Baby Room Transformation

We are ready, but he has yet to arrive.... The baby room has been transformed from pretty pink to a subtle mix of primary colors. I found the circus crib bedding items on sale at PBK for under $60 for all three pieces - the bumper, skirt, and sheet. (I love a good sale). I made some wall art to mimic the circus animal appliques on the bumper - using some craft papers on canvas. And my mom made the coordinating curtain and chair pillow using an inexpensive sheet set we found at Kohl's. Lauren likes to visit the 'baby room' but luckily she seems to enjoy her new 'big girl' room even more.

Chocolate Biscotti

Tried a new biscotti recipe - Chocolate-Pistachio biscotti, a 'reader favorite' from this month's Everyday Food. I made a few substitutions - special dark cocoa for regular cocoa, white chocolate chips for dark chocolate chunks, and craisins for pistachios. The recipe made a softer biscotti than the Cooking Light recipe I normally use, but it was still quite good, and the chocolate is a nice variation.

B-day Freebie

Last year I signed up for Sephora's free Beauty Insider club in which you receive some pretty good coupons, special offers, etc. And near your birthday you get a lip gloss trio, completely free. Not bad!

Bag Lady

Lauren found a stash of shopping bags in our closet, and went to town stringing them all on her arms. I'm not really sure of her plans once she had them all, as I was able to distract her with a call for 'snack-time' or something like that....

Happy Easter!

There was a lot of talk of eggs around the house this weekend. Lauren had a Easter egg hunt at daycare on Fri, and also got a really cute flower felt Easter basket from her teacher - filled with bubbles, raisins, fruit chews, and a lady bug felt bracelet. Then on Sat, we colored eggs at home. And on Sun, Lauren had fun checking out her Easter basket from the Easter bunny, and had no problem quickly locating the 6 plastic eggs hidden for her. After dinner there was another treat - pink and yellow frosted mini-cupcakes. The Easter bunny left her a foil-wrapped chocolate bunny in her basket, but it might accidentally get misplaced.... as she may have already exceeded her monthly sugar quota.

'Me' Time

The cats love the 'after-eight' hours when Lauren is all tucked into bed for the night. They come out from their hiding spots to enjoy some quality lounging time. They even take over her chair....

Baby(Bear)sitting

We had to clear out some things in our guest room to get Lauren's 'new room' ready for her. One of which was the baby swing, which got temporarily placed in the living room, since we'll be needing it soon anyway. Well, Lauren was very interested and tried to climb in. I told her that her teddy bear Katie could ride in it instead - she buckled her in, and was so excited to turn on the swinging motion and to see the birdies spin around the top. She sat right down in her little chair, and watched intently for quite a while :)

Skillet Chicken

We TiVo 'America's Test Kitchen' on PBS, which I occasionally watch for some tips, etc. Stew likes the segment where they rate products/tools; I prefer the cooking segments. Sometimes the dishes are quite involved, but this segment on 'skillet recipes' included a demo on Skillet Chicken with Broccoli, Ziti, and Asiago Cheese which didn't look too bad. And even though it has some cream, one could argue it's somewhat healthy with the broccoli and all. And I was quite impressed with the flavor - the addition of fresh lemon juice really makes a difference.

80s Flashback

Lauren found a new use for her pony-tail holders - bracelets! She was browsing through her box of hair accessories and next thing I know she has them all strung on her wrist. Reminded me of those rubber bracelets made popular by Madonna and Cyndi Lauper in the 80s...

The Daily Dozen

I set out early this morning to run a few errands, and I ended up at Trader Joe's just after it opened at 9am. After checking out, the cashier said I could pick any of the dozen roses to take home, and handed me a floral bag. Wasn't expecting that! Apparently they were overstocked from Valentine's Day, so they were giving away free roses. I picked these soft white ones, which are now sitting next to the pretty red ones that Stew bought for me for Valentine's Day - also from Trader Joe's :)