Kimmie in Real Life (week 7)

I just can't believe that the 4th of July is over
and that it's been over a month since the kids last day of school. Before we know it the kids will be back in school.
It makes me get a little sad.

I LOVE my afternoons of having SO much time with my kids.
(unless it's a Physical Therapy day)
Each day is definitely a gift, and I'm trying to enjoy and savor each moment, no matter how crazy, hectic, or overwhelming it may be.
"It's all good"!

This photo is just priceless...
I could totally collapse myself right now and be sleeping like my sweet little boy. We pretty much have gone non-stop from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon.
We just got back from a weekend of family FUN (8 mile hike, camping adventure and soaking in hot springs)
After we unloaded the car,
Ethan was sitting on the couch reading a book. A few moments later, I noticed that he was no where to be found. I frantically looked all around outside, made sure his bike was still here, called for him all throughout the house and even called my neighbor. I walked into our den/media room and noticed this sweet little boy crashed and asleep on the couch at 5:30 in the afternoon. I pulled off his shoes and kissed his forehead, closed the blinds and shut the door so he could have a nice quiet nap. He deserved it!! Those legs of his hiked and walked miles and miles this weekend! He is such a TROOPER!

Here are some of our food highlights from this week.

You can never have too many fruit Kabobs!!
I made up eight for our Monday night dinner (they were 12 inches long and completely full of Cantaloupe, Strawberries and Grapes). I figured two for each of us would be enough.
HOWEVER, I found out that the kiddos were begging for more and so I ended up making four more so they could each have two more.

Tracy grilled us up Salmon
on his Weber Q grill and it was the perfect accompaniment to our Fruit Kabobs.

Ethan turned into a Jack-O-Lantern
during dinner Monday night as he was putting his fork in his mouth and his tooth fell out.
The way his teeth look reminds me of how a little kid would draw a mouth/teeth on a pumpkin.
I look at his mouth and think WOW...what a mess of teeth he has at this stage of this life.
Ugly teeth and all,
he is still my cute & adorable little boy!

Kids just LOVE Peanut Butter!!
I try and do at least one thing each week using a little bit of Peanut Butter.
This week, the kids were pleasantly surprised when they opened the fridge for their morning snack and pulled out a container of Ants on a Log!
Even though I'm not too fond of peanut butter, my kids think it's SO yummy and they get SO excited when one of their snacks includes this.

Yes, more Grape Smoothies this week.
My kids told me they wished we could have this everyday!

I had saved the tops of the Strawberries
from our Monday Kabobs (because the green tops have great Chlorophyll) and so I added in a bunch of leftover things from the fridge/pantry and we enjoyed this refreshing smoothie!

Garden Fresh Tomato Soup (for recipe click here)
This was Tracy's FAVORITE meal this week!
I could really eat this soup everyday. It has the best flavor and is SO nourishing and soothing. A slice of French Bread makes the perfect accompaniment to this healthy, nutritious soup!

Thursday was Ethan's last day of his Tae-Kwon-Do class and he got to break a board as part of their last class activities.
We were SO proud of him
and what a great job he did that we came home and made Huckleberry Ice Cream (in the Ice Cream Maker that Tracy had purchased at D.I. for $6.00)
SO YUMMY!!

"I Feel Like a Woman"!!
Friday, I had this song going through my head as I actually had time to BAKE and be a homemaker without having interruptions or running around doing things in between baking.
I baked up a batch of Zucchini Bread, a batch of French Bread and made some cookies for our hike we were going on the next morning.
I love being a wife, mom and Homemaker!!

I'm getting used to the fact that there is no shopping at the grocery store for 3 months.
Tracy and the boys decided while I was at work on Friday that they would really like to do the 8 mile round trip hike up to the beautiful Lower Palisades Mountain Lake.
SO, I baked up bread so we could use our veggies and take sandwiches to eat for lunch.
Realized that we would need some type of trail bar to eat for energy, so I took my basic oatmeal cookie recipe and added in dried cherries, raisins, walnuts and some white chocolate chips and they were AWESOME hiking bars for us to enjoy!
The kids loved them as well. They wouldn't touch raisins any other time, but when that is all there is to eat, they devoured them, fought over the last one and Jade asked if we would be making these again.

Feeling EXCITED
that I can make everything that we will eat for our yearly backpacking trip we are doing the first weekend in August. (no buying jerky, Clif/Odwalla, or granola bars for our hike...we are going to take everything that we made at home...including homemade potato soup mix for our dinners and Jerky as well).
It's such a great feeling knowing that you made something yourself and you didn't rely on packaged things from the store.

The Lower Palisades Lake!
This is the gorgeous view we saw Saturday afternoon after a four mile hike.

(June 27th- July 3rd)
Sunday (still on our weekend getaway and enjoyed breakfast at our campsite)
ZOOM cereal cooked on Tracy’s backpacker stove with raisins and peppermint tea
Tracy bought us ice cream for a mid morning cool off from the hot weather
Lunch was veggie sandwiches on Multi-grain bread with lettuce, avocados, tomatoes, pickles and cheese, carrot sticks, lime drink
The rest of the day we enjoyed apple slices and more Gingersnap cookies

Monday
Steel Cut Oats
Apples, leftover pasta served with cottage cheese
Salmon and Fruit Kabobs

Tuesday
Steel Cut Oats
Ants on a log
Pasta Salad, cantaloupe, apple slices, bananas
Veggie Cobbler, Lime Drink

Wednesday
Steel Cut Oats
Bananas, Veggie Sandwiches, apple slices, plums, Peanut Butter Cookies
Leftover Veggie Cobbler, Lime Drink

Thursday
Steel Cut Oats
(Tracy)granola cereal, milk, plums, apple, carrot sticks
(Kids)Quesadillas, avocado slices, smoothies
(I made up a batch of Cinnamon Roasted Almonds for Ethan’s Tae-Kwon-Do instructor and there was a cup left and the kids enjoyed those for an afternoon snack)
French Bread, Garden Fresh Tomato Soup
Homemade Huckleberry Ice Cream

Friday
Steel Cut Oats
French Bread, Leftover Garden Fresh Tomato Soup, Plums,
(Tracy and I split a "Pork Barbacoa Salad" on our Friday night date)
French Toast for dinner

Saturday
Egg Hash, French Bread
Veggie sandwiches, chips, grapes, apples, chips, carrot sticks, Dried Fruit and Nut Cookies
(Tracy treated the kids to Square Ice Cream cones on our way home from our Hike)

Gotta run and plan out the weeks meals/snacks,
deal with laundry, yard work and the MESS we are in from being gone for 3 days.
Happy First Week of July!!