April 2012 Month in Review (and vacation recap)

My family just returned from a week on the east coast, so many of my recent posts were pre-written. We had a wedding to attend, spent some time with my parents and brother, and even squeezed in a couple days at the beach. We had a great trip, but it made for a hectic month, especially as it coincided with real diaper week. I was still able to participate in the Great Cloth Diaper Change–we joined up with an event in Philadelphia, but I didn't get the chance to blog about it until now. The event we attended was hosted by Nurture, which is a store in Ardmore, PA that sells boutique baby/mama items, including a few brands of cloth diapers. It was fun to be a part of the event, and I can't wait to hear whether we broke the record this year! We also used a local diaper service while on vacation, which worked out well. It's such a great way to travel with cloth.

While in Philly, we also went to the Please Touch Museum, which is a fabulous children's museum. Penny absolutely loved it, and it was so much better than our children's museum in Omaha. I loved that they had lots of activities for even the littlest guys. If you're ever in Philly with the kids, check it out. Although, it's kind of pricy in my opinion. We also visited the Philadelphia zoo, which was fun too, but I think I actually prefer the Omaha zoo, as it's a little more spread out and roomy. Penny had lots of fun in the children's zoo petting the goats and practicing her animal sounds every time she saw something she recognized. Actually, it completely did not matter to her whether she knew the animal or not–she had a sound for everything whether it was right or not. Who knew there were so many cats at the zoo?!

Penny had a blast playing with her grandparents and her Uncle Will. She provided endless entertainment and was a total trooper through the whole trip. She really is such a good-natured kid. She was very adaptable, slept well, ate well, and was even good in restaurants. We ate at some fabulous places that have locally-sourced food. Check out Supper and Farmicia if you're ever in Philadelphia. And I always, always go to Sweet Freedom and buy one of everything whenever I'm in town. It's an allergen-friendly bakery, and everything they make is free of all of the major allergens, also vegan and refined-sugar free. You'd think everything would taste like cardboard, right? Wrong. Everything is fantastic. I think they must have a magic wand in the back. I really don't know how else they make this stuff. My favorites are the oat bar crumbles, the chocolate banana cupcakes, and the oatmeal raisin cookies. Can you please open one in Omaha? Please?!

Ok, enough about our vacation. Here's the April month in review in case you missed anything.

In April, I talked a lot about food, food, and more food.

I only did a little bit of sewing in April, and it was all ruffled. I guess I caught See Kate Sew's ruffle fever: ruffled bonnet & upcycled softball t-shirt to ruffled dress and ruffled "i love you" sunshine clutch.

I also showcased my mom's craftiness in my new "crafty family" blog segment with her gorgeous hooked wool rugs.

I joined in the real diaper week blog hop by posting about various cloth diaper topics:
Real Diaper Week Day 1: Cloth Diaper FOR FREE
Real Diaper Week Days 2&3: benefits of cloth
Real Diaper Week Day 4: Cloth diaper in daycare
Real Diaper Week: Day 5: Traveling with cloth

I also shared our fabulous new "Big Brother" Nursery Cam/iphone video monitor, which we still think is about the coolest thing ever and I posted Budgeting Templates that you all are free to use to get your finances organized.

I hope April was a great month for you all. In May, I am looking forward to crossing some big projects off of my sewing to-do list, finding ways to reduce my use of plastic and disposable items, blogging about a really fabulous new affiliate, and taking some time to smell the flowers. Literally. We have such a beautiful garden, and I really want to share it with you all. Happy May Day!