February: Our Weekend

 

It's beautiful outside- a winter wonderland.  But seriously, this the coldest winter I can remember.  It's the kind of cold that really is tough to enjoy.  We tried to bundle up and head outside this weekend for some snow play-- not worth it.  It's hard to enjoy ten degrees.  For the first time, I'm excited to see temperatures reach thirty.  That's the fun stuff, the kind of cold weather you can actually enjoy without freezing to your core.  To the core, I tell you.  And it's only February.  Winter, it's been real.

So we've been enjoying our weekends indoors more than I had anticipated.  Molly loves hanging with me in the kitchen, and that mixer sure got some use this weekend.  We baked the most amazing chocolate cake, complete with homemade buttercream on Saturday (just the recipe for cake and frosting from the Hershey's cocoa container- easy peasy). Sunday we made bread, chocolate chip cookies, and mashed bananas/avocodoes/spinach for our weekly smoothies.  That stand mixer might be my favorite appliance.  And side note, I honestly think I enjoy cookie dough more than a baked cookie.

Molly's new favorite toy is a group of nesting blocks listing the ABC's, and we've made the best game of stacking them while singing the ABC's, only to smash the stack as the song ends.  She thinks its absolutely hilarious, and I'm not joking, we played this game for at least an hour- nonstop. 

Her next favorite toy is probably a tie between a mini wagon and the Fisher Price farm.  Pretty much every toy/baby/barbie has had a ride in that wagon, or spent some time hanging in the barn.  I try to limit tv time each day, and I'm so thankful that our house has a separate playroom for her to pretend and imagine, away from that tv.  We're not huge tv people anyway, and honestly our home only has one functioning tv.  But put that girl in front of Caillou, and she won't move. 

Much to our delight, I have a certification exam on Friday, and because we're headed to Pittsburgh for my sister's baby shower, too, I found a really fun hotel with a small indoor water park.  So we're about to pretend it's not winter- if only for a weekend.  I've shown Molly the picture of these water slides only once.  She now asks to see them constantly, followed by "I wanna go there!'  The excitement of a toddler--I promise to take a picture.

After an eventful Sunday evening, we're glad to have a calm night.
And plan our garden- dreaming of warmer weather to come.

Have a great week.