Playgrounds + Sesame Street

 

How was your weekend?

I enjoyed a nice, long hiatus from the blog over the holiday and it was honestly really nice to be free of technology for a few days. For today's Baby Talk Tuesday, I'm talking about some of the fun stuff we did with Penelope last week. P's school was closed for the Easter holiday on Thursday and Friday so I was home with her on Thursday and all of us were home together on Friday. We decided to stay in Jersey City and have some fun around town!

On Thursday, I knew this was my chance to get a lot of shopping and cooking out of the way for upcoming weekend festivities. P and I were up and out of the house early to hit the grocery store. Shaun and I had a lengthy list of items to prepare for the weekend, and Penelope was a champ in the store.

After we shopped til we were about to drop, I decided to stop at the park on the way home. It was just such a gorgeous day and Penelope was so excited to play on the slide and swings. She essentially did a circle of down the slide, up the stairs, down the slide, etc. Each time, she'd look at me and say 'One more time!' It was pretty adorable.

Pure joy. One of my favorite things about urban living is actually the playgrounds. They are mostly spectacular in Jersey City and there's just something about a beautiful park and playground smack in the middle of a city that feels very enchanting to me. It's also a great way to meet up with friends or meet new people. Penelope loves getting to run around and just play and I love watching her.

Eventually, I had to pull her away kicking and screaming, but we went home for a nice lunch and a long nap. My parents came over in the afternoon and we strolled over to Salumeria Ercolano for a very late (2nd) lunch before they headed into New York to see A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder --->they absolutely loved it, in case you are looking for a show to see.

 

On Friday, we were up bright and early and ready for a day at Liberty Science Center! LSC is a science museum right here in Jersey City. I remember going as a kid and have been really excited to take Penelope once she was old enough. They currently have an exhibit called Sesame Street The Body, which is recommended for ages 2 and up, so I was dying to get Penelope there while it was in town. Not only was I a super Sesame Street kid growing up, but if you recall, I also worked there when I first started my career, and so it has a very, very special place in my heart. I was really pumped to bring Penelope to her first museum exhibit at something close to home, and to see something really special to me.

The exhibit was nothing short of awesome. It was very hands on and perfect for P's age group and even a bit older.

We started at the mini mart, where P must've remembered her grocery shopping adventure (and apparently loved it more than I knew), because she was so into filling her basket with healthy fruits & veggies (fake) and ringing them up at the cash register.

The exhibit was set up into little stations for kids to participate. We visited the cafe counter where Penelope built herself a (wooden) sandwich.

P could measure her feet. Apparently they are about the size of Bert's.

There was a lung and heart station where kids could 'pump' the lungs with air, and 'beat' the heart.

She really loved the digestion station, especially the very end of the cycle ;)

We also dressed up Elmo for various weather conditions. Note she also wore her special Elmo sneakers for the occasion.

There was also a great animal exhibit that she absolutely loved. Turtles, reptiles, monkeys were there to see, and she also enjoyed viewing bugs through the microscope. Do we have a tiny scientist on our hands? That would be a new one for our family...

We had such a fun couple of days just finding fun things to do in Jersey City! It's great that Penelope is getting to an age where we can do these types of things and she loves them. We spent about 2 hours at LSC, which was plenty for her. Even P was ready to head home at this point. If you're in the area, it's open until May 3, so hurry up and get on over there!

What activities do you typically do with your kiddos?

Do you visit playgrounds with your kids? What's their favorite activity?

What I Ate: Doing the Dukan {kinda, sorta}

Happy Wednesday! I'm rounding up my daily eats for What I Ate Wednesday and linking up with Jenn @ Peas & Crayons.

This week, I've been trying to get back a little bit on the Dukan train. I just can't fathom the idea of pure protein, so I've just been doing protein & vegetable (PV) days. Not how the diet is intended to work, but hopefully I will see some results, albeit a bit more slowly. The last couple of days have actually been pretty tough and I find the absolute toughest part of the day is from the hours of 2-6. Here's hoping that my system is starting to adjust and that today is a better day!

Meanwhile, here's what I ate yesterday:

breakfast: loaded egg casserole, packed with veggies & low fat cheese

lunch: shaun made this awesome chef's salad with chopped romaine, cold cut pinwheels, olives, crumbled goat cheese, and topped with creamy balsamic.

snack time: string cheese, salami slices rolled up with laughing cow light creamy swiss

and since i was still hungry, some cottage cheese w/sweetener + ground cinnamon

dinner: maple mustard + tarragon roasted chicken thighs (boneless, skinless) with roasted green beans. this has become a go-to favorite meal. it's super simple and perfect for nights when we don't feel like cooking! there is so little work, it feels like not really cooking, yet huge payoff with this delicious dinner :)

dessert: Dukan galette (2 tbsp oat bran, 1 tbsp Greek yogurt, 2 tbsp liquid egg whites all mixed together & cooked like a pancake) topped with sugar free syrup + fat free whipped cream. this galette is such a life saver when following Dukan because it feels like such a special sweet treat!

So that wraps it up! I was happy to look back and see lots of veggies through the day. Zucchini, carrots, pepper, tomatoes in the egg casserole, a big leafy green salad, and a whole yummy stack of roasted green beans. It's my mission to keep this up!

What have you been eating lately?

PS: past WIAW posts/Christine's eats

Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies {video}

Hi everyone! I'm really excited to share something new and fun with you today. As I've been mentioning a lot lately, Penelope has been very interested in cooking and helping in the kitchen. So this weekend, P and I spent Saturday and Sunday food prepping for the week and well, I went ahead and set up the video camera to share some of it with you.

I hope you enjoy our first cooking video together and get some tips on how to incorporate your own kids into cooking with you! We made these simple chocolate cake mix cookies and Easterified them with jelly beans and mini chocolate eggs. I do think P's favorite part was chowing down on the jelly beans & chocolate while Mom did a lot of the work, but that's why it's great to be the chef, right?

I hope this is the first of many videos to come, but I was in a rush to get this one up and out before Easter! You can follow sweet p's kitchen adventures on our sweet p kitchen YouTube channel. I also have a few bonus videos up there for ya.

Enjoy and have a wonderful Tuesday!