Today's green smoothie experience

Today's green smoothie was pineapple with greens and water, and a banana. Real good. My mother- in- law is here today and tried some and commented on how good they are.

I have noticed more energy and a healthier stomach. The kids really like them. Conner calls them green milkshakes. I think he can call them what ever he wants to as long as he will drink them.

Green smoothies we've tried.

We have been doing our green smoothie experiments. I have noticed better bowel movements as well as increased energy. The kids really like them, Sean tolerates them, and I sometimes feel like I can't get enough of them. Here are some of the ones that were hits with my family if anyone would like to try them out.

Mango Green Smoothies:

1 mango peeled and cut off seed
2-3 handfuls of spinach (or which ever greens you have available, like kale or collards or red leaf lettuce, etc.)
enough water to make it nice and smooth
Blend all ingredients into the blender. You can also use frozen mangoes or even add them to said smoothie. My kids were asking for seconds and thirds after this one.

Strawberry Banana Green smoothie:

About 1- 2 cups strawberries, or what ever kind of berries you'd like to try
2 bananas
2 handfuls of kale, or whichever kind of greens you'd like to use
juice from 1/2 lemon
enough water to make smooth in blender



I hope you all enjoy these recipies. I'll try to include more favorites as we discover them. Good Health to all!!!!

All Nutty!!!

The other day Sean came home from his job at Papa Johns, and brought home a pizza creation he had made. It had Alfredo sauce, pineapple, chicken chunks, mushrooms, cheese, and Macadamia Nuts. It came with a cute little story as well. While he was making his creation, a friend exclaimed how much they hated nuts. Sean asked them if they had ever tried Macadamia Nuts before since they taste very different from other nuts. This friend tasted the nut and said, "Yum, they taste like Macadamia Nut cookies!" She hadn't realized until afterward why that was.

To continue with cute nut stories, the next day my kids were enjoying eating and cracking roasted peanuts from their shells. After Maren had tasted her first one she said, "This taste just like peanut butter!" So cute.

Healty Eating

Well, I have some friends that are into the raw food diet. I've been looking into some of the information involving it, and I have decided to try and put more raw foods into my diet. I will start by doing the green smoothies for breakfast and lunch, and a normal dinner. If you want to follow along with me I will try and include recipes and my experiences. I do have a blog and a website added to my blog if anyone would like to check it out. Oh and check out this cute little music video. It will help inspire kids to want to eat healthier too. http://www.greenforlife.com/musicvideo.htm

Calliou's influences

The other day I was at McDonalds with Conner, Corby, and Brenna. The kids were on the playground and I was talking with one of the moms there. She has a two year old little girl and she commented on how badly her little girl wanted to go to school, and she had no idea why. I asked her if her daughter liked watching Calliou. (for those who don't know who Calliou is, it is a children's show about a little boy and the day to day experiences the goes through and how he deals with it.) The mother said that her daughter loves Calliou. I told her that each one of my kids, whenever they watched Calliou and they show the episode of Calliou going to school that afterwards they would beg to go to school. The same goes for riding a school bus. I thought it was interesting.

Corby's little sayings

I never really realize what I say until it is said back to me. Little Corby has started saying "Ya" a lot. Example; "Ma, I have this candy for ya!", or "Ma, I want ya." I didn't realize how much I use "ya" until he started picking up on it.

Conner says

On Monday we were playing a game on the computer called Hoyle Puzzle games. In the game you can customize a character to play. Conner looked at the one I had made and said, "Ma, she's pretty, I want to kiss her." Then he proceeded to kiss her picture.

I thought it was cute.

Conner's School Fieldtrip.

I am still trying to figure out how to get all my pictures all in order. Anyway, Today, Monday, Conner had a field trip with his class to the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter, Florida. I was able to sign up as a chaperon and take Brenna and Corby as well. It was very fun and interesting. Right after I dropped Conner off at school I went to get gas for the van and I thought that they would beat us there, but apparently the bus driver decided to stop for coffee and took them to a wildlife preserve in Hobe Sound instead. When they corrected him he went the long way to the Preserve in Jupiter. Needless to say I was worried when they didn't show up for an hour. But I got some cute pictures of Corby and Brenna on a painted panther, and we kept ourselves busy while we waited. We were able to see a real Florida Panther batting a blue ball around his enclosure. Very house cat like. Cute, but I am glad he was behind the fence and batting the ball and not me. I didn't think to take a movie of it. Maybe next time. We also saw some snakes, birds, (like the rosiette spoonbill, the white heron, a pelican, and others.), otters, alligators, crocodiles, and turtles. One of the turtles was chasing one of the others around trying to bite it. It was really funny. It made me think of a pesky sibling picking on another relentlessly, just to get a reaction.


