Crafty

Here's the cute hat Lane knit - hard to believe someone will actually be able to fit in it, it seems so tiny! Thanks again, Lane!

So, this isn't a craft . . . but Nate was holding Viggo up with his feet and they were having so much fun, I had to include it!

I've barely touched the muffin since I started it a week and a half ago, but did some knitting in the car today while Svea and I waited for Viggo to finish up preschool. I have to wait until tomorrow to completely finish it because Viggo is going to help me stuff it.

Maren, despite what you might be thinking, the muffin was not attacked by a sea urchin - just double-pointed needles. Knitting in the round really isn't crazy once you catch on :)

Field trip

Today felt like a good day for an outing, so I took Viggo and Svea to Delaware's Museum of Natural History.
The butterflies . . . my favorite. They didn't move and were small, so not a big draw for the kids.

Svea loved the jaguar. "Awww! Nice." If it's big, scary, and has teeth it MUST be cuddle-worthy!

Svea kept saying, "Hug. Kiss!" at the bears, which I think would look pretty fierce to most almost-2-year-old kids. She wasn't frightened at all. She also thought they were wearing mittens and needed their nails trimmed.

She loved this big scary bear too. She loved them all.

The possums mystified her. "Mouse?"

The current featured exhibit: BACKYARD MONSTERS!

This preying mantis actually moved thanks to animatronics . . . ew.

Viggo loved peeking out of the big bug head.

We didn't even notice the giant dragonfly at first!

The robotic bugs you could move . . . SO fun. Svea had a great time watching Viggo and I make them waddle around.

If only we could have taken them home . . .

Another package in the mail!

A package from the DeWans!! Having to wait until Nate came home to open it seemed to take forever. Really just three hours, but Viggo was saying it was taking Nate for-ev-er to come home . . .

Why bother with the formality of the card? Svea just wants to dig in!

A sweet little baby hat! Svea had my camera today and deleted the photo of it - don't worry, I'll post one asap! It's absolutely gorgeous! Another beautiful creation from you, Lane - thank you so much :)

We all opened whatever we could find. While I got to open the fun Easter cupcake decor, Viggo managed to open foot lotion and lip balm . . . he was a little befuddled when Nate was trying to convince him that those items were his. As you can see from his face, Viggo almost bought it but then started screaming, "NO! That's GIRLY stuff!"

A sleep mask . . . so needed at naptime and when Nate stays up later at night reading and I want to sleep. Of course everyone had to try it on before it disappeared onto my night table forever, never again to be touched by little hands.

Svea LOVED the bunny cupcake toppers :)

Oh, the bunny straws . . . where do I start?

Thanks, Lane, for such a thoughtful treat! You truly brightened our day :) Next time please do pack yourself and the fam into the box too . . .

In the kitchen with Svea: Lemon-blueberry oat muffins

Svea and I decided to make some muffins for breakfast the other morning. She was a big help with stirring the ingredients together and Viggo was happy to jump in and help a bit too. Svea used about eight spoons and lots of extra bowls to stir everything. I had more dirty dishes than I have ever produced when making muffins. Even more fun was filling the muffin tins and then stabbing those poor muffins with too many toothpicks to check if they were really done . . .

We really liked this recipe. Enjoy!

Lemon-Blueberry Oat Muffins

1 C quick-cooking oats

2/3 C all-purpose flour

1/3 C whole-wheat flour

1/2 C sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg + 1 egg white

1 C milk

2 T. butter, melted

grated peel of 1 lemon, or 1 tsp. dried grated lemon peel

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 C fresh or frozen blueberries (we used wild blueberries; don't thaw if using frozen berries unless you want purple muffins)

Topping:

1/2 C quick-cooking oats

2 T. brown sugar

1 T. butter, softened

In a bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients. In another bowl, combine the egg and egg white, milk, butter, lemon peel and vanilla; mix well. Add to dry ingredients just until moistened. Carefully fold in berries. Fill muffin cups sprayed with non-stick cooking spray 2/3 full. Combine topping ingredients with fingers; sprinkle over batter and press topping lightly into batter. Bake at 400 degrees F or until tops are lightly browned. Let cool a bit and . . . mmm. Makes 1 doz.

