Children's Museum

Last week we went with some friends to the children's museum in Appleton.  What a fun day!  Abby is now at the age where she could have stayed a lot longer but the 1 year olds were having nothing of it.  We started out in Grandma's Closet where the girls played dress-up.  

Silas attempted the shoes but the realized that wasn't for him and went to play with the farm animals.

The water room was a ton of fun.  They provided raincoats (which make the kids look adorable!) and they just played and played!

 Content!

To sit at this particular table, there was a weight limit of 25lbs and both of my kids could still participate!

 The calmest part of the whole museum was the fruit and vegetable garden.  Mostly because it was limited to those 3 and under 

 Playing so nicely together.

Off on his own.

 Hope they never try this in real life  :)

Okay, this was so cool - a movable crane with a magnet on the bottom to pick up metal balls and place them in containers.   I wanted so badly to just figure this out and "play" in here for awhile.   BUT duty called....Silas was melting down....(oh yeah, I have to be responsible and take care of my kids)

After the museum, we all went for a short walk to get some delicious pizza and then went back home.   Such a fun day!

Trying out something new

Say Mmm is a FREE website devoted to meal-planning, grocery shopping and generally making your life easier.   I just planned out my week's worth of breakfast, lunch and dinners.  It does take some time to get used to the site and it would definitely take time to import all my recipes and grocery lists.  I did import two recipes and so I'll give you the link to one of them.   Just to see if this works  :)

Chinese Savory Beef is one of my favorite recipes.  It is something I grew up eating and now totally love.   I adapted the recipe to use the crockpot since that is a more efficient use of energy. (and you know I am all about efficiency!)  Enjoy!

Dress-Up

My little girl loves dressing up in pretty dresses.   At a friend's house, they had a princess dress which Abby finds herself in everytime we are there.   She loves it!   So, I've been on the lookout for a princess dress for her at the different thrift stores that I frequent.   I finally found one - a bit on the big side...okay, a lot on the big side.   

Maybe in a few years, she'll be able to play in it better!   At least I've started on my dress-up closet!

Homemade Peanut Butter

This is so easy!  I can't believe it's taken me 33 years to try this.  Take out your food processor, dry roasted peanuts and turn it on.   I also add a drop or two of olive oil and some honey to sweeten it up.

Grind the peanuts past the chopped stage.   Soon it will "ball" up.  You can stop at this point or you can go a little bit further to get it creamier.   

Try some on a cracker!

You won't go back.  I promise.  The test...does a toddler like homemade peanut butter?

(Please forget about how nasty her hair is...it really is, you see her nose has been running and her hair is matted into her snot....see, it really is terribly gross.   And yes, I always said I wouldn't be that mom who let her kids run around with snotty noses but here I am)

She liked it so much she abandoned the cracker and went straight for the peanut butter.  Try it today!

Just for fun

This is on one of our bookshelves at home.   I saw these letter trains at an amish store in Westcliffe, CO while we there for seminary.  For two years I kept eying them and admiring them.  Finally, I broke down and purchased them for our family.   Our last name is pretty long and so it doesn't fit exactly - maybe someday we'll have our fireplace with a mantle that it can go on top of.

Why I love craigslist

I picked this up on Saturday for Abby.  It is all wooden and just super cute!   And on top of that, I got to have a lovely drive through a new part of the Green Bay area.

Two Peas in a Pod

I love that they love being with each other!

Goofin' off!

Learning your letters

I've been doing a very informal schooling with Abby.  Basically, she is learning all the time but we've tried working on identifying and writing the letters 'A' and 'B'.   We made pretzels last week and shaped them into her name  (Interesting how they each got bigger, huh?)  As we drive in the car or walk along, Abby can pick out the different letters, especially 'A'.   Sometimes I wonder if she is learning and if I should be doing more but then she'll say something that completely blows me away with her comprehension of the world around her.  I think for now, I'll just continue working on letters and allow her to enjoy figuring out the world around her.

Out for a walk

We've been having a warming trend here in Green Bay.   It was in the upper 30's today and sunny too.  And Paul's day off so we got to take a short family walk.  How wonderful to get out and breathe some fresh air.

Notice no coat for Daddy - it is just that warm!

The Mountains Bow Down

The Mountains Bow Down is an easy read yet keeps your attention throughout the whole book.   FBI agent Raleigh Harmon sets out on a cruise to Alaska as a sort of vacation.  While on board, a movie star's wife is murdered.  Raleigh has just a week to solve the mystery before all the vacationers go back home.  I like to try to guess "who dun it"? when I read mysteries and in this particular novel, I didn't feel like the audience was let in on enough of the clues to figure it out.   I was more along for the ride with the FBI agent.  In a way this is fitting with it being written in first person.   I also realized that this is a book in a series and I haven't read the first two yet.   I think this would help give more depth to her character if I had been familiar with the others in the series.  I was a bit surprised that there wasn't more insight into her spiritual life or her dependence upon the Lord.  It was perhaps more like a secular fiction just without the language.  Overall, I enjoyed it and would read more stories by Giorello in the future.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."