Francesca of Three Bay B Chicks here today. On Laura’s last day of vacation, she allowed me the pleasure of hijacking her blog. Rather than writing my own introduction, I’ll just say that I hope Laura doesn’t regret giving me this type of power…
As I sat with my sister, Gianna, at an outdoor cafe last week, watching my two toddlers run around, she suddenly turned to me and asked, How old are you? I laughed, I am not really sure. I’m somewhere in my early thirties. …

Jill is the kind of witty blogger I wish I could be, but somehow all of the witty ideas in my head never come out when I’m sitting at my computer. So I won’t even try. For those of you who have ever wondered….Jill is NOT scary at all in person. In fact, I think she’s even funnier and cooler now that I’ve seen her “live.” Isn’t it funny that we corresponded for month before figuring out that we lived within an hour of each other?! Thanks, Jill, for filling …

You will be able to tell right away that my sister Andrea (The Hatchers and Their Hatchling and Andrea Marie Photo) is way cooler than me. And despite the fact that we are both photographers, we are NOT very handy with the video camera. Seriously, I think we had 8 takes and about 2 hours of goofing off in fron tof the camera. We tried outside at the park, at Andrea’s house, and finally at my house. Some of the other videos are funnier, but it would have taken me …

I hope you are up for a little work today (if you are so inclined).
Not only have I highjacked Lolli’s blog so that I can ramble in her turf (isn’t it always more fun somewhere else? I’m like that little kid who isn’t hungry when the food comes from their house, but offer me food from a friends and I’m suddenly ravenous), I’ve added my blog carnival here today because I know you all want to play along. Don’t you?
Here’s a little background:

What is it?Well, we’ll tell …

Hey! Mama Kat here…I’m jumping in as a guest poster for Lolli this week. I’m not nearly as sweet, but love me through it. Lolli thought it would be fun to go with a sister’s theme and I gladly stepped up to the plate. Here goes:It was so easy to get my little sister Baby to do what I wanted. She was easy to convince. She was agreeable. And she adored me. All three components necessary for sibling manipulation.

I could get Baby to give me her dessert when I finished …

I’m making a midnight run to the airport tonight. My mom is coming to town! And in celebration of her visit and our trip to Pennsylvania, I am taking a blogging break. Don’t worry, though, I am leaving you in good hands while I am off eating chocolate at Hershey Park and ice cream in Lancaster. A few of my favorite people will be guest posting all next week…PLUS, I have scheduled a video of me and my sister to be broadcast on Wednesday’s Chick Chat with the 3 Bay …

Sometimes I am still amazed at the beauty of this place. Growing up in California was fabulous–beautiful–but a trip to the mountains took a couple of hours, and I certainly didn’t have anything like this in my back yard:
AJ and I joined some friends for a day trip to a local Falls and lake area on Tuesday. The mountains (granted, they’re nothing like the mountains in the West, but they are still considered mountains) are part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which in turn are part of the Appalachian Mountain …

Am I giddy? I don’t know. I don’t think I get truly giddy very often. Giddy is a pretty strong word, and it makes me think of 13 year old giggly girls.
But if I were giddy, I would be giddy about meeting a whole slew of area bloggers last week (Scary Mommy, parenting BY dummies, Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom, Pajamas and Coffee, Barely Domestic Mama, and my friend and neighbor Living in Maryland). And I didn’t even have to fly to Chicago for it!
Lara (from Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom) and …

I have a daughter who is obsessed with basketball, and despite her height she’s actually pretty good at the game. So when we had the opportunity to go to the Washington Mystics WBNA game (vs the New York Liberty) at the Verizon Center in DC, I jumped at the chance. It didn’t even take much to convince CandyMan to come along with us.
And thank goodness CandyMan came with us because I don’t know if I would have survived the adventure alone with my 5 kids.
We got a “slightly” late start. …

When I saw that the MckLinky Blog Hop theme for this week was recipes, I decided it had been far too long since I had shared a recipe. I skimmed through my recipe blog (which has been as neglected as my dinners lately) and found this recipe for Taco Salad that had my mouth watering instantly.
My Mom made this for us growing up, and it is one of those recipes that I have continued to make for my own family. I simply love it! The only thing I’ve added over …