Panacea Peanuts

This girl is super into trains this weekend! We watched some more of the hour-long California trains video this morning, while Emmie and her baby doll did some scooting around the living room.Then she did some morning yoga…And then we hit the road! We got CFA chicken minis & OJ for breakfast, and ate in the car on the way to the beach.And we had a great time at Bald Point State Park! Emerson loved wandering around in the sand on the beach, sitting in her little chair, and looking at all the things. Then we walked down to the water, and she LOVED the waves crashing on her toes! She would laugh and giggle so big when each wave would come. It was so adorable! So we tried to wade out in in the water with her, but she got a little bit uneasy about it. We did go out further, but she was clinging on to one of us for dear life, with her arms & legs wrapped so tight around us. But we took it slow, and played in the water and slowly showed her that she could stand and it wasn’t scary. Then we made friends with another family out there, and they let Emmie hold a little toy boat, and I think that distraction really helped her to calm down. Because before we knew it, she was finally standing up on her own, playing with the boat, and just having a great time! She eventually got super bold, and Little Miss Independent didn’t even want me to hold on to her. (But of course I kept my hands on her at all times still.) But I was so impressed with her, and so glad she finally warmed up to it, and had a blast!We stayed for about three hours, and started packing up when she started getting too sleepy. Also, the sand flies were terrible out there! So if you weren’t in the water, they were biting you. So we had had enough of that. So we got packed up, and changed into some dry clothes, and this baby conked out within literally 90 seconds once the car started rolling.And we stopped and bought my favorite snack on the way home – boiled peanuts! An overflowing quart sized bag for $5 was a great deal! I ate at least half the bag on the way home, so we just got smoothies from McDonald’s once we got back to Tally.Oh, and here’s a little trip down memory lane… the first photo is Memorial Day Weekend 2015, and the second one is MDW 2014! (And yes, I’m wearing the same floppy white hat in both photos, and it’s the same one I wore today. Although now it’s a little less white…)So then this afternoon, the three of us came out to the car to go get my Walmart grocery order, only to discover neither of us had keys, and we were locked out of the house. So we called my parents, and they came over to rescue us with their spare key. They unlocked the house for us, and stayed with Emmie while we ran to Walmart. And we juts happen to cmoe across this key machine while we were there, so we got three copies made. (It was buy two, get one free.) So now we will hide some outside (in top secret locations you blog readers would never be able to find), so hopefully we don’t do this again… For dinner, I had planned to make a new recipe I found for Indian Butter Chicken, with basmati rice & naan bread. But I couldn’t find the one key ingredient (garam masala) in our Publix or Walmart, so I’m going to keep looking, and try it one night next week. So instead, we had dinner at Burrrito Boarder. And it was delicious. I didn’t finish my burrito bowl, but I was stuffed!After dinner, we did bath time, and books, and bedtime, and this girl was just exhausted.  She was super easy to put down for bedtime tonight!And then I got busy in the kitchen! First, I made Chocolate Peanut Butter bars from recipe I got out of a book I read last week. (Kitchens of the Great Midwest). It was simple, and it doesn’t look like much, but the recipe won sweets competitions in county fairs (in the book), so I’m hoping they are yummy. I also boiled some potatoes & eggs, and I’m going to make egg salad! Actually, I need to go get started on that, so I can get to sleep at a decent time. (We are having a family dinner at my sister’s house tonight, so that’s why I made the bars & the potato salad.)So I’m going to go peel the potatoes & eggs, chop them both, and add in mayo, relish, dill, S&P, and see how it turns out! (This is actually my first time making it, so, you never know…) Then I’m going to go crash into bed, after such a busy day!

Oh, and one more note – if any of  you were around to read my blog back in the day, circa 2010-2013, that website was titled, “Penguins, Pasta & Polka Dots.” And every single blog post title began with a word that started with a P, and I rarely ever repeated words. (I literally had a Word document where I kept track of P words used, and a list of ideas to use.) Most people didn’t even notice, which was frustrating because I worked hard at those titles, and thought I was so clever. But, whatcha gonna do?! So today after buying the peanuts, I was thinking about today’s blog post, and in my head I titled it “Panacea Peanuts,” as if I was still trying to name every single post with a P word. Plus, I do still love alliteration. So I just kept the title 😉