Random Monday - yummy cupcakes, menus and the Winner!

Today's post is probably a good representation of how scatterbrained I've been feeling lately. {{blushing}} If you're interested to hear who won the fabulous Medela Swing pump and bottle set giveaway, be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this slightly rambling post!

First, a big thanks to Megan from Whatever for sharing her frosting recipes a week or so ago - one of them was just a slight varitaion of the recipe I use for frosting cookies, and I never considered using it for cupcakes - yum!! Sweetpea was taking cupcakes to daycare today to celebrate her birthday, so I used the bottom recipe from this post and it was delish. As an added bonus, frosting with a ziploc was totally easy = one happy mama!

Besides cupcakes, here is what we're planning for dinners this week:

Monday: pork chops with blue cheese gravy and roasted potatoes

Tuesday: chicken empanadas

Wednesday: pulled pork with mashed potatoes and green beans

Thursday: pork and pasta with vegetables

Friday: sweet potato burritos

I used a pork loin from the freezer that I'd purchased when it was on sale for most of this week's meals. I sliced the package in half, and put half directly in the crockpot to make my fabulously easy and delicious slow cooker pulled pork. The other half was sliced into "chops" and fried in the skillet. Half of those were saved for Monday's dinner, the other half were sliced for the pasta dish we'll be having later this week.

I'm not supposed to have soft, unpasturized cheeses since I'm pregnant, but they are such a weakness of mine that I've been finding ways to add them to cooked dishes. The blue cheese gravy is so yummy and simple. I made a quick pan gravy after frying up the "chops" by adding some beef broth to get up the pan drippings, a few pats of butter, and about a teaspoon of flour. I added more broth (about a half cup) and let it simmer until it was bubbly and getting thick, then I dumped in about a half cup or so of blue cheese and stirred until it was mixed. Then I tasted it to make sure the proportions were right... {{swoon}} For more menu ideas, be sure to visit OrgJunkie's menu plan monday!

Finally, the Medela pump and bottle set winner - I have I mentioned lately that I wish I'd been eligible to enter this giveaway? ;) To make things easier for my addled brain, I deleted any non-entry comments and/or duplicate or previously "deleted by author" comments - that left me with 80 eligible entries. Then I pulled up random.org and learned our winner was entry #51 - Congratulations Lisa P from Is it Monday Already!

Happy Birthday, Sweetpea!

Yesterday my Sweetpea turned 2 years old {{gasp}}! It was a beautiful 70 degree day here in the chilly midwest, so we got to spend a lot of time outside, much to everyone's delight. We also had a fun lunch with Mamaw at a a famous old ice cream shop - wonderful! All in all it was a very enjoyable day, and a perfect way to celebrate our little girl!

Every day she seems to be learning something new, and it is so much fun to watch. She has an easy smile, an infectious laugh, a caring heart, and the desire to help whenever she can. We are starting to see those temper tantrums, but so far mostly when she is tired or hungry and they don't last too long. Dancing, coloring, building blocks and playing outside are a few of her very favorite things.

Happy Birthday, Sweetpea, I can't wait to see what this next year will bring!

Wordful Wednesday - Fun at the Children's Museum

One of the fun trips we took while I was on "vacation" a few weeks back was to Indianapolis to visit the wonderful children's museum there. EmDee was out of town, but Mamaw was nice enough to come with us for the fun! We drove up on Monday after lunch, and Sweetpea napped the entire way. We arrived at our hotel just before 4pm - we chose to stay in a hotel with a water park, which opened at 4pm - perfect timing! After checking in and getting settled, we headed down to the water park in our suits. I was worried that many of the attractions were going to be too big, but it was perfectly oriented for little people. We enjoyed a large water fort with small slides and dumping buckets, a lazy river and a zero entry pool area with small water spouts.

The next morning we got up and headed to the museum. We stayed until just before 2pm and headed home. It was a great little mini getaway, and we all had so much fun! Here are a few highlights from our trip.

Sweetpea and Mamaw just before we left for Indianapolis.
Checking out the fossils - that tooth is huge!
The carousel cost to ride or Sweetpea would have wanted to stay here all day!
Having tea with the four little bears...(is that how the story goes?)
Sweetpea LOVED the hall of mirrors - she had the best time trying to find her way in and around the various rooms.
Checking out the big sand table...so much bigger than the one we have at home.
Sweetpea loves trains, she was in heaven moving the cars around the tracks and over the bridges.
These tool boxes were bolted to the floor - she went around gathering all the wooden blocks to build a tower. Then she went around trying to lift each one up off the floor - mommy, why are they stuck?!
This airplane looked super exciting, but when she realized it didn't move or rock she was on to the next attraction.

Most of these pictures were in the section specially designed for 2-5yr olds. There were some displays of interest on other floors, but I love that this museum is going to grow with Sweetpea for many years to come!