LO's 5th Birthday: Part 2

Today's post about LO's 5th birthday party will be very photoriffic! Enjoy!!

The night before her party, we went to get her very first spa pedicure! Not surprisingly, she loved it, just like mommy!

Pretty toes, complete with a flower on her big toes! :)

On her actual party day, I made little welcome sign for the party on the front door:

Party favors! Ones for the girls and ones for the boys. I also included a little stuffed unicorn and stuffed horse for our littlest party guests who were under 1.

I tried to avoid too much candy in the party favors, so I used stickers, a magnet craft, a bracelet craft, a not too annoying noisemaker, a light up ring, and a striped candy stick. I did throw in one of my super sugary marshmallow creations, which sort of put the candy quota over the top. Ooops!

The boy favors were very similar, only there was no light up ring and more masculine stickers and crafts!

The yummy white chocolate-dipped, sprinkle-laiden jumbo marshmallows!

The birthday banner that I'm actually quite proud of! This was a lot of cutting shapes out by hand! The cool thing is I plan to reuse it for her future birthdays... just replacing the unicorns with other party-themed pics. :)

I somehow managed to overlook taking the obligatory food pictures, which sucked because I made a killer fruit tray complete with the fruit dip inside a hollowed out pineapple! It was beautiful and tasty! I also included a veggie tray, chips with homemade salsa and pretzels. It was just some light snacky food since the party was after lunchtime.

During/after snacks, I let LO open her gifts. She was super excited to get a rainbow unicorn Dream Lite! Thanks, Aunt D!

Here she is opening the game Twister -- which I thought would be a lot of crazy family fun with hubs and I and the kids. My niece thought it was pretty funny, too! :)

More gift opening...

I have no idea what led to this face...

Girl likes her some Tangled stuff!

Gramma and her mad wrapping skills... it took the whole team to get this one open!

A Barbie unicorn! Score!

LO reading the name of the new book mommy & daddy gave her.

Here she is looking through the book she made without realizing she made it! I'll write a separate post about this one because I think it is such an awesome gift/keepsake!

One of her most favorite gifts... a bench from Gramma & PaPa! She loves it (as does her brother)!

After gifts it was cake time! This wasn't my best work ever, but I managed to get over it. It tasted good and that's what mattered most. ;)

Time to sing!

My big girl!!!

Make a wish!

Mmmmmm! Cake!

After cake and ice cream, we headed outside for one of LO's birthday requests... a piñata! I didn't think about it beforehand, but I sure felt sorry for that sweet little unicorn who was getting the life beat out of her. Those big, innocent eyes... ((sigh))

LO was up first:

Chase gave it a go, too!

More party guests taking turns beating the crap out of a unicorn!

She's at it again! I think all the kids got at least 3-4 chances before we had to give up and make hubs rip it open!

Thanks to hubs, the party could finally continue! The funny part was that the candy inside the piñata was beaten to a powdery mess while Mrs. Unicorn barely had a scratch on her!

Following the piñata, it was POOL TIME!!! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a single picture at the pool... :( I was busy doing my hostess duties but from what I could see, everyone had a lot of fun!

So tomorrow is LO's actual birthday... the weeklong festivities shall continue! :)

LO's 5th Birthday: Part 1

OMG. I'm so sorry I've been MIA for so long! It's been crazy busy 'round here lately! One main reason for this just might be LO's 5th birthday! We held her party here at the house last Saturday and it was a smashing success! She had a wonderful day and of course that was all that mattered to me!

I'll probably do a short series of posts about her big party and her big day (which isn't actually until Wednesday), because I'm really excited about some of the craftiness I busted out for the decor. But for now I'll just share her sweet little invitation...

I really loved the way the invitations turned out. And I let LO address each of the envelopes herself, which she was crazy stoked about! Well, actually I just let her write the names on the envelopes and I wrote in the addresses, but it was still fun for us both. :)

I'll share more soon once I get around to downloading the bazillion pics from my DSLR! :)

Story Time with LO

Geez! I can't believe it's been so long since my last post! Sorry, folks! Things got kinda crazy 'round these parts with some (full-time) training at work last week as well as the preparations for LO's 5th birthday party (eeeeek!) this weekend. I promise I'll share some posts about the birthday planning because, let's face it, that stuff is So. Much. Fun.

