Sometimes….I think about a well-balanced meal…..

Sometimes, I really try to think about ensuring that I have a well-balanced meal. Sometimes, I try to be sure that I am eating fruits and veggies with my meal. I do that for my girls. Why wouldn’t I do it for myself? Sometimes, my meal is a giant salad. (I’ve written before about my newfound love for bagged salads which is what I’ve done almost every day for my lunch now that school has started.)

Sometimes, I am very careful about what I’m eating for dinner.

But….sometimes….I’m exhausted and I have zero effort left in me and dinner is a bowl of cereal once the girls have gone to bed. I know the importance of eating a meal together but I also know that the girls need to eat, read, do homework, have a bath/shower, get in their jammies. While they are doing that, I need to get laundry done (started), load/unload the dishwasher, and get some miles completed on the treadmill. If there’s extra time, I would much rather have some extra snuggle time with my girlies while we read (for the 2,000,000th time) something by Mo Willems.

So, sometimes, I really try to make that effort to eat something that’s well-balanced.

And sometimes, dinner is cheese with a side of cheese.

Manchego cheese with manchego cheese – why have a cheese board filled with things you might not like when you can have two giant cheeses that you know you will love? 🙂

To be honest, I am going to give myself credit for the hard apple cider that I drank along with this meal. That’s fruit! So, dairy, carbs and fruit. Not too bad.

Brunching at the Baby Doll Store

So, we didn’t get to American Girl store during the summer for a meal. As you know, if you follow this blog, our summer was jam packed. But, we did get to American Girl store this past weekend. And, we went for brunch which is something that the girls and I haven’t done before! It was a fun time. We spent the morning shopping (baby girl had some birthday money saved up) and eating with my mom, my sister and my niece. Girls day!

(Big girl took this picture……and then she started planning her birthday……oh boy……)

 

The list thus far:

• Make lemonade.
• Eat at Big Bowl.
• Go to Millennium Park.
• Go to Adler Planetarium.
• Get space ice cream.
• Go to zoo.
• Go to Shedd Aquarium.
• Go bowling.
• Make banana pudding.
• Go to the splash pads downtown.
• Play at Maggie Daley playground.
• Go to Field Museum.
• Go to Art Institute and do a JourneyMaker tour.
• Go swimming.
• Go to the Children’s Museum.
• Play at playground.
• Have a pajama day (with daddy.)
• See a movie at the movie theater.
• See a movie outside.
• Go to the library.
• Go to the Family Festival downtown Chicago.
• Make cookies.
• Read books at home.
• Ride the train at the mall.
• Go to the beach.
• Have a picnic.
• Go to American Girl Place.
• Draw pictures and cut them out.
• Play with legos.
• Make muffins.
• Make pasta salad.
• Play with toys.
• Go to a festival.
• Try to go to a water park.
• Go to the Disney store downtown Chicago.
• Eat at Rainforest Cafe.
• Eat at Labriola Cafe.
• Bake an apple pie.
• Play games on the iPad.
• Play Mario game with daddy.
• Go to the Morton Arboretum.
• Go to Mimi and Pa’s house.
• Go to Granny and Pa’s house.
• Go on a hike.
• Go to the Museum of Science and Industry.

Toys, toys, toys….everywhere

Some things on the summer checklist are things that we’ve done and do basically every day but I just never got around to marking them off of the list. And we are in September so this list needs to be completed soon. Well, playing with toys? Yea. The girls definitely take care of that one every single day. In the play room. In the living room. In their bedroom. There are toys everywhere. Even when I think that we finally have everything picked up, that’s when I find something else. Toys. Everywhere.

So, yea. I’m gonna go ahead and mark that one as complete…….

