Kate's spring

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peeps!

The results are in for the fourth annual Washington Post Peeps Diorama Contest. Check it out here! Notice the children's books that inspired the peeps- "Up", "Goodnight Moon", "Where the Wild Things (Peeps) Are", "Madeline" and more. Here's the winner from last year:

freebie day

Today is both Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's (noon-8PM) and Free Pastry Day at Starbucks (until 10:30AM- print out the coupon at the link). Just to make your day a little bit sweeter!

boxing day

A cardboard box, laundry basket, empty diaper box, and even a full toy chest tends to provide more entertainment for Sean and Kate than Thomas or Dora. They just want to climb right in. Sean's nightmare is when a box is broken down to go to recycling. At this point, the box is a ramp for his Hotwheels or a makeshift Radiator Springs. It's a dance floor/marching mat for Kate.

Clever books have been written about the allure of the box. Antoinette Portis' "Not a Box" and Leslie Patricelli's "The Birthday Box" are both favorites.

happy st. patrick's day!

snowball

Snow Ball

I made myself a snow ball as perfect as could be
I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me
I made it some pajamas and a pillow for it's head
Then, last night it ran away
But first -- it wet the bed.

Shel Silverstein

Malley's factory

Chocolate! As soon as you get out of the car, the smell of chocolate surrounds you. It lifts you inside just like the scent of a pie left on the windowsill carries your favorite cartoon character. Malley's on Brookpark Road is decked out for Easter with chocolate rabbits and eggs in different flavors and colored wrappers. The Oompa Loompas are chanting "oompa loompa doompety dee, if you are wise you'll listen to me" on six tv screens in the back of the retail shop.

We went for the self-guided tour. We walked through the door and saw chocolate bunnies as large as Kate getting decorated with frosting. The factory is all to the right behind glass. Up close on a ledge are posters, books, molds, cookbooks and memorabilia from the past all meant to teach you about where chocolate comes from, how it is made, and how Malley's came to be. Behind that are conveyor belts and industrial mixers. The employees waved to the kids and looked like they were enjoying their jobs.

The latest Malley's treat is a chocolate covered Twinkie. We saw a group of employees unwrapping individual Twinkies and placing them on the belt to get drenched in chocolate. Caramels were cut and broken apart, carried to another belt where they were married with a marshmallow and also covered in chocolate. I wondered if the employees ever quickly throw a caramel into their mouth. I would. The tour was like watching an episode of Unwrapped (which I enjoy even though my husband claims that every show is the same- he's right but I still love it). You can spend 5 minutes walking the tour hallway or 30 minutes if you read everything.

- Cameras are not permitted on the tour.

to market, to market

Daddy dropped us off at the West Side Market while he had to give a presentation at work on his day off. We split a hot dog from Johnny's, a butter and sugar crepe from Crepes De Luxe, and a cone of cheese a popcorn from Campbell's Popcorn. We took our treats to the balcony and watched the hustle and bustle.

It was actually pretty quiet this Monday compared to the Saturday crowds. Many vendors weren't open which helped me to resist the temptation to buy something from everybody. We went home with some candy and new spices and rices.

Walking through the market is thrilling to me. I imagine it must be sensory overload if you are walking or being strolled by the cases at eye level with the food. Lucky! Sean pointed out pigs feet and cheese and beef tongue and loaves of bread.

The real excitement came when Sean pointed to a cart and asked the butcher, "What animal is that?" It was an entire lamb! "Baaa!" said Kate so I strolled on over to the case of cupcakes.