we are in the process of repainting our living room. we are enjoying the wide open space at the moment before all of the stuff goes back!

– ryan & gub

so long lebowski stripes… you served us well. it was a sad day to paint over our big lebowski stripes in our living room, but it was definitely time for a change. the stripes were inspired by the bowling alley in the big lebowski and were painted within a few days of moving into the house. farewell.

– ryan & gub

as a class project in clementine and grey’s classes, we had the kids put their fingerprint in some clay and made christmas tree ornaments! clementine’s class also made self portraits to give their parents as well. here are the goodies all wrapped up.

– ryan & gub

we headed back to kinsey family farms this year for our annual cutting down of the christmas tree tradition! the kids had a blast, as expected.

– ryan & gub

kinsey family farms

7170 jot-em down road
gainesville, ga 30506
770-887-6028

we set up our jack-o-lantern tv again this year. it’s quite fun and can be re-used year after year. to make your own, just buy a super cheap tv at the thrift store, apply some painters tape on the screen for the eyes & mouth, and spray paint orange. peal off the painters tape when it’s dry and voilà, you have your very own jack-o-lantern tv! it’s a super easy fall project!

happy halloween!

– ryan & gub

we did some fall crafting this morning! check out clementine’s amazing halloween snowman!

– ryan & gub

for my birthday, we got a babysitter and tried out our first scavenger hunt from clue town books. we had a blast for sure! we started out at the republic for some cocktails before walking over to historic oakland cemetery for our adventure.

for those of you who are unfamiliar with clue town, they are these great scavenger hunt books from local kirkwood resident jay carlson. the books come with a compass, a little pencil, and lots of puzzles to solve along the way. he has released 4 books so far, including: piedmont park, oakland cemetery, downtown decatur, and the beltline eastside trail. the scavenger hunts take roughly 60-90 minutes to complete, depending on which one you go with.

for our first clue town adventure, we went with the historic oakland cemetery. the hunt took us about an hour and a half, which was longer than the 60 minute estimate. we took our time strolling through the historic atlanta site however, soaking in our rare outing away from the kids. the puzzles were challenging at times, but definitely fun and not too hard. the compass was used quite a bit as well, which added to the experience!

although we didn’t bring our kids, the oakland cemetery hunt definitely seemed kid-friendly. everything was self-contained within the cemetery walls and parking was close and free, so it would be an easy scavenger hunt to try out with the kids.

you can buy clue town books directly from jay at most atlanta festivals, or you can find them at select atlanta shops, including: the beehive, youngblood boutique, heliotrope, oakland cemetery gift shop and the high museum of art gift shop.

up next for us is piedmont park, we can’t wait! we are going to try it out with clementine and grey!

– ryan & gub

historic oakland cemetery

248 oakland avenue se
atlanta, ga 30312
404-249-5000

the republic

437 c memorial drive se
atlanta, ga 30312
404-577-3997

one bucket of water. one bucket of sand. HOURS of entertainment!

highly recommended!!!

– gub

grey celebrated his first birthday with a fun party! his cousins came down from chicago, which made it even more exciting. we had the gathering in our backyard, similar to clementine’s first birthday, although it was colder than expected. we had a bonfire to going to stay warm and made the most of it!

– ryan & gub

being a huge fan of soft pretzels, i’ve always been intrigued by the bake-at-home kits you see at grocery stores. with clementine way into all thing baking & cooking these days, it seemed like a good time to try one out. so on a recent saturday afternoon, clementine, her grandmother and i attempted an auntie anne’s at-home baking kit i bought at kroger.

the kit included all of the necessary ingredients, so measuring was not required. the instructions were pretty easy as well, although time consuming for sure. i started by pitching the yeast in a mixing bowl. i then added the flour and mixed the dough. next came the kneading, which clementine was super helpful with! once the dough was prepared it had to sit for 30 minutes in a warm spot to “rest.”

after resting, we flattened the dough and cut it into 1.5″ x 8″ strips. the strips were then stretched out and shaped for baking. we went with normal pretzel designs and some twists, but you can get creative and make letters or animal shapes or whatever you can think of!

once the pretzels were shaped, i prepared a bowl with warm water and baking soda. i dipped each pretzel into the liquid (like you do with bagels), added toppings (ie. salt, cinnamon & sugar, etc.) and baked for 5 minutes at 400. the pretzels were then rotated 180 degrees and baked for an additional 2-5 minutes. i brushed on some melted butter and voilà, home-baked soft pretzels!

in the end, the soft pretzels were amazing! the process took way longer than i expected, however the pretzels tasted restaurant quality and were totally worth the effort. plus clementine had a blast kneading the dough and helping out, so i would definitely make them again.

next time i’ll have to try the egg in a pretzel recipe!

– ryan