We also were able to pet a few animals that they have there to show in programs for visitors. We petted a Red Ratsnake, a baby alligator, an opossum, and a skunk. They even showed us an owl, but we weren't able to pet her.
The 'Possum had been hit by a car and wasn't right in the head afterwards. The handler said that normally Opossums will drool, and growl when someone approaches them, even if they had been handled from birth, but this one didn't mind being handled and loved to snuggle in his blankie. She said because of Opossum's normal behavior they make terrible pets because they are always stinky, no matter how much you bathe them, and they will tear up your house, and they will growl at you, and probably bite. I guess they get a lot of opossums they have to rehabilitate from homes that had them as pets and decided they weren't so cute after all.
The skunk had been someone's pet, but when they discovered that it wasn't so much fun, they turned it over to the preserve. The handler said that they are terrible pets, because even though they are cute a cuddly in the day, at night they tear up your house and furniture looking for stuff to eat, and steal anything shiny and hide it. She also said that skunks use their spray only after much warning. They will first growl, then they will stamp their feet and wave it's tail around. If that doesn't scare off an intruder, then they will spray. Very interesting.
The Owl is named Ollie and was brought in when she was very little after something had attacked her and taken off one of her wings. We did not get to pet her, but she made some fun hooting noises for us. I will definitely have to take Maren and Sean there sometime. I think they would like it. I also saw advertised a water life sanctuary closer to US1. I think I'll try going there sometime.



Do you like the cool Florida Panther that Corby and Brenna got to sit on while waiting for Conner's school to get there? They had fun posing for the pictures.

A "cool" day at the river

On Saturday we went to the Indian River Walkway. It is a place here in Stuart, Florida where you can play on the beach of the Indian river, walk down a long pier, and play in a water fountain. There are also walks and a fun children's museum to go to. In the summer they sell hot dogs and snow cones, and many many people love doing parties, weddings and many other occasions here. We just decided to hang at the beach on this day. It was a chilly day, about 75*- 80* with a nice wind coming off the water. We originally planned to go to Bathtub Beach, but it was closed down for renovations. We still had lots of fun. As you can see here, Maren is my little Model. She is beautiful and can pose well. She is also my little explorer. She likes to discover the different plant and animal life surrounding the beach. One time she had made a little enclosure with sand an sticks with snails, crabs, and other fun things she found in the water and on the beach. Brenna had a wonderful time trying to figure out what to put into her mouth first. She seemed to prefer the twigs to the sand though.





Conner is my little Sand Man. He loves to dig and build castles. Brenna even helped him dig a little bit. She was so cute when she crawled over and take little handfuls of sand out of the hole and just toss them aside. Very cute.

I even tried to get into a few pictures. I thought that you might want to see the taker of the pictures.

Corby was having so much fun as well helping dig and helping explore. We ended up going home after about an hour or two, because everyone was getting cold, but we definately had a load of fun.

















As you can see, Corby was having so much fun with the sand, I couldn't get a straight shot of his face. I still thought the picture was cute.




After wards we went to Wendy's for a free frosty treat, thanks to our trick or treating in the mall on Halloween. Conner insisted on something cold to eat, even though every one was cold enough. Then we went home and jumped into some warm bathtubs and put on some warm PJ's and watched a movie via. Netflix. A good way to wear out energetic kids and a good cure for cabin fever. Days like this make me love Florida!!!!

Boys vs. Girls bedroom forts

About a month ago Maren made a fort in her bedroom to play in, but the boys kept tearing it down and upsetting her. So I decided the best solution was to build them one too. The girls' fort is a little fuzzy in the picture, but both of them seemed to keep them happy enough. Oh the joys of being a kid.

Cute Little Lion.

L




We had recieved from Carrie a hand me down Lion Costume. I would have used it for Halloween on Brenna, but it is just too darn hot here. Conner really wanted to see her in the lion costume, so we tried it on for size. She was so cute I couldn't pass up this great Photo opportunity. She had the whole house hold in tears from laughing so much she was that cute. She looked like a little mechanical stuffed lion toy. I just wanted to pick her up and give her a nice squishy hug. I also couldn't pass up the opportunity of singing our good old Little wood Lion song.

Halloween 2009

Here are the costumes of our Halloween 2009. Maren went as a Snow Leopard, Corby is Batman, Conner is Superman, and Brenna is a little princess. We started off our night going to the Treasure Coast Mall and trick or treating, in the nice air conditioning, from shop to shop. After, we mosied on down to the church where we proceeded to have fun at the ward Halloween party and annual Trunk or Treat. I offered to take them to a neighborhood for real door to door trick or treating, but their feet hurt and they were plenty satisfied with their loot they collected. So off back home we went where we watched the Labyrinth then the Halloween Tree. Nice close to a good day. HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!!!! Til next year.