Princeton Part 2

I meant to post more pictures of our Princeton trip and somehow never got around to it! But I was looking back at them and found a few more adorable pictures to share with you. We adults don't often make it into the pictures because, well, with kids this cute it's hard to take pictures of much else! But I do have proof that Mom, Kate and I actually were in Princeton with the kiddos. 

Here's Nana with David on the bus on the way into town.

And David sporting his super cool sunglasses on one of the warm, sunny Princeton mornings. 

Lucy and Nana chatting it up on the bus:

And a rather bemused expression on wee William's face while he poses for a picture with his beloved Nana.

Lucy has discovered the action of "smelling the flowers" and takes every opportunity to do so:

My beautiful sis:

And the Lu-Belle and I! It's extremely rare for me to get out from behind my camera, so there you have it! (Although my hair is much shorter now. I chopped it off once again and will try to remember to post pictures of it soon!) 

Gardening Time

We had a short spell of absolutely glorious weather, during which time Joel and I tried to do as much yard work as possible. Our first task was taming the wildness that is our three raised garden beds.  

Unfortunately, due to the height and depth of the weeds in each bed, we were only able to weed one before we filled up our yard waste garbage can. Here she is in her former state:

And her resurrected glory:

There's carrots, kale, cucumber, and two other plants that I've completely forgotten what they are in there. I suppose I'll be getting a surprise in a few weeks!

But as you can see, we still have two more monstrosities to tame (sorry for the blurry shot):

Exterior Shots of Our New House

Here are a few shots of the exterior of our house. I'm going to have to borrow a wide angle lens to get shots of the inside, but for now you can at least see what the outside looks like!

Our backyard is a fabulously chaotic, jungly mess. We have a water fixture that's broken:

A bunch of trees covering the sound wall (we're next to the I-5).

And beautiful rhody surprises in the springtime:

There are three raised garden beds along the side of the house. So far we have weeded one of them and planted seeds. Shots of that later!

3 Things that made my heart happy today

An after dinner adventure with my giggling child:

Flowers from Joel catching morning light:

Coming upon scenes like this during the day. No setup. 

East Coast Cousin Time

(Anyone catch the title pun? Yes, we're a bit jet-lagged right now)

Lucy, Mom and I just got back from a fabulous trip to Princeton, NJ to visit family. My brother-in-law Davey is getting his doctorate at Princeton and my sister Kate just had her second son, William.

With a newborn, 1 year old and 2 year old in the mix, we intentionally had zero expectations for doing anything while we were there, which made the week really relaxing and enjoyable. We spent most of our days hanging out watching the kiddos play, taking small trips into the town and campus, and eating lots of wonderful food.

I also took about a thousand pictures.

For me, one of the best parts of the trip was watching Lucy bond with her cousin David. Here's some of the fun they had together.

Naturally, a good portion of their time together they spent playing in the dirt, which resulted in some very dirty faces:

Then there was bedtime story-reading with Davey:

And pool time when the weather hit 85 degrees.

Princeton campus has the cutest children's library, complete with a tree-house that was just the perfect size for them:

They loved exploring the campus together

And when Lucy got tired David pushed her in the stroller

Of course, one of the biggest reasons we flew to Princeton was to see the newest little cousin. And while he couldn't take part in the older cousin's adventures, Lucy did enjoy meeting "baby Wi" and handing his mom his pacifier.

Will spent a good portion of the visit doing this:

And occasionally we even got a smile out of him! I love those newborn grins!

Dancing and Muffins

Lucy decided to skip naptime today in favor of dancing. She's learning some pretty impressive moves! You may want to skip the first 20 seconds in which Lucy attempts an exercise in futility.

In other completely unrelated news, I've been on a bit of a muffin baking spree. I love making something that's quick, healthy, and fun for Lucy to snack on. Obviously not all muffins are healthy, but that's why I've been working on finding recipes that have less fat, more whole wheat, plus extra special ingredients like flaxseed. Today Lu and I are baking up a batch of these muffins. A few weeks ago I decided to try making up my own recipe, and they turned out delicious!

2/3c. Sugar

1/4 c. flaxseed

2 c. whole wheat flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 (6 or 8 oz) container strawberry yogurt

3/4 c. fat free milk

2 T canola oil

1 t. vanilla

1 egg, beaten

some strawberries. I actually can't remember how many I used. Maybe 4?

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, flaxseed, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Make a well. Combine yogurt and next 5 ingredients Add to flour well, stir just until moist.

Spoon into 12 muffin cups, sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes.