Transitioning

I'm transitioning my more crafty and food related endeavors to a new blog. Today I'm talking about gift wrapping. Don't worry, it's not Christmas yet!

I hope you'll join me there! Don't forget to subscribe to the new feed. :)

Visit to Pumpkin Patch

This past Friday, hubby and I chaperoned Sophia's first class field trip to Butler's Orchard pumpkin patch. We are huge fans of Butler's (yum, blueberries). Only thing missing from Butler's was fresh apple cider donuts. It was Sophia's first time riding a schoolbus (which hubby didn't get any pictures of). I followed along in our car. No way was I going to ride on a bumpy schoolbus with only 4 weeks until my due date.

Sophia's preschool is actually a child development lab program at one of the local high schools. Basically, high school students are learning how to teach little kids. I'm very happy with the program, and Sophia loves it. Until the field trip, I hadn't been able to observe how the students interact with preschoolers.

Hubby & I pretty much just sat back and let Sophia and her high school student teacher do their thing. Watching this little teenager chase her around the pumpkin patch while carrying a huge pumpkin was hilarious! Of course Sophia picked the largest pumpkin out of all her classmates.

We also learned from the high school teacher (the one who teaches the high school students) that Sophia is very popular with the students. I am not totally surprised that she's the social butterfly. After all, on the third day of preschool, I had to talk to her about kissing all the boys in the class!

Hubby & Sophia carved her pumpkin the same afternoon while I napped. Actually she helped him gut the pumpkin. He did the rest of the work! We used a stencil that came with the pumpkin carving tools. Doesn't it look awesome?

I'm saving my pumpkin. I'm going to roast it and make some super yummy out of it! In the meantime, I glazed and toasted the pumpkin seeds from the first one. YUM!

Blogalicious Recap, Take Two

Two nights ago, I wrote a great Blogalicious Recap. Then Firefox crashed and Blogger didn't autosave it for some reason. I just went to bed. Here's take two.

I think I have finally recovered from Blogalicious 2009 in Atlanta. Though this was my first blogging conference, I'm no stranger to conference. I've attended many Passion Parties national conventions as well as smaller events. It can be overwhelming--the sessions, the networking, the parties.

Urban Mama and I left Maryland at 4am Friday. Chevy was generous to lend us a totally styling 2010 Cherry Red Equinox for the weekend. Usually the drive to Atlanta takes about 10 hours, but somewhere around the North Carolina/South Carolina border, our OnStar stopped talking to us. We didn't realize it until we reached Columbia, SC. OnStar quickly got us back enroute to Atlanta. Our little detour did allow us the chance to eat at a Sonic Drive-In. I should have gotten a larger Cherry Limeade. Though that would mean I'd just have to take more bathroom breaks.

We arrived with an hour to check-in, catch up with our roomie, Tech Savvy Mama before our reservations for dinner at Eno's, where Eli Kirshtein (from this season's Top Chef) is the executive chef. It was amazing! Along with ParentopiaDevra, we were able to meet Eli after our dinner. Hopefully we didn't act too much like groupies.

There were so many great sessions at Blogalicious. I didn't attend all of them. Saturday afternoon, I totally zonked out on a super comfy couch in the lobby. Thankfully Justice Fergie didn't get any pictures of that.

I took a lot of notes (and put out a few tweets). Though there were so many different topics discussed, there were three main themes that were repeated:

• passion--blog with passionately or topics you are passionate about
• build a community with your blog or other social media (like Twitter or Facebook)
• quality of your followers/community/commenters is more important than quantity

Blogging has always been a hobby for me. I do it for fun, but I've also loved the community I've joined. The people I've met have been the highlight of my blogging. Hearing these themes over and over from seasoned bloggers have me thinking about where I want to take my blog next. When I figure it out, I'll let you know.

Of course there were the parties and after-parties. I really enjoyed meeting the ladies of Clever Girls Collective: Cat, Stefania, & Sheila. They hosted the Sweet Suite party Friday night. We were only 15 minutes late to their after party, but thankfully there were about 8 mini-cupcakes left. Perfectly chocolatey two bite cupcakes.

Their Yummie Tummie room was mobbed! Lucky Cat was able to find a nursing tank for me to try out. I'm looking forward to trying it out. It's going to come in handy for the post-partum belly. Which, have you seen Kim Cole's video about Yummie Tummie. Apparently she crashed Blogalicious. I'm sure no one complained. The wonderful ladies also shared some highlights about Tiny Prints and Little Passports too. I know Sophia would love to get mail from Little Passports every month. Thanks for a great party ladies!

I won't recap all the parties (fun for me, but boring for you). I did get to sneak a glass or two of champagne. That's right, prego girl partied hard. It's my last hurrah before the baby arrives and turns our family upside down.

It just felt so right to be around this amazing group of women. It didn't matter if I owned worked outside the home, or was a stay at home mom or even single. Seems like the internet is a great equalizer. I also met many women who were either multi-racial and/or have multi-racial children. This is something I often think about as we raise Sophia. So much to think about!