But for now, I'm gonna leave you with LO reading a little bedtime story, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. She tore through this book in under 2 minutes so it's obviously not the longest video, so we'll have to try one of her usual books (a bit more "wordy)" for our next installment. ;)

 

Bad Mommy!

WARNING: This post contains graphic images. Well, they're graphic if you're like me and you don't like to see grody skin conditions. Proceed at your own risk.

So a few weeks ago, LO complained about soreness in her thumb. I didn't think much of it the first time she mentioned it, but when she told me again a day or so later, I took a closer look. This is what I found:

June 20, 2012

Gross, right? It looked almost like a burn or something. I asked her how it happened, if she hurt it somehow and she said she didn't know what happened.

For the past 2 weeks, we've just cleaned it out with peroxide, treated it with Neosporin and slapped a band-aid on it.

Fast-forward to yesterday. OMG. I asked to look at her thumb and totally gagged when I saw it. And of course I immediately felt awful that it looked so bad. Eeeew:

July 5, 2012

I asked her if it hurt at all and she (surprisingly) said no, so that made me feel a little bit better. I called her pediatrician and made an appointment for that afternoon.

Ugh. The doctor diagnosed her with paronychia, which sounds really bad but it is essentially a skin infection that occurs around the nails. She put her on a hefty antibiotic for 10 days, which should help to decrease the swelling and redness, as well as eliminate any kind of "oozing" from the nail. The doctor also mentioned: SHE WILL PROBABLY LOSE HER FINGERNAIL. I gasped like a crazy person who was just told her daughter will lose her THUMB. I just figured you only get one, and if it's gone, it's gone!! But alas, the doctor calmed my fears by telling me it WOULD grow back. But OMG! I can't believe I waited until my daughter got into the "she-might-lose-her-nuggin'-fingernail" phase of an illness/infection before mommy finally did something about it. I'm so mad at myself!!!!!

I know all of this is temporary, and she's not in pain so that helps, but still. What kind of mommy am I??

My poor, sweet LO.

Sibling Love

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! We had a really low-key day at home that included pool time, some delicious grilled chicken, a view of all of the fireworks within a 30 mile radius and s'mores! The kids had a wonderful time watching the fireworks from our own backyard and playing with sparklers and the s'mores were a fun and unexpected treat for the kids (and yes, hubs & I had one, too!).

I happened to catch this little gem of a video of the two kids playing (mostly nicely) together and thought I'd share. It's mostly LO reading "The Lion King" to Chase, but there is also some fun and play (and a sweet kiss!) involved as well.

My little sweeties! LOVE!

A Mama Foodie!

Just an FYI, folks... I've created a new blog to document our real food journey for two reasons:

1. I didn't want to bore those of you who enjoy reading this blog by blabbing on and on about food, especially for those of you who are on a different food journey that we are on. I'll continue to post here about the antics of LO and Chase, as well as fun family happenings and whatever else seems interesting and worthy of a blog post.
2. I feel the process of eliminating junk food and focusing only on real, whole foods is worthy of a blog of its own. I want to be successful in this endeavor and feel that having a specific place on the interwebs to share my thoughts and feelings about food, as well as recipes, photos and the like, will help to keep me honest with myself, my family and my readers.

If you're interested in following along on this food journey, please bookmark my new blog, "A Mama Foodie" (because let's face it: I'm both!) at amamafoodie.blogspot.com (or add it to your Reader) and join us!

I posted our Day 5 recap tonight on A Mama Foodie, so check over there if you're interested in hearing about such things as apple oven pancakes (a.k.a. Heaven On A Plate!) and vegetable quesadillas (to die for)!

Just Sayin'...