Catching up from the weekend

Viggo was "Star of the Week" at preschool last week . . . it's been a loooong wait for him because students are the star according to alphabetical order. We made a big poster about Viggo which had lots of pictures and a map of the US with all the states he's been in (16!). On Friday he got to bring show-and-tell: he chose the giant stuffed duck Grandpa Daisy gave him when he was about 18 months old and a photo album of the duck doing funny things. To keep with the duck tradition, the duck rode home from school in the passenger seat. As you can see he travels in style with coffee at the ready. I noticed at least one woman do a double-take at a stoplight. It was kind of fun driving around with a giant duck; I might do it more often . . .

Viggo also got to bring home Butterscotch for the weekend! He is the oh-so-coveted classroom bear that comes home with the star of the week. Viggo and Butterscotch were inseparable - they played Legos together, watched "Snow White" together, snuggled together . . . if anyone knows where we can get a bear like this, please alert me. (He's a Gund.) Boy was he sad when Monday rolled around and it was time to take Butterscotch back to school.

On Saturday afternoon we went to the Philadephia Zoo. It was warm and gray and took an hour and a half to travel what usually takes 25 minutes. Note to self: don't go to the zoo on the first warm weekend after winter on a Saturday afternoon.

~~~

After church on Sunday Svea helped herself to a clementine. As you can see, she is becoming a real expert at peeling them.

Here, Svea bumped her head on something so Viggo tucked her in with her favorite blanket on the couch. She was fine, but I think she liked just laying there for a few moments. If someone tucked me in on the couch, I know I'd take my time recovering too :)

Monkey skins

Recently we got a page of coupons for Dunkin' Donuts . . . that we have fully intended to take advantage of. Now that all the free coffee coupons have been used up, we're left with the donut ones! Viggo is well aware of the coupon page and yesterday asked me, "Mom, when are we going to get our free box of monkey skins?" For a second I was thinking, what on earth. Then I realized Viggo meant Munchkins - DD's term for donut holes. We had fun laughing about that, but even better was when Svea caught on and happily said, "Monkey skin! Monkey skin!" over and over. Viggo had tears in his eyes, he was giggling so hard!

Baby Weeks photos and SNOW!

It has been a busy day! Nate was up early so he could join us for an ultrasound. If you were wondering what the baby's feet look like, now you know:
Baby Weeks is 19 weeks, 2 days old today. We didn't see much of the baby's face but it did yawn! It was breech at the beginning of the ultrasound but at the end had completely changed position and gave us a good view of it's little backside. And no, we didn't find out who it would be . . . boy or girl, we'll love either one :)

And here's a glimpse of the rest of the day . . .

Too chilly for Svea to be outside, but Viggo and I spent some time sledding down the tiny hill that goes into the neighbor's yard - still big enough to be a fun thrill for Viggo, though! We made a snowman, which was really a pile of snow that we spent a lot of time on, but it just didn't turn out . . . the carrot and sticks added some character, though. Viggo was loving it!

Viggo was so happy we finally have a decent amount of snow here he that he just laid in it. We got about 5" yesterday; Nate took a vacation day to play with Viggo in the snow. I would have had photos from yesterday, but all my camera batteries were dead. Svea was outside for about 15 minutes and that was all her skin could take - it was quickly chapped. She and Viggo sledded and she would scream, "READY!" when we would ask if everyone was all set to go. So fun to see her excitement!

When we came inside to warm up Viggo said he wanted to do some math. He's getting into double-digit answers and I caught him using his toes to count. "I ran out of fingers!"

Svea had to wear her froggy boots at dinner.

Once the camera appeared at mealtime, everyone felt the need to make funny faces!

Svea just loves it when Viggo is silly at the table :)

After dinner when she was out of the tub, Viggo had gone upstairs while we were still downstairs. Svea just started yelling, "VEE-GO! YAR YOU?" because she wanted to see him and play. Once she was in bed tonight, Viggo and I were reading when we heard her yell, "NIGH-NIGH MOMMY! NIGH-NIGH VEE-GO!" Nate and I have to admit she's no longer the quiet baby we once thought she was . . .