The list thus far:

• Make lemonade.
• Eat at Big Bowl.
• Go to Millennium Park.
• Go to Adler Planetarium.
• Get space ice cream.
• Go to zoo.
• Go to Shedd Aquarium.
• Go bowling.
• Make banana pudding.
• Go to the splash pads downtown.
• Play at Maggie Daley playground.
• Go to Field Museum.
• Go to Art Institute and do a JourneyMaker tour.
• Go swimming.
• Go to the Children’s Museum.
• Play at playground.
• Have a pajama day (with daddy.)
• See a movie at the movie theater.
• See a movie outside.
• Go to the library.
• Go to the Family Festival downtown Chicago.
• Make cookies.
• Read books at home.
• Ride the train at the mall.
• Go to the beach.
• Have a picnic.
• Go to American Girl Place.
• Draw pictures and cut them out.
• Play with legos.
• Make muffins.
• Make pasta salad.
• Play with toys.
• Go to a festival.
• Try to go to a water park.
• Go to the Disney store downtown Chicago.
• Eat at Rainforest Cafe.
• Eat at Labriola Cafe.
• Bake an apple pie.
• Play games on the iPad.
• Play Mario game with daddy.
• Go to the Morton Arboretum.
• Go to Mimi and Pa’s house.
• Go to Granny and Pa’s house.
• Go on a hike.
• Go to the Museum of Science and Industry.

Dinner with Kids – Sometimes you win….Sometimes

After we went to the Country Fair at Kline Creek Farm, big girl was very interested in finding more ways to use honey. We had the chance to see honey being harvested straight from the hive. And we were able to taste the freshest honey possible – right off of the honeycomb. Well, we bought a container of honey when we went blueberry picking during our recent Michigan vacation. So, I started to plan. How about breakfast for dinner? (One of my favorite meals to make for myself.) I made cheesy scrambled eggs, opened a new container of canned peaches (we get them from Costco….and we go through them crazy fast), and I made some toast with butter and honey drizzled on it.

Honestly, I was really happy with this meal. I thought that they would be excited about it. Look! Honey! And it tasted just as fresh as the honey that we had right off of the honeycomb at the Country Fair…..and guess what the girls ate for dinner?

Um.

Canned peaches. No cheesy scrambled eggs. No toast. I think they both licked the honey off of the toast. So, there’s that.

*sigh*

Dinner time. Sometimes you win. Sometimes. This just wasn’t one of those times.

Checklist – Art throughout the house

Now that big girl is older, she is much better at finding her own ways to entertain herself without someone playing with her. One of her favorite things to do is to make pictures, cut paper and tape up her art (or maps – there are a lot of maps) around the house.

So, I am officially going to cross this one off of the summer checklist. (Just a few weeks left of summer! Hopefully, we can get almost everything done…..)

The checklist thus far:

• Make lemonade.
• Eat at Big Bowl.
• Go to Millennium Park.
• Go to Adler Planetarium.
• Get space ice cream.
• Go to zoo.
• Go to Shedd Aquarium.
• Go bowling.
• Make banana pudding.
• Go to the splash pads downtown.
• Play at Maggie Daley playground.
• Go to Field Museum.
• Go to Art Institute and do a JourneyMaker tour.
• Go swimming.
• Go to the Children’s Museum.
• Play at playground.
• Have a pajama day (with daddy.)
• See a movie at the movie theater.
• See a movie outside.
• Go to the library.
• Go to the Family Festival downtown Chicago.
• Make cookies.
• Read books at home.
• Ride the train at the mall.
• Go to the beach.
• Have a picnic.
• Go to American Girl Place.
• Draw pictures and cut them out.
• Play with legos.
• Make muffins.
• Make pasta salad.
• Play with toys.
• Go to a festival.
• Try to go to a water park.
• Go to the Disney store downtown Chicago.
• Eat at Rainforest Cafe.
• Eat at Labriola Cafe.
• Bake an apple pie.
• Play games on the iPad.
• Play Mario game with daddy.
• Go to the Morton Arboretum.
• Go to Mimi and Pa’s house.
• Go to Granny and Pa’s house.
• Go on a hike.
• Go to the Museum of Science and Industry.