June 17th, 2011: Mishap of Epic Proportions. For those of you not interested in linking to that post so you understand what I'm talking about, here's the synopsis, along with a photo for evidence purposes:

I went to Trader Joe's. I dropped my iPhone. The screen cracked. Slightly. :o|

Earlier this week, just barely over one year later. June 27th, 2012:

I went to Trader Joe's. I dropped my iPhone. The screen cracked. Slightlyish. :o/

Obviously I cannot be trusted with the combination of Trader Joe's, an iPhone and a parking lot.

Grrrrrrrr!!!!!

That is all.

Day 4! Hurray!

I had the hardest time figuring out what to do with the kids today! It's supposed to be crazy hot, so we ended up spending the whole day indoors. Boo. But we did break out of this house this afternoon to hit the grocery store, and that was fun something. I had a proud mommy moment when we were in the baking aisle (selecting a white whole wheat flour -- not ingredients for "those" kind of baked goods... sorry to my local readers). LO was reading the episode descriptions from the back of a Dora DVD to Chase, and a random older lady (maybe 60ish?) stopped in awe and asked if she was really reading that?! I said yes, and she was absolutely amazed. She didn't even ask how old she was or if she was in school yet, but walked away chatting to her adult son/friend how she couldn't believe that little girl was actually reading that! I'm so proud of my little avid reader 4-year-old.

Anywho, here's where I'm keeping it real for myself (and those of you who care to follow along):

Breakfast

We had the classic (turkey) bacon and eggs this morning, with a side of fruit. I was sort of lenient with the kids and once they finished their healthy breakfast, I let them enjoy a small leftover pancake (Chase) and a Pop-Tart (LO & Chase). Seriously, it was hard not to allow it considering when I woke up this morning, Chase was standing next to my bed quietly whispering, "Pancake!" as his eyes lit up in excitement. I figure the goal right now is to incorporate more whole foods into our diets, and while I'm trying to stick to 100% whole foods for myself, I think it's okay for the kids to have an occasional splurge on something they were used to eating almost daily up until this week!

Snack

Our morning snack was a huge success. The kids had been asking for fruit snacks but I was able to redirect them with a healthier alternative. They had cheese & cracker stackers and grapes with -- get this -- WATER. My kids don't do water ((shame)), so this was a Big Deal for us!

I asked the kids what they thought of their snack. They were both all smiles!!!

My kids drinking water... on purpose... and enjoying it! I can't help but notice that when it comes down to it, honestly, kids will eat/drink what YOU as the parent set in front of them. They may have preferred milk or juice, but today, I only offered water and they went for it! Score!!

Lunch

Lunch was pretty low-key. A grilled cheese, apple slices, raisins, carrots, whole wheat pretzels and a yogurt for the kids.

I didn't really eat a lunch today per se. I snacked on some of the kids' apple and had a 1/2 cup of applesauce with a flavored water to drink. It's amazing how much less (much less? weird.) I'm eating now that I've eliminated processed foods and am only eating whole foods. I'm hopeful the kids are feeling the same way because they are eating a good bit less than I'm used to. I think we're on the right track!

Dinner

Mmmmmm. Dinner. As I mentioned, the kids and I hit the grocery store today and stocked up on fruits and veggies like you wouldn't believe! So tonight's dinner was a real treat, IMHO.

I made a pan-seared steak (put some olive oil in the pan 'til hot, sear steaks on both sides, add a pat of butter once seared) then transferred it to a 300° oven to complete cooking, basting it with the butter/oil mixture once.

I also placed chopped zucchini, squash and halved cherry tomatoes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then drizzled olive oil over the mix as well as some Mrs. Dash and fresh ground pepper. I placed the vegetables in the oven on a low broil setting for about 10 minutes. ((I had removed the steaks prior to this and allowed them to rest in the pan, covered loosely with foil.))

Finally, I had LO shuck me some sweet corn (YUM!) that we tossed into a pot of boiling water.

Ahem. See below.

