Healthy Smoothies

I thought I'd share a newly discovered healthy lunch the kids and I have been eating daily. On a friend's blog I read that she makes smoothies which include greens such as spinach, kale or chard. I was sure it would taste gross but thought I'd give it a whirl. I happened to have one of those huge bags of spinach from Costco!

Here's my "recipe":

pack blender 1/3 full of raw spinach (about 1 and 1/2 C packed?)
1 ripe banana
about 1 C Nancy's honey yogurt
dash of vanilla extract
1/2 tomato
juice, milk, coconut milk or soymilk for liquid
about 2 tsp. coconut oil (don't put it next to the frozen stuff or it hardens)
about 2 T frozen 100% juice concentrate (I just keep the can in the freezer and take spoonfuls out and it lasts me probably 10 batches of smoothies)
frozen kiwi, strawberries, blackberries, etc. (I happen to have frozen kiwi left over from last summer and I buy the large bag of frozen berries and frozen strawberries (I have to soften these a bit in the microwave) from Costco. I've also used frozen peaches that I cut up and froze last summer).
I tried putting hard-boiled eggs into a smoothie once. The kids thought it tasted great, but I think I could taste it.
My mother-in-law has also put frozen peas into a smoothie and thought that tasted good.
You can also grind up some flaxseed and add that.

If my blender is filled to the top it makes enough for a large smoothie for me and 3 kid-sized smoothies.

The kids love these smoothies! Sometimes I give them a spoon full of peanut butter after the smoothie for a little bit of extra protein.

My Silly Girl

The other day Grace skinned her knee on our front patio. Ever since she has talked daily of how much it hurts and how she needs medicine (we are talking a little tiny scrape here that's already scabbed over :) I finally got tired of hearing about it and applied some "medicine" for her. I took a bit of coconut oil on a napkin and gently rubbed it in to the scrape. She was so happy and right away said how it didn't hurt anymore. The coconut oil also rubbed off the remaining goo left from the bandaid which was a bonus. We'll see whether she asks for more medicine tonight. I'm guessing she will :)

We're Seeing Green!

We finally have some grass in the front yard! So what if it's an entire 8 months after we had intended to get it in :) We will certainly appreciate our grass a lot more now than if we'd never had to do without it!
All the guys who were here for the birthday party (see previous post) worked on laying the sod on Saturday. Laying the sod didn't actually take that long, it was all the prep work on the dirt the past month or so that took most of the time. The dirt was so lumpy and rocky that Dave and Mike had quite the time getting it "perfectly" smooth for a nice lawn.
Now, about the backyard....hmmm, I think I'll not dwell on that yet. It's a little overwhelming.

It looks like Weston is doing pretty well at supervising my dad and Mike! They had to dig out one of the sprinkler pipes that disappeared suddenly. The sprinkler heads will be added later.

Here Weston looks like he's working :)

Here he's supervising again. This time Papa John. ;)

Weston is 5!

Hard to believe our oldest is 5 years old! The time has gone so fast since having kids!
We celebrated Weston's birthday with both sets of grandparents and Mike's brother, Tim, who came down from Seattle just for the day. We celebrated with a sports theme and my mom graciously made Weston's soccer ball cake. It turned out great!
Mike's parents contributed a cool dump truck pinata which Weston loved. He took some turns hitting on it, then Grace took some turns. After Grace's turn Weston grabbed the blindfold and the bat and starting whacking on it so quickly that he almost got Grace in the head. She hadn't had time to move out of the way yet!
Some of his birthday "loot" included a microscope, slip 'n slide, bicycle, toy chain saw, real soccer goal, sunglasses, markers, GI Joes, etc. He made quite the haul!
Weston kept saying over and over how this was his best birthday ever ;) Apparently this was his favorite out of the 1 or 2 birthdays he can actually remember ;)

Don't look too closely at Weston's face! We forgot to wipe off the lasagna dinner before taking photos!

He received some fun outdoor toys (now if we could ever get the backyard grass in so they can use them) :)

Grace has wanted some swimming goggles ever since she used some at a couple of swimming lessons my mom took her to.

Don't Buy Stuff You Can't Afford!

This is a funny video I saw on a friend's blog. Very true although I think it's anti-American!

It's a...

