Lunches this Week

This is Natalie’s for Tuesday.  At lunch-making time, the jelly (actually it was apple butter) was frozen, so I couldn’t make sandwiches.  But they’re easy so I did everything else and then added the sandwiches later.

James’ lunch.  I added an AB/AB sandwich (almond butter/apple butter) later.

The little kids ate Chic-fil-a at school on Thursday.

Joanna had crackers, cheese, turkey, apples, and peanut butter on Monday and Tuesday.

On Wednesday and Thursday she had a PB/AB or AB/AB sandwich, grapes, cheese, carrots and ranch dressing.

All the lunches seemed to go over pretty well.  Most of Thursday’s came back home, but I think that’s because I sent a bag of chips and she ate those first.  :)

Because the little kids got to “buy lunch” one day, Joanna ate school lunch for the first time today!  In my nutritional opinion, the school lunches are, on the whole, total crap.  But, they’re easy for me and pretty appealing to kids, and I figure it’s no big deal a couple of times a month.  So she had a hamburger, chilled mixed fruit, and milk.  And she was sooooo happy!!

23 Things I Love about James

I’m writing this on Sunday but will publish on Tuesday, when James will be 23 months old! Oh, my!! This has of course made me realize he will be TWO in one little month. I’d better get a game plan!

In recognition of him growing older, I have a list all about James.

I love…

1. how he says “I love you Mommy” absolutely out of nowhere. And he says it a lot.
2. how he looks exactly like me, only boyish.
3. how his head feels laying across my shoulder.
4. how cute he looks in a romper.
5. that he used to call ice water “ice cream water.”
6. how obsessed he is with ice water. He asks for it by saying “ice water in there?”
7. how much he loves his sisters.
8. how he says his sisters’ names.
9. how much that boy can eat! (If only he wasn’t so picky.)
10. how terribly cute his little feet are!
11. how ticklish he is.
12. how much he loves his trucks and cars and trains.
13. how I find aforementioned trucks and cars and trains everywhere in the house.
14. how he calls the Little People bus an airplane.
15. how I’m the only one who can understand everything he says. :)
16. that a lot of people can understand more and more of what he says.
17. his temper. Mostly.
18. how he loves his pillow and lovey.
19. his amazing facial expressions.
20. how much he loves Goodnight Moon.
21. how he loves to look through pictures of family and name them.
22. his fishie kisses.
23. being so blessed to be his momma.

Reaping what you accidentally sow

I’m sure many things could come from that title, but I’m not talking spiritually or metaphorically or anything.  I’m talking literally.  :)

First, remember James’ birthday party last year?  I bought some gourds to use as decoration – see them?

Well, after October was over and the gourds started to get a little scary, I faintly remember tossing them in the compost pile.

Where they managed to do whatever is necessary to create more:

More inedible gourds.

So, I find it not just a little hilarious that the only thing I’ve managed to grow isn’t actually food.  That said, I’m still pretty excited I managed to grow anything at all.  Especially since I don’t think compost is really supposed to support growth.  Oops.  :)

There is an actual squash plant out there as well, but I haven’t managed to catch the squash at good times to pull them off.  It’s either too early or I wait too long.  They aren’t getting enough sun, water, or attention, so even if I manage to harvest one, it will only be about two inches long.  Someday I may be brave enough to plant a garden in the middle of my front yard  (the only place with enough direct sunlight).  Or… maybe not.

Miscellaneous catch-all post

My mom took this one when we went out to eat when Kathryn was here.  This was a few days before Kindergarten started.

On the day that Joanna stayed home from school, I had already made her lunch.  James ended up eating the peanut butter, with a few apples to scoop it out.  :)

Very messy, but very yummy and filling!

I couldn’t get a good shot of this, but it just made me think so much of Cinderella.  :)

James wanted his picture taken, so Matt took this one of us Saturday morning before our first Musikgarten class.

I could just eat him up – he’s so stinkin’ cute!!!

I taught my first Musikgarten class (for pay anyway) on Saturday morning.  It was wonderful!!  I’m so thankful I get to teach a toddler class and bring my Jamesie boy with me!  And I’m extremely thankful he doesn’t yell at me to stop singing when we’re in the class.  That would be less than helpful.  :)

Last Week’s Lunches

I like posting each week’s lunches after they eat them, so I have a good idea of what worked and what didn’t.  (Though by this point I kind of can’t remember.)  And I’ve got them all tagged with school lunch so they’re easy to find and look back on.  These were from the end of the week.

