This means they had fun.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Breakfast - nearly every morning. Either on Alpine Valley spelt bread or Trader Joe's organic whole wheat bread.Lunch - Pesto Tuna sandwich

Mix homemade pesto with tuna and put on favorite bread with your favorite cheese. This is fontina on mine (Nice cheese is much less expensive at Trader Joe's, and I love me some nice cheese). Tomato with a little salt on it and some greens. Made for a yummy lunch.

Dinner - Apple Gorgonzola pizza

I actually got this recipe from Trader Joe's (I love their sample foods) I altered it a little. You get some whole wheat pizza dough (make your own of get it from TJ's like I do) and put alfredo sauce on it. Top with pieces of apple (they used pear at TJ's but I didn't have any) and sliced avocado and sliced onions. Then put 1/2 cup of gorgonzola cheese on top. Don't do more like we did...it is too strong. You could also use feta or something like it. I think the recipe called for some mozzeralla on top also (fresh of course) but I forgot to get some so we put all the gorgonzola on and it was very strong, but still good.

bake as long as it takes for your dough to bake or until the cheese is golden.
Let cool and then drizzle with balsamic vinegar. If you don't have any, don't fret it is good without it.
Now for my alfredo sauce recipe. You can use some from the jar, but if your like me you don't like that.

1 cube of cream cheese

1 cup milk

1 cup Parmesan cheese

Now some have been known to put a stick of butter in it also, but as I realized that the butter is mostly for the smooth consistency I could do without it and have a sorta grainy alfredo sauce. You could add butter in little increments if you think you need to. Russ also likes to add a bit of ricotta cheese if we have any left from when I do lasagna. We eat it about once a month on whole wheat pasta with steamed broccoli and chopped tomatoes. Yummy.

I realized while typing this that I wrote Trader Joe's a lot (which I will now refer to as TJ's). I do this because it is where I shop. I don't get my produce there I get it at the Superstition Ranch Market and then everything else at TJ's and we spend about $70.00 a WEEK on groceries (When I first typed this I wrote $70 a month, which I believe would be impossible and still be nourished. Sorry for the extreme error:). I am not sure if that is good or bad, but we can budget that much and feel like we are eating healthy and well. Sometimes if I am going to go to a regular grocery store I will get milk and Tilamook cheese:) And if I get a Costco card the we will probably spend $150 a week on food.

Another Thursday at the carousel

Only this time Charlie came too. The boys rode on the bench and Gracie rode on the gorilla.

And Myles rode on the elephant and we could NOT get him to look at me.After we played outside for awhile and the kids played by the fountain. Gracie kept asking me to take her shoes off and I knew she wanted me to so she could put her feet in the water so I didn't. Well, she did it anyway. And then stood up.

She got nice and cool. Silly little girl.

Obsessions

From time to time William changes his obsession, but there is usually an obsession. For the past month or two the obsession has been....

can you guess...

is it a super hero?....

is it a new movie?....

is it a food?.....

here it is

That's right, it is a cow.

I guess not a cow, but cows. Preferably black and white with no udders.

The cow below does not have an udder(according to William), in case you were wondering.

He kept asking to go to a friends house so he could play with their cow so I told him we would go to D.I. and find a toy cow. This is the best we could find and it has been his good friend ever since. When I asked what his name was he said, "Aslan...is Aslan a boy?" When I said yes he declared that Aslan it was. A couple of days later while he was playing I heard him say, "run like the wind Aslan."


When we were rummaging through stuff at another thrift store William came across this barn and insisted that he needed it for Aslan's home. I agree. And I love the look on his face in the above picture.
At our last trip to the mall he discovered this stationary cow that he could sit on (because I don't pay a dollar for toys to shake).

I can't wait for the weather to cool off so we can head out to a dairy farm and he can see the cows in action.

Oh, and every time he asks for a drink of milk he says, "may I have some cows milk please?"

What a kid.

Carousel Dreams

I wonder how many times I have blogged about the carousel? Or how many pictures I have of my children riding it:/ It should only increase with it being free every Thursday and us in the process of buying a house about one mile from it:)
They love it so much. A few weeks ago their friends Nathan and Emma showed up after we were already on and William LOVED having someone to wave to each time around. The when it was their turn every time they came around he waved and CRACKED UP laughing. I mean really laughing. It was very fun to watch.

I mean, could she look happier? I love it when my children are happy. It does a mommy good.

And now the mall also gives the kids a free movie on Thursdays. Last week we saw UP and yesterday we saw it again but we waited until Daddy was done working and our friends the Cox's came too. I really like that movie.

lounging around

Yesterday I was writing things down in my calendar as the children helped themselves to some food in the kitchen. A slice of bread for Gracie and an apple for William. I turned around to find them lounging on my new couch with their snacks, with their feet up on the chair.

They just looked to relaxed.



Russ has told me it is a very comfy couch and he has taken a few naps on it because of it.

I'd say it was worth the 20 bucks.

And I'd say I love it when my children get a long nicely.

Pep Talk

Sometimes William is ornery. Sometimes he says "no" to everything I say.

I am not sure how I discovered it but I figured out if I take a minute or two when he wakes up in the morning to hug him, snuggle with him, and rub his back and talk to him about what kind of day we are going to have, things go much smoother. It needs to be a daily ritual for us, sometimes I forget, but I am getting better at remembering our pep-talk (it is for me too).