Saturday, February 25, 2012

Hot Dogs, Stir Fry and Chili & a quick trip!

Last week in review: A little late!
The kids and hubbie have been super sick- fevers and flu like junk- no fun. They are just starting to feel better. I headed out of town for the weekend on a short two day trip to my parents house for a little mini-vaca. After that great trip to Vegas that previous weekend, for some grocery shopping we were excited to try some of the thing we bought...a few meals we had last week...

Veggie Hot Dogs with Asperagus and Home made potato chips
Hubbie bbq'd the dogs on the grill and they turned out great! 
 Veggie Stir Fry with Rice Noodles, Kimichi and Organic Miso Soup
 Quinoa Bean Chili with Corn Bread
Quinoa was a great meat substitute- two kinds of beans and onion and tomatoes- yumm

Took a nice trip out of town, back home to spend two days at my parents house- Meatless meals weren't too hard to come by- Mexican food is always a good choice- and breakfast I found a great Hash brown meal with spinach, tomato and mushrooms and egg substitute from IHOP- oh the best! Yumm. Me with my kids two kitties (Comet & Jupiter) that my parents keep for them-
Onto this weekend...we are ready for some basketball, crafting, sewing, shopping and playing!!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Road Trip Grocery Trip

Weekend Review- The weekend started Friday since the kids have no school that day- we hung out at home, did a drive by on a house for sale then checked out clothes and shoes at Target and headed to Subway for veggie sandwiches for dinner then to our daughters basketball game- they lost but it was a great game, the kids all played very well!

Saturday we all headed to our son's game, even with being hit in the mouth, cutting his lip then hit in the nose, he still got in the game and did great. Afterwards, we picked up our co-op basket of fruits and veggies and were very excited over some yummy asparagus and pineapple and mango's and less thrilled with yet another cauliflower! Hitting recipe sites online to check out yet more options for cauliflower dishes...we have really been enjoying Indian curries, so perhaps another round of that type dish..we'll see!

Being that there is not much selection of stores or items near us we have been talking about heading to Vegas to check out Whole Foods Market and some other food stores...so on a whim we decided why not, let's go! To Vegas we went...a trip to Fry's first to look around at Electronics, then to Whole Foods Market, Greenland Market for Asian foods, had yummy Sushi, rice and vegetable noodle soup for dinner then a Boba drink for desert, a drive down the strip at night so the kids could see the casino's lit up and off to home we went- and instead of sleeping children in the back seat we got loud, singing children in the back seat- very entertaining to say the least! A great family day together.

 Showed the kids the Luxor- where hubbie and I stayed after getting married
 Awesome Asian market with the biggest selection of mushrooms you've ever seen!

 Mango drink
 Kids wanted to see Vegas lit up!

And as for Sunday....family breakfast of Apple Fritters- home made by my two favorite guys-
and after, some shopping, animal cage cleaning, laundry, and a trip to the park for some family basketball practice! Another fantastic weekend.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Cupcakes, Meals & Homeschool

Weekend Review: The weekend really started Friday when our daughter had her evening basketball game. Her team didn't win but we were proud to see her get out there more than she had in the first game- you can really tell she's starting to understand the game and become more confident in playing. Saturday morning came really early when our son had his 8am game. And again, he hasn't played much during the last few games, if at all and all of the sudden, he was a different kid this game! He was out there on the court, making baskets, passing to his team mates and didn't want to go out of the game at all! It is an amazing experience to truly see your children gain confidence, have fun doing something new. I'm proud of both my kids so much. A quick pic of our #9 :)
After the Saturday game we had a great family afternoon taking a trip to the Library then played some basketball at the park nearby and rented a movie for family movie night, 'Mr Poppers Penguins' which the whole family enjoyed. A great day.

Sunday we had family breakfast of pancakes- our daughter mixes the batter and our son loves making and flipping the pancakes. This Sunday I only had to supervise- how awesome! Then we did our 'family work' together, taking care of cleaning rooms, the animals and starting laundry. And finally it was time for some fun...art, food and cooking all in one- Rainbow cup cakes- kids had so much fun with something so simple!

A few weekend meals: Another version of Indian Cauliflower Curry over rice- we just keep getting those cauliflowers in our co-op baskets!
 And this was the best sandwich ever!! I highly recommend it! Eggplant Sandwich and a side of Plantains. Sandwich has grilled eggplant, tomatoes, fresh chopped basil, feta cheese and garlic/mayo on a toasted sub roll- to die for!!

Homeschooling
I have been reading books about other families experiences with homeschool and came across a great paragraph that was stating that this one family removed their 8th grade daughter from the public system and they wanted her to have the freedom to choose what she wanted to learn and when she was asked, she could not think of anything she was interested in. The Mother realized that with so many years in public school the daughter had become accustomed to someone else telling her what she was going to learn. The family decided to give the daughter three months of nothing- letting her take a break to de-school. Then one day, on her own the daughter came to the parents asking to study more about a subject and letting them know she was ready to learn.
I think about this story as I recall our frustration with our daughter last school year when we homeschooled and how it was like pulling teeth to try and get her to choose something to study. Our son, who had only been in a year of preschool was full of interests. Our daughter knows next year she'll be homeschooled, which she is thrilled, excited and can't wait for. So, even being a long time ahead we've started talking and making conversation about interests to pursue in schooling. I had such a proud moment the other day when she came to me and told me since she loves American Girl, and has read books about Felicity in the American Revolution time period, she would like to study and learn more about that era and everything about it- more about the American Revolution, more about girls and womens roles during that time, what their clothing was like, about Williamsburg where Felicity is from- everything. Amazed, proud, excited- Such great feelings I have- I am ready for it to be next school year already too and be home schooling my children.