The ladies at MamaLaw Media knocked my socks off. The conference proceeded very smoothly. Did I mention that the conference food was great! This pregnant lady definitely ate more than her fair share. I did kind of hope there would be grits for breakfast since we were in the South. It's definitely a staple for our breakfasts. Great job ladies!

Thank goodness we drove. We received lots and lots of swag. My skin will now be very moisturized for the rest of the winter! I would not have been able to take half of it home had I flown.

A big thanks to Urban Mama and Tech Savvy Mama for letting me crash in their room at the last minute. They even let me sleep in my own bed! Now I can't say I slept with anyone while I was in Atlanta.

For some more great (and more detailed) Blogalicious recaps, check here.

Princess Tiana & Disney on Ice Giveaway!

Edited: Giveaway is closed. Congrats to Sandie!

Last year, I was lucky enough to get a great deal passes to Disney on Ice. My almost 4 year old with the memory of an elephant has been asking when we'll go again. How the heck did she know that it was coming to the DC area in October?

I grew up watching women's figure skating competition--my parents loved it. I think that maybe because there were always Asian-American figure skaters in the top 5. Very rare to see many Asian faces on tv. But I digress. We're taking Sophia to see Disney on Ice again this year. This year's theme (for the Baltimore, MD & Fairfax, VA tour) is Celebrations! It'll be all about holidays and festivals. Even a ghoulish theme, for my currently Halloween obsessed child.

Here is a chance for my DC Metro readers to win a 4 pack of tickets to Disney on Ice Celebrations! for either the Baltimore or Fairfax tour. Keep reading on how to enter. Disney On Ice presents Celebrations! Is one colossal party on ice, with all your favorite Disney friends! Enjoy a winter wonderland with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, a Halloween haunt with the Disney Villains, a Very Merry Unbirthday Party, a Royal Ball with the Disney Princesses and more in a magical medley of holidays, celebrations and festivals from around the globe. Come join the party!

Did you hear that? There will be princesses. You heard that right. Guess who will be making her debut? Princess Tiana, from the upcoming Princess and the Frog movie. I'm totally excited since Princess Tiana is the first Disney African-American princess. Plus we got a sneak peek at her this weekend at Blogalicious (more on that in another post). Sophia will be able to see a Disney princess that looks like her. If Tiana wore pink, it'd be perfect.

Disney on Ice will be at the Patriot Center from October 21st through Sunday, October 25th, and in Baltimore at the 1st Mariner Arena in Baltimore October 28th through November 1st. Taking the family out for a show might seem expensive, but I've been given a great coupon code to share with you!

Purchase a 4‐pack of tickets for only $44 for weekday shows, or receive $4 off weekend tickets by logging onto TicketMaster and entering the coupon code: MOM. Enter the code "MOM" in the MC Promotion box through select online ticketing agencies. This offer is good on all weekday performances, which includes all weekday evening and Friday matinee performances; minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each.

This code is valid for other Disney on Ice shows around the country. Check the website for a list of shows near you.

Now for the giveaway.You can win 4 tickets (valued up to $240) to Baltimore location for Oct 28. Please make sure you can attend before entering the contest! I'm closing the contest at 2pm TODAY!

To enter, leave a comment on who your favorite Disney character is, along with an email address to contact you.

For an extra entry, tweet this giveaway and leave another comment with a link to your tweet. Don't know what to say, try this:

Win 4 pack tickets to Baltimore 10/28 Disney on Ice. @thienkim http://bit.ly/1NPkLn

I was not paid to post this promotion, though our family was given tickets to attend the Fairfax performance.

Playing Catch Up--Have Some Pumpkin Cake

Ever since the day Sophia got the stomach bug (almost 2 weeks ago, yikes!), I feel like I've been playing catch-up. I have a lot of blog posts planned in my head to share with you. Oh, and joining Facebook hasn't helped.

We hosted a Healthy Choice Just One Bites Emmy watching party. Not only did I get to watch cutie pie Neil Patrick Harris host the awards, they even showed a great clip of him as Dr. Horrible. A new clip! Too bad Nathan Fillion got so much screen time in it. We were also able to munch on some yummy Healthy Choice food too. A more detail posts with pics to come! Here's the clip if you haven't see it yet.



Sophia starts preschool tomorrow. Yay! Both of us are excited. Even hubby is taking the morning off so he can take her to school too.

My birthday is Thursday, and then I'm leaving for Blogalicious early, early Friday. I'm driving to Atlanta with fellow blogger Urban Mama. Hopefully she'll be patient with me as I have to get out of the car and stretch my prego body every 4 hours.

Blogalicious is my first blogging conference, though I'm no stranger to conferences (thanks to our annual Passion Parties conference). I can't wait to report back!

In the meantime, while I try to get caught up (and ready for baby, D-day in 6 weeks), here's some pics of one of our favorite recipes, pumpkin spice cake. Sophia picked green food coloring for the honey cream cheese frosting and since we still have sprinkles from this past Christmas (do sprinkles go bad?), we just went for the whole shebang!