Day 5 & a Wild Zoo experience

Ahhh day five! Yes! Finally through almost a full week.  Today I definitely earned my meals, we hiked all over the zoo today. If you've never been to Omaha, it is worth at least a drive through for Henry Doorly Zoo, top zoo hands down!  They had a new dinosaur exhibit that was quite amazing. Although my middle man would tell you different- he did not uncover his eyes for one second and pretty much screamed the whole way through.  Nice.  Nothing like a screaming child, hiking for miles around a zoo in 98 degree weather.  Lovely, lovely.  Top it off I did not pack a lunch as I thought we'd be done by then, so I relied on tea and water to push me through until lunch. Honestly- no hunger pangs!

See told ya

All the other brave souls

Breakfast today: Banana "muffin", chicken sausage, and some sort of egg crepe thing- no name for that.

Lunch: Leftover meat sauce and carrots- definitely my favorite meat sauce!!  Just omit the sugar.  

 Dinner: My new favorite salad.  Chicken fajita salad. Oh my it was super simple and super delicious.  I was surprised.  I didn't even mind the avocado. There is just something about that stuff that I can't get around- texture thing probably.

Day 3 - Check!

I awoke and my headache was gone- thank you!! I am still feeling really sluggish in the mornings and late afternoon- it's all I can do to not nap with my younger son.  I realized today that eating on the road, can cause some issues.  So lunch was nothing special and I am sure it did not meet the Whole 30 standards, but veggies were not available.

Breakfast: a couple slices of the quiche- trying to polish that off, and some monkey salad.  I think next time I make it I will try the white sweet potatoes- it's just too sweet for my taste.

Lunch: A sad mix of a Cherry Pie Lara bar (my favorite!) and a couple of slices of whole 30 approved beef jerky my husband made.  Not exciting at all, and no pics since we were driving to Splash Station.

Dinner: Spaghetti squash spaghetti, using this recipe for the sauce.  I omitted the sugar, but it was still fantastic, and I saw no need for the sugar at all.  I also chopped up some cucumber and carrots and topped with a little homemade greek dressing using this recipe.

Snacks: I didn't have any snacks today, which I am glad considering how little I ate for lunch.  I felt completely satisfied after each meal- which is a bonus.  

Exercise: 20 minutes on the bag, and sit-ups. Nothing fantastic. 

On a side note- took the kids to Splash Station today.  Even though it was 90 degrees the water was super cold! So my baby cried, the middle one pouted, and the older one tried to have fun but gave up. Oh well next time! 

pouting....

Splash Station 

Grilling & Art

         Weird combo I know, but that is how I roll.  Last night we had the best grilled steaks and tomatoes.  I found a recipe on pinterest for grilled garlic tomatoes, but there wasn't any real amounts and actually I am not a thyme fan.  So of course I had to change it up to work for us.  We are still doing the clean eating so this recipe fell in perfectly.   Paired with some organic strips from the cow we purchased from my uncle it was amazing! I also think this would be perfect to top on some nice crunchy bread, maybe even some creamy goat cheese!! Yum!!

 

You will need:

5 romas

1/4 C EVOO 

5 tsp minced garlic

1/4 C parmesan

sprinkling of sea salt

sprinkling of  pepper

 2 tsp of my favorite seasoning Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute 

Slice the tomatoes in half and season with salt and pepper.  

In a small saute pan mix up the garlic and EVOO and cook until garlic softens.  

Add in 21 Salute and parmesan.  When you're done it will look something like this.  

Next place the tomatoes on the grill seasoned side down.  Grill for a minute or so until they are warm and char marks appear.  Flip and spread the seasoning on them.  Grill for about 4 minutes more.  Until skin starts to fall off and they are all warm and melty! Like this.  Eat right away!!

Lastly I have found the most wonderful app for the iPhone called ArtKive.  It is amazing!! I have three children and the first is just getting into Kindergarten.  He brings home about 5 pieces of art and work every day, so I needed a way other than putting in the filing box to save.   I found the link on pinterest an had to check it out.  All you do is take a picture with your phone and it is saved into your account.  You can categorize work by date/grade and child, great if you have multiple children.  You can share the album with family via email. They are currently getting ready to launch a way to convert it to a print album.  How awesome is that!!

