WIAW, Blog Thoughts, and A Trip to Providence

Hey readers!  I'm stopping by blogger here for a quick mid-week update!

The girls' cooking endeavors have been going great so far.  N cooked on Monday night and C cooked last night.  They have been so enthusiastic about it and really adept... I haven't had to help much at all.  The meals they have chosen have yielded lots of leftovers too, which makes my job preparing lunch the next day pretty easy, too!  I just finished a lunch of a leftover Caesar wrap and some "broccaroni and cheese" that N made Monday night, and it was soooo delicious.  Unlike a typical WIAW post I don't have a picture, but trust me, it looked and tasted great.  Even better because I didn't have to cook it :)

Because I talk so much about food here on the blog, I have considered starting a second food blog from time to time... mostly so I can stop being boring for the people who are just looking for family updates and stories!  I always seem to have a lot to say about food (and plenty of pictures of my food too... obsessed much?).  But as you know I can barely keep up with one blog, so I think two is probably not a very good idea for me at this point.  Maybe when the nest is empty I might have that kind of time again?  I have decided, however, that if I were to start a food blog I would call it "The Imperfect Vegan" because that's where I tend to fall on the food-eating spectrum these days.  About 85% percent plant-based.  It seems to be working out pretty well for me, health-wise.  I could write pages and pages about all that, but for now let's move on, lest I become too boring.  ;-}

Yesterday M found some Power Blocks on Craigslist for cheap-- both he and I have been wanting some since we started working out with Fitness Blender.  The seller was in Providence, so to make it worth the drive we decided to visit a museum there.  C had a playdate in the morning so we needed something small enough to do in an afternoon.  The Museum of Natural History proved to be exactly right!

The museum staff had prepared a scavenger hunt which the girls completed on clipboards as we made our way through, and they also had an adorable dragonfly craft available.  M enjoyed the exhibit on Oceania (called "Circle of the Sea") because he's reading about those cultures currently in his Patrick O'Brian novels.  I think my favorite exhibit was "Earth Through Time" because it reminded me of the PBS series First Peoples which I watched on the treadmill a few years ago and really enjoyed.

After the museum we took the short drive to nearby Pawtuxet Village and got some ice cream!

The mango sorbet was given J's hearty stamp of approval.

There was a lovely little park on the coast just down the road, too!

Seconds after L took the above photo, unfortunately, it began to rain pretty steadily, and almost in the same instant, we began to smell the stench of a rotting dead horseshoe crab in the grass just behind us.  Despite the picturesque view we beat a pretty hasty retreat for the car after that.

We got home close to 7 PM which is normally bedtime for girls, but C expertly took the helm when we arrived home and cooked her burgers.  I shucked the corn for her to save time since it was so late, but the rest she did on her own!  So proud!  We watched the America episode of First Peoples while eating our meal.  A great day!