This meal was delicious! So light yet filling and full of flavor. I was VERY impressed to see LO eat all of her (two bites) of steak and Chase even ate one of his (tiny) bites! Hubs and I had to coerce LO to try the squash and zucchini, but after she did, she said she liked it! WIN!

I just want to mention that my family has gone WITHOUT any form of bread at dinner for the week and actually survived! I used to serve canned crescent rolls, biscuits, or frozen Texas toast with dinner almost nightly, so this is another big win for us. I'm so proud of me and my family! :))

The weekend is approaching, and I plan to keep my word to the little ones. I shocked n' awed them earlier this week when I said there would no longer be daily desserts after lunch and dinner, but that we would save such indulgences for the weekend from now on. Lo and behold, we all survived! ((To keep it real, hubs isn't 110% on board just yet... he still has his nightly ice cream... but I'm working on that next!))

I've decided our first yummy weekend dessert will be homemade sorbet or frozen yogurt using our new Cuisinart ice cream maker. It rocked some (full-fat, full-calorie) vanilla ice cream a few weeks ago, so I'm certain it'll knock a sorbet or frozen yogurt outta the park! Now to find a good recipe to try...

Thanks for following along on our first week of healthy, whole food eating. I haven't decided if I'll keep going with daily food blogging or just hit y'all with random updates every once in a while... I'll leave it up to whomever chooses to comment in favor or against! ;)

Day 3! Yay!

Day 3 is almost complete, and it was another success! Yay!

Breakfast

I tried to get the kids to jump outside of their comfort zone this morning. I made them oatmeal, which they've never had before ((shame)). I eat oatmeal often, but more times than not it's the little flavored oatmeal packet you just add water (or milk) to. I decided we'd all try a new healthy breakfast option.

It didn't help that as I headed to the kitchen to start breakfast, Chase was shouting, "Pancakes!" while LO chimed in with, "Pop-Tarts!" Grrrr.

So I made some oatmeal using this recipe from 100 Days of Real Food. I've always used water with my oatmeal, but her recipe called for milk instead. The oatmeal was flavored with a dash of honey, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla. ((Note: When I made myself real oatmeal a week or so ago, I used water but topped it with about 1/4 cup of brown sugar! And lots of raisins! It was amazing to eliminate the sugar and find out how sweet it still tasted with just a little honey, cinnamon and vanilla.))

Anywho, I served the kids (and I) oatmeal with a side of toppings for them to choose from: raisins, bananas and strawberries. I chose raisins and bananas:

And the toppings! I thought (hoped, prayed) that by letting them choose their own toppings and "helping" make their breakfast that they'd have more interest in this oatmeal stuff.

LO decided on raisins. I think we got off to a great start! She didn't do her typical complaining about how she "doesn't like it" before even trying it. I was keeping my fingers crossed...

Chase went with bananas and raisins. Again, I was really hoping they'd enjoy their new healthy breakfast option...

Chase took his usual cereal approach and dumped a bunch of milk into his bowl and then tried to drink it... only he wasn't a fan. "No like it," said Chase, over and over again.

LO wasn't a big fan, either. Long story short, they ate some of the banana, strawberries and raisins, but left the oatmeal.

Bummer.

But it's okay! I was super proud of both of them for trying it without any complaining. I'll definitely try oatmeal with them again, and hope for a different response. ;)

Lunch

Lunch was pretty similar to yesterday, and no pics because we enjoyed our lunch at the pool today! PB&J's, cheese cubes, grapes and apples, along with a fruit strip and some whole wheat pretzels from Trader Joe's. No surprise but I ate leftovers from Tuesday for lunch... again. ;)

Dinner

Dinner was super simple and quite tasty! I did break my "no processed foods" rule by serving whole wheat pasta, but at least it was whole wheat, right?

So I took one chicken breast (it was all I had defrosted and ready to go -- I would typically use two for a meal like this), cut it into bite-sized pieces, sautéed it in olive oil with some garlic, then added some fresh sliced mushrooms. Then I deglazed the pan with some white wine, reduced it slightly, then added a can of diced tomatoes and a few fresh cherry tomatoes, cut in half. Then I let it it simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes while I waited on the pasta to finish. The kids also had applesauce with their dinner.