Pizza and Play

Today we knocked another thing off our bucket list, a "drive in" movie.  I snagged a few boxes from Lowes at about $1 a piece it is well worth the money for hours of enjoyment, then  the boys went crazy with glue and crayons creating their cars. Forgot to actually get out my camera and take pics...oops!  So you'll have to settle for an Instagram.

What is better than a movie?? How about pizza and a movie!!  So time to try a new recipe.  I had some leftover BBQ sauce, and some grilled chicken.  Throw in a crust, some onion and cheese and viola! BBQ chicken pizza.

 BBQ Chicken Pizza 

1 Pizza Crust ( I like the thin crust, but use what you love) 

2 Chicken breasts diced 

1 cup Cheddar Jack Cheese 

3 TBL chopped cilantro (more or less to your liking) 

3/4 C BBQ sauce 

1/4 red onion chopped 

Pepperocinis or jalapeno for  a little extra heat!! 

Heat oven to 400 or as directed by pizza crust package.  

Top pizza with BBQ sauce, chicken, onion, cilantro, peppers, and cheese.  

Cook for 8-10 minutes ( or according to pizza crust directions) 

** I made two variations one with Famous Dave' Rich and Sassy and one with their Georgia Mustard.  Personally I loved the Georgia Mustard with just a dusting of Rich and Sassy mixed in.**

Exploding Type of Day

It is finally starting to cool down here, we actually stayed in the 90's today!!!  So today I took the boys outside and tried another pinned idea for exploding bags.  My 5 year old is a science nut so he hears experiment and comes running.  It was pretty fun and they had a great time comparing it to when their volcanoes erupted.  

We also made some of the sidewalk paint I have seen pinned so many times on Pinterest that I had to try.  They painted outside for almost two hours.  Although I did discover when washing it off that the blue is still remaining.  I may have to tackle that clean up tomorrow. 

Torture

        The post title has many meanings at this point.  Torture n: anguish of body or mind.  With the 100 degree heat wave we've had I have definitely had some anguish of the body and the mind... I also took it upon myself to torture my poor child at the swim park the other day.  I am that parent that made the poor guy climb four flights of stairs getting more anxious each step and then proceeded to completely flip when he saw what lay ahead.  
      A water slide, I mean who doesn't love them?? Obviously my 5 year old did not! But we had made it to the top, we couldn't go back down... so me plopping him on the mat with me and just saying it will be fun don't worry.  (yeah right)  And you know what, I think that little guy actually may have liked it, had he not gotten a mouth full of water as we plunged into the pool at the bottom.  Alas the water slide won the battle that day!! But that is okay, we totally dominated the lazy river!

Summer Bucket List

     So now that summer is over half over for me ::sobbing in hands:: I better revisit our bucket list and see what we have left to accomplish.  The boys and I sat down and made this one of the first days of break and have accomplished some, but there are still plenty of things we wanted to do. Here’s our list, what’s on yours???

Our Summer Bucket List

2012

o      Splash park

o      Ride a waterslide

o      Zoo

o      Dollar Store $5 spree

o      Swim

o      Ride go-karts

o      Hike

o      Bowling

o      Go Fishing

o      Planetarium

o      Wildlife Safari Park

o      Make sidewalk paint

o      Pretend “car wash”

o      Learn croquet

o      “Camp out” inside

o      Catch fireflies

o      Make paper airplanes

o      Library

o      Go to farmer’s market

o      Make play doh

o      Make candy suckers

o      Pancakes for dinner & Noodles for Lunch  by Today I feel Silly)

o      Make pizzas

o      Make box cars

o      “Drive in” movie

At the "Car Wash"

What do you do with four boys all 5 and under?  Well thanks to some inspiration from Juggling With Kids we decided to have a pretend car wash.  A couple of bottles of shaving cream and some water is all it took to stay entertained for almost an hour!