Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! What an exhausting day. My family came down from NJ to visit for breakfast and lunch. It was so nice to see them. I love seeing them but boy is preparing for guests exhausting when you are anal about every detail of what you serve and what it looks like. I'm pretty sure I gained that trait from my mother.

A went to bed pretty early last night so I was left to my own devices of preparing everything early. This morning when I got up everything was already pre sliced, sautéed and ready to be put together. I even went as far as making own bread and making homemade butter. I never realized how easy it is to make homemade butter and the difference in taste it has until I tried it. I don’t think I can ever go back. All you do is take 2 cups of heavy whipping cream and whip around 10-15 minutes with a hand mixer. After about 10 minutes you will see the liquid (buttermilk) separate from the butter. Drain the buttermilk and keep mixing and draining until no more liquid is left and tadaaaaa, you have butter! Add salt if desired.

Most of my recipes this year came from Pinterest. I love, love, love Pinterest! There are so many great ideas already picked out for me and all I have to do is tag. I only wish there was ways of rating a recipe, it’s hard to know what recipe will be good or not without any rating's. I found myself lately steering clear of Pinterest for recipe's and sticking to Allrecipes instead.

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I would say it’s right up there with Christmas but one thing that creeps me out about Easter is the darn Easter Bunny costumes. Yes, sometimes there is a cute bunny and I noticed more of them (thank goodness!) this year but there are still a fair share of scary ones out there. Our homeowners association has an annual Easter Egg Hunt and I have no idea where they got their costume from, but my goodness, that thing can give kids nightmares for days! I will entertain you with a picture. Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing the bunny screaming "FUUUU*K" every time I look at his picture???

                                                                         Scary much?



Ok, Enough about scary bunnies.  A had an awesome time with her family and I am so glad. Last year she was too young to do much but this year she gave everyone a run for their money. She was like a little hurricane and it was nice having other's around to watch her while I get stuff done. It’s not a luxury I am used to. Here we are in our Easter best!!!

YMCA Fail

Since last September A and I had a membership at our local Gymboree in Wilmington, DE that lasted 6 months. It was great! Everyone was very friendly and made us always feel at home. We decided to get A a 6 month membership for her birthday which ran us around $300 but since the membership ended we would either have to get another 6 month membership or go on month to month billing which would be around $70 a month and that’s just crazy! For one class a week that’s a lot of money, not to mention it’s a 45 minute drive one way.

 We canceled the Gymboree membership and thought it would be a good idea to join our local YMCA in Newark, DE. YMCA has what's called “Child Watch” where you can leave your babe with the caretakers for up to 1.5 hours while the parent is on the premises. We thought this was a genius idea since A would be able to socialize not only with other kids but to also be able to learn to be with other adults. While she is there I can actually get some reading done and a little bit of working out, even though S and I laughed that you may find me in the lobby reading while A is in child watch.

 Well, we thought wrong. A wants nothing to do with it. I tried to be consistent in going often so she gets used to it with no luck. Unlike daycare she just isn’t there long enough to get attached to the teachers and almost every time we go there, there is a new teacher. At the ripe age of 16 months I don’t think she understands the concept of 'mommy is coming back soon' and she cries the second we turn the corner to sign her in.

 Yesterday was the final straw for me. When I went to pick her up after 45 minutes she was beet red, hot, sobbing like crazy and ran to me like someone was chasing her. When you are a parent nothing breaks your heart more than having to hold your babe and listen to them do those after cry hiccup sobs, it just broke my heart. We will look into revisiting the idea of YMCA in the summer time because they have a great pool and playing area for the kids. By then she will be older and maybe she can get more out of it.

Hello There!

I have been thinking of starting a blog for quite some time but just never had the time or energy to do so. In a world where privacy is scarce I was a little hesitant of putting our life experiences out there but figured why not, maybe someone can learn something from our family.

I'm a mama to a beautiful baby girl who keeps me busy all day long and always keeps me on my toes. She is 16 months old and I will call her A in this blog. I have a wonderful husband who I will call S and two adorable, rambunctious dogs Ella and Sam. We also can’t forget out little hermit crab Lisa!

 Our life is full of adventures and lessons learned every day. Being a stay at home mama I tend to learn something new with everything we do and it can be a fun but a frustrating journey at the same time. I look forward to writing about my experiences and sharing my world with others.