Now where did we leave off...

Ah yes, the spunky nephews...

Jamie and I woke up less than chipper the next morning (or shall I say 5 hours later) and scrambled to pull ourselves together for a day of touristy kid fun. Yeeh. I don't recommend going all out the night before.

The nephews, both dressed in AU shirts, arrived bearing gifts of mini pumpkins and Wii ;)
After some discussion we decided that everyone present needed to load up on AU gear so first thing on the day's agenda - field trip to the AU bookstore!

We drove to campus and couldn't figure out why there were so many people - alumni weekend wasn't until the 24th! And then it hit us...the Dalai Lama was at AU. Poor planning on our part, especially since we both read about it earlier in the week. Oops. We actually found parking across the street and were pretty productive at the store. Jamie walked away with a surprisingly warm hooded sweatshirt and I got an obnoxious green Nalgene bottle and a long sleeve t-shirt (from the men's section b/c I will never understand the weird special 'ladies' cut shirts. Boooo).

After our shopping spree, we took the kids on a metro adventure to the Mall. Apparently it was a big weekend in DC - the Dalai Lama's AU visit, the National Equality March, the Solar Decathlon...thank goodness the metro cooperated ;p
Keeping track of a 6 yr old and 4 yr old while tons of people are wandering around the Mall is NOT easy. Who knew kids just wandered around aimlessly? I sure didn't. HA.
I think this is my best people/monument shot EVER. All I needed were super tiny people...DUH.

We moseyed along the Mall picking up leaves and ignoring random pamphlet passer-outers, making our way to our final destination
The Air and Space Museum, of course! We got there eventually...had to make a pit stop for a carousel ride first :)

We rarely take advantage of the museums around here (which is a shame since they are all free) so it was a fun treat for me and Jamie as well. There were tons of kids running around and long lines galore. The nephews got dog tags right when we walked in and it made it SO much easier to find them because we could hear them jingle as they ran toward us. haha. Brilliant!

Dinner was pretty low key both nights the fam was in town...tacos and Monsters vs. Aliens on Saturday night and pizza (forgot to take pics!) and Wii/Xbox on Sunday night before they left. Total comfort food and totally easy. EXACTLY what we needed. Kudos to all moms out there. I was exhausted after barely 36 hours.

I've been doing double duty work all week, so I'm pretty burned out. Dinners are starting to suffer. Monday night was hot dogs and sunburned Smilers
On Tuesday Jamie text messaged me while I was at job #2 asking if I wanted Thai food...um, YES. Of course we ended up at Paragon Thai! Yes, we really need to find another place to eat.

Jamie went with Pork Drunken Noodle (pork sauteed with chili and garlic sauce, onion, string bean, tomato, red and green bell pepper and basil leaves served on wide rice noodles)
I went with the Pad Ma Kua (chicken sauteed with eggplant, chili black bean sauce, red and green bell pepper and basil leaves) but am pretty sure I've had it before. It was really f-ing good, but I was hoping to get something I've never tried. Ah well.
I got so sleepy while walking home from the store this evening that I couldn't bear to think about making dinner. Thankfully we had a dinner saver in the fridge:
I picked this up over the weekend when my sister and paid a visit to Trader Joe's to see if they had any Pumpkin muffin mix. FYI - the Bethesda Trader Joe's does NOT. I, of course, have a hard time leaving any food store empty handed. I also picked up a jar of Pumpkin Butter (more on that another day).

We didn't have anything good to use as a sauce, so I improvised and mixed up some leftover Spinach Asparagus pesto and some spoonfuls of my favorite jar sauce
And voila!
Ugliest dinner EVER.
I forgot that red + green does not equal a yummy color. HOWEVER, it was surprisingly good. The tomato sauce added a nice tangy kick to cut the richness of the pesto and the ravioli. Not my best or even the most creative attempt at sauce, but whatever, it did the job in a pinch...neither sauce was going to be good on its own with these raviolis.

Ok, my breakfast bake is done so that means I can FINALLY go to bed. Tomorrow is office breakfast Thursday and it's my turn to bring in breakfast. I'm kinda bored with bagels so I figured I'd make something...fingers crossed it turns out ok! Breakfast and I are not good cooking friends. Is there one type of meal you prefer to make over another? Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner?

I'll report back with pictures and link to the recipe tomorrow :)