Another Random Day

With a series of unrelated photos.

This morning, we went to Monkey Joe's (and inflatable play center) with the MOMS Club. Actually, it turned out to be just us and one other mom with her 2 year old and 2 month old. That worked well, because both he and Peeper were restricted to the under-36-inches toddler zone, and there was no "I want to go over there with them" drama.

Just before we left, our photographer friend M came in with her husband, 3 year old, and ten day old. Yep, he was born on New Years Day. So, it was great to say "hi" to them, and check out the little one in person.

Peeper fell asleep on the way home, which (including a stop to pick up my car from the mechanic) took about 45 minutes, so that's all the nap she had today.

It started snowing before Shrike left for work and I didn't want to get out on the roads, even to go to Target, so I figured I'd better find some things to fill up our day.

I happened upon a really cute banana snowman recipe/craft at the Happy Home Fairy blog, and thought we'd give it a try. It called for mini chocolate chips features, pretzel stick arms, apple wedge hats with grape pom-poms, and maybe something else.

I had bananas. And sunflower seeds, raisins, cheerios and dried apricots. That'll work.

But look - this banana came pre-faced!

Peeper did the one on the left. Instead of making features, she just stuck a sunflower seed right in the middle of each banana slice. I thought that was pretty good, actually.

Oh, and although I did have wooden skewers, I couldn't find them at first, so we were using chopsticks.

I think the one in the middle, with the raisin eyes, looks like he's wearing sunglasses.

I think this was pretty much all she actually ate.

Later, we put on our snow clothes and went out to play for a while.

And then we made hot chocolate. I've decided that we should always make hot chocolate when it snows.

I didn't have any hot chocolate mix (LadyKay and her bunch gave us some, along with a bunch of other homemade mixes, for Christmas, but I've already used it all!) so I googled it and found a super-easy recipe for sugar free / fat free hot chocolate.

When I saw that it was from the Hershey website and the first step was "Heat skim milk in microwave . . . " I knew I was on the right track.

8 oz skim milk, heated
1 Tbs cocoa power
Dash salt
2 Tbs Splenda (or equivalent)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Mix cocoa and salt in cup. Add hot milk and stir. Add Splenda and vanilla.

No, Peeper did not drink this whole cup. (And it was the above reciped milked-down by about 1:3. I told her I was "cooling it off" but it was totally not hot by then anyway.) She had a few sips and said she was done. I put it in the fridge for "later," but I drank it after she went to bed.

Then, right before bathtime, we did some finger painting, which was a new thing for her. She was more concerned than I expected about her hands being covered in paint. Maybe that's not the medium for her.

Yesterday, we did some organizing of her art / craft supplies. I'm thinking we'll either put them in this cabinet or find another for them. Right now, this is her "pantry" to hold all her plastic food.