My Photos: W/E 7-7-12

Like every Fourth of July in the past, our children had no interest in going to see fireworks.  They seem to be worried that the noise level will frighten them.  Hopefully when they are older someday, they'll want to go see the fireworks display in Boston.

Instead, we attempted to take the children to a local playground.  It was an extremely hot and humid day.  The park was deserted.  We tried out a new outdoor toy and then the boys only wanted to swing, while our daughter only moped around.  I think it was too hot to run around and certain parts of the play structure were hot to the touch, as well.  When I look at the photos below, I just cannot believe that our 5 year old son is swinging on a big kid swing with a huge smile on his face.  Only a few months ago, he was afraid to get on the big kid swing by himself.  Then to see that our 8 year old son is growing too tall to use the swings, just made me wonder where the time went.

(Click any photo to enlarge)

After a short while, we headed home from the park because it was just too hot.  We decided to take the children to the pool for some swim training instead.  It was about 90 degrees out that afternoon and the children were shivering from being too cold in the pool.  We just couldn't win that day!

Click here to view all my past favorite photos.

My Photos (W/E 8-22-10)

It's been one of those weeks where I had taken about 200 photos. I must not have done a very good job because I could only come up with this small handful to share.

Is it my imagination or does my daughter look unnervingly like an imp or a pixie in this first photo?

"Flower Power"

"Balancing Act"

"Run For Fun!"

Thank you for taking the time to view my photos this week! If you'd like to play along or see more great photos, stop by to see Lotus a.k.a. Sarcastic Mom.

Review: Picnicking with Pyrex No-Leak Glass Storage Containers

July through mid-August is usually extremely hot and humid around here, but once the middle of August rolls around, relief is ours! We are lucky that we have several beautiful parks around all equipped with picnic tables. With great weather, a place to eat and play outdoors, good food, plus some picnic gear from Pyrex, we have all the tools we need for an enjoyable family outing.

We received an assortment of Pyrex glass storage containers and serving products plus a pair of chip-resistant plates from the Corelle Simple Lines collection, in addition to a rolling insulated cooler and a handled picnic blanket. Of all the items we received, the key to our picnic being so successful was the 6pc value pack of Pyrex No Leak Lids storage containers. One of our children's favorite side dishes is macaroni and cheese. Even though hot foods are not something normally considered as picnic food, these Pyrex containers allowed us to heat the macaroni and cheese, transport them without any leaks while keeping them hot in the insulated cooler, and serve them at our picnic lunch. We did all this without having to move the food from one container to another.

The BPA-free plastic lids have a built-in microwave vent, so that you can heat your food without worrying about any splatters or dripping condensation that you normally get with tilting the lid or using no lid at all. The seal on this vent is very tight. It is difficult to open, but it is worth it because it helps to keep the food hot once it is closed.

These containers are available in a variety of sizes and are sold both individually and in sets. The value pack I received includes a 2-cup, a 4-cup, and a 7-cup round containers with matching no-leak lids. There are also rectangular containers available in 3 and 6-cup sizes. I would love to see even larger size containers for transporting food for events and holiday parties.

Since we wanted to sit under the shade of the trees, my husband had the brilliant idea of using our Pyrex picnic blanket as a table cloth instead of putting it on the uneven ground. This worked out very well for us. We had a great lunch and then the children had a blast playing on the playground.

Although we did not use these two Pyrex gadgets for our picnic, I just wanted to highlight them because they are both designed with practicality in mind. These Pyrex measuring cups are magnetic so there is no annoying ring. It is so much easier to take the size you need and put the set back together after washing. The other gadget I wanted to point out is the Pyrex Medium Grater. It comes with a graduated 1-cup container, so you can grate cheese, chocolate, and more right into a measuring cup. The cup also comes with a lid, so you can use this product to store what you grated without having to move it to another container.

I think Pyrex did an excellent job designing these items with busy families in mind. To view more great Pyrex products, visit Pyrexware.com . You can also shop for Pyrex, Corelle, and other World Kitchen products on ShopWorldKitchen.com and many other places where quality kitchen and household products are sold.

Thank you to World Kitchen for sending us sample products free of charge to base this review upon.

For Better or For Worse: Good Thing He Has Big Hands

My dear husband sometimes takes all 3 children to the park so that I can have some quiet time. I've always very much appreciated it.

Last weekend, we took the kids to the park together. We were lucky that the playground was not crowded because they were always going in three different directions. It was hard to keep up with the three of them with both of us on the job, so I can't imagine how my husband manages when he takes them there alone. They were quite a handful.