Ellen

SuperWhy Live at the Warner Theatre

by Ellen April 25, 2013 Around Town

I am heavily selective about the TV shows that my kindergartner and first grader watch and rely on recommendations from places like TeachMama and Common Sense Media. It was my friend Vickie, of the blog La Vida Cochinillo who many years ago was talking about this “Super Why” show that first turned me on to [...]

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Leaving on a Jet Plane… but Alone?

by Ellen April 2, 2013 Living

Our girls, Beezus and Ramona are seasoned travelers at the ages of 7 and 5. With all of their grandparents and most of our family living at least a 6-13 hour drive from the DC area (and their Dad, Mr. Quimby, getting points through a frequent flyer program) it’s always been an easy choice to [...]

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Adventures in Babysitting

by Ellen February 26, 2013 Parenting

Not too long ago, I had a hard time getting and keeping babysitters. I was still new to the mothering gig, I had three pages of typed out instructions to deal with every situation, and I would talk incessantly when they arrived. In short I became the woman that nobody wanted to babysit for! I [...]

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picture of a little girl in a fire engine

Free Family Nights at the National Children’s Museum

by Ellen January 18, 2013 Around Town

Back when I moved to DC in the fall of 1991, there was a Children’s Museum on the north side of Capitol Hill. Lo and behold, 14 years later when I started having children and wanted to go to a great playspace, there was no Children’s Museum to be found in the DC area. Just [...]

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Grappling with Race, Culture, and Class

by Ellen November 20, 2012 Child

Beezus, my 7-year old, is grappling with figuring some things out these days. For her entire life, she has never known anything different than living in a world of racial, cultural and socio-economic diversity. School, church, soccer team, the grocery store, activities, library, even our neighborhood – her entire world is racially or culturally or [...]

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DDOT Has Read My Mind! Praise for a New DC Highway

by Ellen September 18, 2012 Around Town

One of the great things about living in a large metropolitan area is that, from time to time, you get the chance to drive on a BRAND NEW ROAD! It’s all clean and smooth, and black and shiny (sort of), and there’s not even potholes on it yet. Recently, I got a chance to ride [...]

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Date Night? Try a Date Week!

by Ellen September 13, 2012 Living

Try as I might, Mr. Quimby and I don’t have a regular date night. At best, we have a date once a month! I’m super lucky to be a member of a babysitting co-op, so money isn’t the issue here. It’s just lack of planning and time (Mr. Q travels quite a bit for work) [...]

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Giveaway: Rascal Flatts Concert Tickets!

by Ellen August 25, 2012 concert

Often, it’s the music of our youth that elicits a strong reaction. For sure, hearing the music I listened to when I was 17 can make me stop washing the dishes in the here and now and transport me years back to making out in the front seat of my boyfriend’s car on a dead [...]

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Summer Rhythm, Had Me a Blast!

by Ellen August 2, 2012 Child

Ahh, the tunes of Grease. Establishing a Summer Rhythm for your family may not be as fun as the Summer Lovin’ that Sandy and Danny were having, but it’s definitely essential for a fun summer. I had wanted our summer to have this lazy, leisurely pace in the mornings, but frankly, it just doesn’t seem [...]

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Composting Made Easy

by Ellen June 26, 2012 Green

Several years ago, I posted about our re-organizing our recycling area. We do a pretty good job recycling darn near everything, because our town has single stream recycling, so it’s so easy to recycle all our plastic, paper, cans, etc. We’ve attempted to compost our food in the past, but it’s been difficult. I’ve never [...]

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