I was sorry to see the kids weren't big fans of my dinner. LO ate up her chicken without any problem, but needed some serious convincing to eat her pasta (she's not a big fan of the regular stuff in general, much less whole wheat).

Today's snacks were a bit of a win-lose. I totally won when LO woke up from her nap, asked for a snack, and proceeded to suggest we share a banana and some strawberries. LOVE! The loss came when I sort of caved to Chase and let him have some cheese-filled Ritz Bits crackers. After dinner we enjoyed some popcorn while playing outside, uh, apparently... um, in our pajamas. Don't be a hater! Super Mom over here!!

This day was truly another huge success in my book. I measure success in the fact that I avoided processed foods for myself and my family, and that I'm already feeling So. Much. Better. than I was feeling when eating mostly sweets and highly-processed foods. :)

Another Day...

Another day down, and another day of real, whole food for me and my family (well, mostly just me and the kids since hubs still does his own thing for breakfast and lunch).
I'm very proud of myself and am happy to say I'm feeling So. Much. Better. even after eliminating all processed foods for just two days! It's amazing, and I can definitely see that eating only whole foods keeps me fuller longer.
I'm surprised to admit I haven't experienced any major cravings for sweets, which, if you know anything about me, you'll know that's a pretty big deal!
So I'm sure this is gonna be a pretty boring post for you guys, but I'm keeping myself honest here, so I'm gonna recap what I ate today.

Breakfast

I was quite proud of myself AND my kids this morning! I made bacon and eggs and the kids ate it up (as well as LO's gummy bear vitamin)! Well, LO went to town on it and Chase pretty much just ate the bacon (even though I slightly burnt it... oops!). But it's progress! Seriously, the kids are usually having frozen waffles or pancakes, Pop-Tarts, sugary cereal, cinnamon rolls or donuts for breakfast. See why this is such a big deal for me? Yay!

Morning Snack

I have to brag on the kids again here. We had a busy morning with class at The Little Gym, followed by a few shopping errands. But mommy was prepared! Normally snacks on the go consist of highly-processed fruit snacks, sugary cereal, crackers, chocolate chip granola bars, etc. But today they shared a banana and each had a little box of raisins -- with no complaints! They were happy to receive these whole food snacks in lieu of the junk I typically provide, and it made me so happy! Mommy had a banana for my snack, too! Yay, me!!! ;)

Lunch

Lunch was easy. For me, it was a repeat of last night's ground beef, black beans, lettuce, tomato and cheese with a side of grapes. Just as delish if not better than the night before! The kids shared a PB&J, some fruit, cheese and a fruit strip from Trader Joe's.

Afternoon Snack

The kids and I shared a large Gala apple for our afternoon snack today. And mommy snacked on additional fruit while I prepared dinner... ;)

Dinner

Dinner was fun! I decided to do something I haven't done before, and served a "themed" dinner of sorts... Dinner on a Stick! I made oven-baked chicken (seasoned only with salt-free Mrs. Dash and fresh ground pepper), corn cobs, fruit kebabs and cheese cubes. The kids LOVED LOVED LOVED the fun, interesting, exciting, different approach to dinner, and ate better than I've ever seen! They both cleared their plates in record time!

The kids had milk with every meal, and I had water. I was kind of bummed to hear LO had an ice cream sandwich in her class at church tonight, but hey -- whaddya gonna do, right?
YAY for 2 days of healthy eating!!!
So a quick point on my exercise plan: I'm not really focusing on any right now. People, you have no idea how easily I get overwhelmed when I try to do both healthy eating AND exercise -- it's too much and I just end up failing miserably. So instead, I'm trying to get my eating under control and then add the exercise focus later.
So sorry for boring y'all with this food post. I'll warn you that there will probably be more in the days ahead. After all, this is MY blog, right? ;)