Thursday and Friday for Joanna were exactly the same: half a ham and cheese sandwich on a leftover burger bun, grape tomatoes, snap peas, grapes, and peaches.

Joanna I think has had enough snap peas and grape tomatoes to last her for awhile, so they’ll be taking a break from the lunch rotation.  :)

This is Natalie’s from Thursday: half a PB&J, snap peas, celery, grapes, and peaches.  If I remember correctly she liked it all!

And James’ lunch from Thursday – the same minus the veggies.  He’s missing enough back teeth for me to send that kind of thing yet.  Oh, and his sandwich is almond butter; they’re peanut free in his class.

I’m pretty sure the peaches came home; he doesn’t like them not freshly cut.  :)

Pinterest Recipe Success

I’m planning to get caught up on the miscelaneous things that I’ve taken pictures of recently.  Though James is currently yelling “eat time!” at me, and he’s already pushed his high chair into the kitchen.  So… we’ll see how much gets done.  :)

I found this recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken and Fried Rice on Pinterest, and last week I gave it a try.

It turned out sooooooo good!  The kids were pretty “eh” about it, but that’s typical for most dinners I serve.  :)

It’s hard enough for me to make a new recipe, much less one with the “help” of my children, so I didn’t take any process shots.  The blog with the original recipe has some pictures in it, and I plan to make this again (maybe on a weekend?) when I can take a little time and take pictures.

The recipe absolutely took longer than I thought it would; I think I was in the kitchen two hours to get it done, but it was worth it to me!  It won’t take as long the next time I make it, now that I know what I’m doing.  The only change I made to the original recipe were the oils for frying.  I won’t use canola for anything, and I simply didn’t have sesame oil.  I subbed palm shortening for both, and it was great.

To me, the chicken didn’t taste so much like sweet and sour, more like another dish that I’m absolutely drawing a blank on but that I like very much.  (Helpful, aren’t I?)  It totally hit the spot for Chinese food; I’m glad I can fix that craving without having to go out!

Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna turned six this week, and today was her birthday celebration with best pal Joanna.

Lisa and Tony came to our house this afternoon, dropped off Emma, and picked up Joanna and me so the girls could go ride horses!  It was a surprise for the girls.  They were excited!

Joanna’s horse was La Bamba, and Anna rode Patches.  They practiced leading their horses around.

Then they got to mount up.

Mr. Mike and Miss Mary showed the girls how to stop and start and go left and right.

The girls got to ride pretty much unassisted – they told their horses where to go and we watched.  The horses are old and very trained for children.  They put up with everything – yay La Bamba!

They graduated from the little arena to the big arena.  Joanna got pretty good at “kick-starting” her horse and pulling on the reins to get him to turn.

She LOVED it.  LOVED. IT.

Joanna doesn’t gush, but I could tell by the look on her face how much fun she was having.

And she has now had an experience I’ve never had.  :)

You can kind off see her “turning” the horse to the right in this shot:

Trying to get La Bamba to do what she wants --

Love this one!

Mr. Mike said that was good that she was getting frustrated with the horse – she’d be showing him who was boss soon.

I was shooting on Manual, and oh, boy was it hard to make adjustments for the different directions I was shooting.  Clearly, I did not always succeed.  :)  But I had fun doing it, and the pictures help me tell the story, even if they’re over-exposed.

I could tell she was tired toward the end.

She told Miss Mary she was ready to get down.  And then she started to just slide off the horse with no help!

We stopped her – she’s watching for Mr. Mike to come help.

Leading her horse out of the arena:

Awwwww!!

Setting him loose to go graze or whatever horses do:

I just love these next three.

I think if I took these same shots in 10 years, they might not look so different.

They had a great time – thanks for bringing us along Anna!

Mr. Tony stopped to treat for ice cream on the way home.

Joanna had quite the mess.

I forgot to take a picture of Anna’s cone, which was expertly licked.  I guess Joanna just needs more practice with ice cream!  :)

They dropped me off at home, retrieved Emma, and headed back to their house.  Matt, Natalie, James, and I went over for dinner (YUM!!!) and cake and presents.  Natalie got sick while we were there (sorry!!!), so we took our cake to go, but left Joanna for her very first sleepover!  It felt very strange to be packing her a little overnight bag today.  I simply cannot wait to hear how much fun they had!!!