neat aside, because I have a two year old.  He doesn't feel the same way that I do about crayons, so they are busted and beat up in an old plastic Huggies wipes container.  With broken ones comprising at least a quarter of the bin.  The trouble with broken ones is that I now have an 8 month old...  Who crawls... Everywhere.  So now, I have to worry about tiny crayon bits looking like food to her.  One more choking hazard on the floor.  What to do, what to do?!? I'll tell you...  I made cute crayon rounds from our broken bits.  Here is my fun photo tutorial for what to do to recycle broken crayon...

Fireworks.  What is more American than fireworks?  I would contend that there isn't much...  So what does every true red, white, and blue American do on the Fourth of July??  Watch fireworks, of course! This Fourth of July, we watched the city of Pittsburgh's fireworks show from the North Shore on the lawn of the Carnegie Science Center.  And honestly, it was probably my favorite location for fireworks yet!!  Next year, it's a destination that you should seriously consider, and here is why.   1.  Ahhhhh mazing view!   Seriously, it was one of the best vantage points that I have experienced for the downtown Pittsburgh fireworks display.  I have watched the fireworks from two different locations in Point State Park and a location near Station Square, and all of those locations were good.  BUT the Carnegie Science Center lawn was amazing, because the Pittsburgh skyline was the backdrop for the fireworks display, which made pic...

Educational day-long outings with little ones can be quite the experience, to put it kindly.  Most moms would rather stay home than deal with all of the tears, puke, tantrums, poop, lost toys, and lost patience that an outing with littles can produce.  Yet, I seem to keep going on outings with my littles, often taking along my best friend Jamie and her littles.  We amount to two moms and four littles under the age of four.  We must be extra loving, extra graceful mommas who just want their littles to flourish - or suckers for punishment.  I'll let you decide!   On this particular outing to the Carnegie Science Center (CSC) in February of this year, we were two moms and four littles under the age of three.  It was a little insane and a little trying at times, including wet clothes, lost children, and lots of potty breaks, but let me encourage moms of littles out there, you too can take your babes to the Carnegie Science Center, and have a blast!...

I just have to say that I am the bomb diggety.  Bet you haven't heard that phrase in a while.  Actually, my stomach told me that I was bomb diggety, because I made a delicious, amazing, super fine sandwich complete with goods from our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program and from the Strip District.  So I suppose this is an ode to my creative luck with food, because that's what fresh food requires you to be - creative - and well I just happened to be lucky that my creativity worked out deliciously in my sandwich creation!!   We went to the Strip District on Saturday as a family, and it was wonderful!  If you haven't been, let me just tell you about our trip and let you know that you need to go!!  I love going to the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company for pour-your-own olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I love getting produce from Stan's Market.  I love walking through the throngs of people amid the hustle and bustle.  I just lo...

This past Saturday night, John and I did something really, really crazy...  It's so crazy, we haven't done it in years.  It involved loud music, lasers, fire, broken guitars, Vitamin L and tiny brownies.  Any guesses??  We went to a loud concert and then watched a psychedelic laser show, and, here's the kicker, we stayed out past midnight!!  Oh, I feel so naughty!  I know, it may not seem wild and crazy to you, but then again, you may not have two kids under the age of three who like to wake up around 6:30 am - 7:00 am if you are lucky!  So with the kids home with awesome Aunt Lauren, this mom and dad went out on the town!  And did we have a heck of a time?!?  Yes, yes, we did.  We headed to the GUITAR Opening Night: All-Star Acoustic Jam at the Carnegie Science Center, featuring four local lege nds,  Joe Grushecky of The Houserockers, Rick Witkowski of BE Taylor Group, Rob James of The Clarks, and Billy Price of The Billy P...

One day, John was sitting in the car watching the kids while I ran into Aldi, which I totally love, love, love by the way .  On this particular Aldi grocery run, they had a whole shelf of refrigerated chickens with bright "$2 off" stickers on them, because they were nearing their expiration date.  I always love a deal, so I had to look.  After the discount, each of the whole chickens was between $1.25 and $2.25!  So I grabbed a few, well, seven to be exact, and headed home.  I'm sure I was only going in for a few items, so when I excitedly told John about my seven chickens, he was very likely not as impressed or ecstatic as I was.  I froze most of them immediately because they were set to expire!  In fact, I had so little freezer space that I was worried that a frozen chicken may sever my toe if I wasn't careful.  Fast forward two or three months, when I received an email from a blog I follow about a challenge to empty my freezer and pantry....

A few months ago I read about a Community Supported Agriculture program or a CSA, and I was intrigued.  If you were like me and had never heard of them before, I will give you the low down.  A CSA is a partnership between you and a local farm, where you sign up to buy a weekly amount of food from them and they deliver it to a location close to you for pickup.  They harvest whatever is in season that week, and you receive enough fresh vegetables and fruit to feed a small or large family, depending on the share size you purchased.  I searched for CSAs local to Pittsburgh, and found a website that was very comprehensive on about.com .  I read through a couple of websites and found the Dillner Family Farm located in Gibsonia, PA.  The Dillner Family Farm sells produce at several farmer's markets in the area on a weekly basis, and for their CSA, they just happen to bring the farmer's market to me by delivering to two Mt. Lebanon locations within a ten minute ...