BOY!!! We are pretty excited to meet our new little boy in September! Mike and I went out on a date this morning to breakfast before our ultrasound appointment at 9 a.m. For the first half of the appointment the baby was in a position where the technician couldn't get some measurements on the spine and heart or tell the gender. The technician had me go potty and lay on my side for 5 minutes to see if the baby would turn over. He did!

In the top photo you can see the baby's hand up by his mouth. In the bottom photo the baby had his legs all the way up over his head. I think he was about ready to do a back flip.

We'll tell the kids tonight when we go out as a family to celebrate (if I can make it without slipping up for that long :). It's a tradition that we go out and pick out an outfit for the new baby!

Little House on the Prairie Reading

We've been enjoying the Laura Ingalls Wilder series for the past month or so. We are currently reading "Farmer Boy". Although it's #2 in the series I decided to skip to #3 and then go back to read about Almanzo's childhood before I continue on to book #6, when Laura and Almanzo meet. These books are perfect for both Weston and I to enjoy together (Grace likes them also)! They are "girl" enough for me, but full of adventure and danger for Weston. I've loved using the books to teach Weston about how life was in the "olden days". We've been amazed at how hard children had to work back then. Survival was not taken for granted!
We've learned about things such as churning butter, making cheese, slaughtering pigs, building cabins, hunting, Indian territory, harvest time, etc, etc, etc. It's made me very excited to read to the kids over the years. There are so many wonderful books to read together!

Little Pigs

On Saturday Weston and Grace went out to "help" Mike and Dave on the yard. Mike sent them out back when he started to spray chemical weed-killer in the front. This is how I found them about 3 minutes later. They managed to find and wallow in the only remaining mud puddle on the entire property. Grace had so much mud in her hair I had to wash it twice. We had to hose off their clothes, rinse them in the sink, wash them with an extra rinse cycle and still there was mud in the bottom of the washer!
Thankfully, we'll at least have sod in the front yard by this next weekend (if all goes as planned). The backyard sod will have to wait until Dave and Julie return from their trip to Ireland towards the end of May.

Soccer Star!

Here's Weston at his second soccer game! Weston is having a great time participating in his first organized sport. We decided to try out a soccer league called Eastside United FC this year. It's been more commitment than we anticipated, but lots of fun. A great opportunity for character development!
All the kids at his level are 5 yrs or will be 5 this summer. They practice once a week and the games are 3 on 3 about once a week. We discovered on Saturday that most of the kids on the opposing teams participated in fall soccer as well. We kept wondering how the other teams were so good at only their first and second games! The team they played against at the first game even had professional-looking jerseys with their numbers on them!
Let's just say our team has major work to do! None of the 6 kids on our team have played soccer before and 5 of the 6 kids seem to have pretty passive personalities. They generally follow the the ball instead of trying to take it away from the other team. At one point the girls on our team were playing patty-cake with each other as the other team went right by and scored! After the other team had scored about 15 goals and we'd scored 1 we finally put more of our players in. They other team was very kind and they even cheered for us when we kicked a goal! I think they were relieved for us! Another time two of their players were distracted at the other side of the field, so they only had 1 player next to the ball against 5 of our players. She still managed to get the ball away and score! 5 on 1!!!
This was a conversation Mike and Weston had towards the end of the first game:

Weston: Dad, who's winning?
Mike: Oh, we don't keep score.
Weston: I think they're winning.
Mike: Why do you think that?
Weston: Because we've only had one goal and their girl put it in our net on accident. :)

Despite the difference in skill level, we are having a great time. We are so proud of Weston having a great attitude and learning to work hard as a team. Although he's the smallest on the team he tries the hardest and doesn't "space out". Of course I'm kinda biased as his mom :)
He also looks pretty cute in his uniform! Notice his golden soccer cleats I found on Ebay for $5. Pretty cool!

Grace the Tumble-Bunny!

Here are a few photos of Grace and Laelie at tumbling class. We signed them up for 4 classes through parks and rec and they loved it! Tonight was our 3rd and last class. We have to miss next week as it lands on the same night as a parenting class for church. The class consisted of 30 minutes of obstacle course to music, trampoline, stretches and the big rainbow parachute. At this age the parents stay with the kids the entire time. You'll notice Grace is wearing her fancy "tumble suit". She felt very big and proud of herself :)
This Saturday Weston will be playing in his second soccer game of the season. I'll make sure to take some photos to post soon. Soccer has proven very fun, but is more of a time-commitment than we anticipated. Mike is also assistant coaching the team.