Friday, January 28, 2011

Fun Lunches

Left - Mister J's box - clockwise from top left:
Cucumbers and carrots; crackers; cheese (cheddar and provelone), turkey and mini pepperoni on picks; strawberries, ranch dip for veggies

Right - Miss M's box - also clockwise from top left:
Popcorn; crackers, pepperoni, turkey, cheese; strawberries; celery and ranch dip

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Doesn't Take Much to Make Me Happy

My fruit tray is full AND I scored this free citrus peeler during my latest grocery store run!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

One of These Things is Not Like the Other Ones

Seen on a recent (non-snowy) afternoon.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Green Lunch

How much green can I get into one lunchbox? Funny thing is, he also asked to have a salad for lunch one day this week!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Swim Day Lunches

Mister J has swimming two mornings a week at school for the next few weeks. I'm packing extra protein in his lunch on swim days.
Turkey and cheese on picks (extra meat below the picks in Mister J's lunch), multi-grain crackers, carrots with dip, blueberries. Water to drink.
Post-school day update:  Mister J's box came home empty, Miss M didn't like the new crackers :(

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Welcome, 2011!

This New Year's was the first time our kids stayed up to ring in the New Year.  A couple of days ago, Mister J asked if he and Miss M could "stay up to say Happy New Year," and we agreed.  So we planned a kid-friendly celebration - 'party food' for dinner and a cake for dessert (Miss M's request, because every party needs a cake!).  On Friday afternoon, we received an invite from our friends who were also planning a family-friendly celebration and invited us to join.  So - we packed up our six-layer dip (oops - I forgot a layer!) and chips, the cake (funfetti with chocolate funfetti frosting), a pitcher of sweet tea, and grabbed a pizza on the way over.

We had a great time!  The kids enjoyed some time to play with friends, the adults enjoyed conversation, laughs, and a round of Cranium.  Big J made me hum one of the music clues - even though he's the musically-inclined one in the family - so of course everyone at the table knew the song I was humming except him.  That's ok, we got a good laugh!  There was also the sketched clue that I drew - everyone wondered why I could possibly be drawing a hairy heart.  The answer was actually heartburn, and those were flames....

We counted down to midnight with the kiddos, said our goodbyes shortly after, and had the kids in bed around 1:15am. 

2010 really flew by for  me.  I think it's one of the "fastest" years I've ever had.  I feel like it was just October, and suddenly Christmas was here and now it's a new year.  While the days have flown by in a whirlwind, I have spent a bit of time thinking about some changes - really, just one change - that I want to make in the new year.  We are working on it already, but I really want to focus even more on our family and our relationships with others.  I want us to be more intentional about taking care of ourselves (individually and as a family) and about reaching out to others.  This really isn't something that comes easily for me - because it usually means saying, "No," to exciting opportunities - but I want a good balance in my life, and I need to regain that by coming back to the center, to what's really important.  For now, that means making our home a comfortable, uncluttered space that works for us, intentionally planning family time, making time for dates with my hubby, and (hopefully) catching up on our scrapbooks.  Those are all pretty tall orders - each of them will take work - but I'm looking forward to it.  And because they will take work, that probably means that posts here will continue to be infrequent and unpredictable.  They'll have fewer photos to no photos as all (I totally forgot to take photos of any of today's preparations or of the time we spent with our friends). 

I do hope that each of you will continue to stop by the blog and see what we are up to.  Mister J has a 3rd loose tooth.  I'm continuing 5K training in the spring (to improve speed and endurance) with an eye on even more training in the summer.  Miss M is in her 2nd year of dance, and wants to be a Daisy Scout so bad she can't stand it (but that's not until next school year).  Mister J continues to work hard for our family and recently helped us reach Baby Step 3. I'll keep blogging about all of this - and more - but probably less about lunches and other 'non-milestone' events.  All in keeping with my desire to be more intentional about time spent with my family.  I'll keep you posted on our progress in 2011!

Happy New Year!