Shannon’s World

We’ve been spolied by some really nice weather and Libby has loved every minute that she’s been able to play outside. On the few rainy days we’ve had (today being one of them) I’ve been looking for new activities/things for libby to do and I found some neat (free) things online:

Fancy Nancy Activity Kit (things for a party, cute book plates and also plain pages to color)

Birthday Card for Elmo (we colored it and sent it off with proofs of purchase for a free Elmo DVD – We are a big fan of the Earth’s Best cereal bars and letter cookies)

Easter bunny coloring pages- perfect to include in Easter cards!

Mary Engelbreit Coloring Pages – so many cute designs to choose from!

I’ve also been thinking about making necklaces out of pasta – I remember doing that when I was little. I’m not sure if Libby’s too young, but I thought it might be worth a try!

I love blueberries. This summer I bought and froze quite a few so we could enjoy them all winter long. Unfortunately, I did not realize that the blueberries would be soggy when defrosted. I’ve been trying all kinds of recipes to use them up: blueberry bread (Gretchen’s recipe – see below) and I also finally tried one of Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious recipes for lemon blueberry muffins (containing yellow squash). Libby loves the not-so-good-for-you Bite Rite muffins so I thought why not try some healthier-for-you-ones?! This morning she took one bite of the lemon blueberry muffins and handed it back to me. Hopefully she’ll like them when we try again tomorrow!

Blueberry Bread
Mix Together: 4T butter, 1/2 c boiling water, 1 c orange juice.
Mix Together: 2 eggs, 2 c sugar, 4 c flour, 2 t baking powder, 1/2 t baking soda.

Add dry to liquid mixture. Fold in 2 c. blueberries that have been sprinkled with flour (make sure blueberries are dry before coating).
Crumb topping: 4 t cinnamon, 8 T butter, 8 T sugar, 8 T flour: mix together dry ingredients & cut in butter. sprinkle over bread before baking.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour. Makes 2 full size loaves.

When I said Libby was into Fancy, I wasn’t kidding! She LOVES to play dress up (I knew this would eventually happen, I just didn’t think she would be 2!). Tutu, wings AND wand! I can’t believe the leotard is too short…I’ll need to pick up a larger size!

The other day she had her get-up on over PJs and the only way I could get her out of her PJs and dressed for the day was to put her in a Tinkerbell shirt…because, Tinkerbell HAS wings!

I’ve been a bow making machine lately, because a girl can never have too many accessories (on a side note Libby is OBSESSED with Fancy Nancy, in particular Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy. We read it a minimum of two times a day).

I found the instructions on this website very helpful. So far I’ve made korkers and loopy bows and they’ve turned out great. For the korkers, I soaked the ribbon-wrapped dowels in liquid starch and have found they held their shape much better. The korkers I can make small enough for Libby to wear one on each pig tail, but the loopy bows look best in a pony tail or half up style.

I told Mike on Sunday that I thought this was the nicest weekend we’ve had in the while…the right mix of everything: great weather, friends, family, etc.

Friday night we attended our church fish fry with some neighbors. We’ve been twice and Libby has figured out that a brownie comes with her meal. We walked in the hall and the first thing she said was “brownie”! After putting Libby to bed Mike and I watched 21. It was mildly entertaining but not nearly as good as the book it’s based on (Bring Down The House).

Saturday Mike and Libby headed to the Children’s Museum while I headed to the outlet mall with Jorie. Libby and Mike rode the carousel at the Museum a record 4 times!! I picked up a few items for the family for spring and summer and had a great time catching up with Jorie.

We headed to Lafayette after Libby’s nap and enjoyed a great dinner and visit with Alison, Matt and Ethan at Matt’s parents house. Libby was over the moon over Ethan and he didn’t seem to mind all the hugs, pats, and cuddling!

We spent the night with Grammie B and Papa Jack in West Lafayette but left late morning so we could go to Trader’s Point Creamery for brunch with The Vincent’s. The weather was gorgeous, we had a delicious breakfast and were able to see some infant and adolescent cows as well as tons of chickens!

We put Libby down for a nap and did some spring cleaning in the yard – it was close to 70 degrees and so nice to be outside. We filled 2.5 trashcans full of leaves, clipings, etc. It was very encouraging to see lots of our annuals are starting to sprout (I can’t wait to see my hydrangeas). We worked outside for about 3 hours (Libby took a long nap) and then went on a family walk to Lowe’s. We bought a few pansies for the front porch and some hardware for the furniture for Libby’s big girl room. We’re starting to get the room ready…we never painted the room when we first moved in (walls are currently a faux khacki finish), so I picked out paint, bought bedding. I’m not sure when we’ll move her out of her crib, so we’re slowly getting things ready!

We’re glad to hear the warm weather is continuing this week and look forward to being outside!

This is what Mike came home to a few nights ago. Libby really wanted to wear her “big girl panties” and I really didn’t want to deal with the puddles that often result when we’ve done this in the past. So…we came up with a compromise!

Libby and I spent a long weekend in Rhode Island visiting family on my Mom’s side and attending a bridal shower for my cousin’s fiance. We had a fun time visiting, shopping, showering (Libby’s first bridal shower) and playing.

Libby’s 2nd b-day was Monday and we spent most of the weekend celebrating thanks to my Aunts and Uncles. Libby had balloons, cake, ice cream and gifts galore. My Aunt made this outstanding veggie recipe for dinner on Friday night. It looked so colorful tasted great and it sounds pretty easy (it’s from the show How to Boil Water).

It was a fun visit and we look forward to returning to the area in April for the wedding – another first for Libby!

Today Libby is celebrating her birthday at Mom’s Day Out. We bought cookies (they said no cupcakes!) and Libby wore her b-day girl t-shirt and cupcake hair ribbons. She gets really excited to go to Mom’s Day Out each week…here she is before she left this morning:

. . .and she just can’t hide it! (If you look closely in this picture you can see that Libby’s getting her molars and eye teeth).

Gretchen and Betsy were in Indy over Valentine’s Day but their last visit before that was over Memorial Day. I thought it was fun to see how the girls changed in 7 months:

I think it’s funny that Libby is holding a “friend” in each photo…baby dolls are never too far away from our sweet girl!