Green Green Smoothies...It's green but what else is about it?!

My kids aren't super, super picky eaters but i can easily go a day without getting anything green into them if i'm not on top of it. This is where the green green smoothies come to the rescue. They are our favorite easy go-to dinner choice...(we usually only have these for dinner when Handy Andy is flying even thought he's a pretty good sport as long "smoothies" aren't on the menu too often. ha:)

Ok, so here's whatcha do for approximately 5 Green Green Smoothies

* about 3 cups plain yogurt. If i'm low on frozen fruit sometimes i'll add some strawberry yogurt or just a little extra honey to sweeten it up a bit
* at least 2 frozen bananas ( tip: i always freeze bananas in chunks so they are easier to blend)
* maybe a cup of frozen blueberries or strawberries
* fill the rest of the blender full with Spinach
*a splash of milk or juice to help get it moving
* a couple of ice cubes

{sophie was set on a picture of her with her hand in her mouth. i don't know what it means.}

then BLEND! i usually throw in some more spinach leaves at this point. just for extra fun.

Ok, now pour it into bowls.
Next step is to make the extra super double green shot.
Here's what i do:
* With the left-over shake that is still in the blender i add maybe 1 cup extra yogurt,
*a couple more handfuls of spinach
* 1/2 of an avocado
* a couple of chunks of froz. banana
*BLEND again. It will look kinda weird. like guacamole. in fact, the first time i did it i was planning on just giving it to ben because i figured he wouldn't notice the extra green goopiness. But then i thought i should taste it to make sure it wasn't gross or "dross" as we say in our family now. And guess what??
It was yummy. so i added some super double green shots to each of our bowls and it made them look fancy and beautiful. :)

Ok, since i just made a reference to "dross" i just have to ask, have you guys watched the kid history videos??? DO it. You will laugh. "It's green. but what else is about it?"

We let our kids watch it with us and they memorized the lines almost instantly and now they have become apart of our everyday language. Especially when we eat something green. It's great.

Ok, next sprinkle some yummy granola on top and enjoy. with a spoon. :)

What do YOU do to get more green into you and your kids??

yellow baby shower gift

One of my best friends whom i've known since we were little girls is about to have her first baby. I got to go to her shower this weekend which meant i got to put together a little collection of happy gifts.

First of all, the baby's name is Lily, which is my most favorite baby name these days. If we ever have a surprise 5th baby [yikes], her name would be Lillian. But since i'm not counting on that happening, it makes me so happy that i'll get to know and love a little Lily anyway. :)

I knew i wanted to give her one of my dollies, and since this one had a cheery yellow skirt, i decided to find some fun little yellow additions to throw in.
So, in went some fresh lemon J.R. Watkins hand soap, Boudreaux's butt paste and these super easy baby head bands.

I followed the tutorial from Delia Creates. It's basically just a strip of knit sewn into a loop and then you can change out the clipped-on flowers. Delia has some beautiful variations- perfect for embellishing cute bald baby girl heads. :)

 The beautiful momma-to be (in yellow even!) along with a couple of other great friends. mmmm, girl times are the best. so happy for great excuses to be together.

ben loves his blankie

ben's blankie is supposed to stay in his bed...definitely in the house...but it doesn't. somehow it always follows him everywhere. and it makes this little boy so happy i just can bear to put it back where it belongs. 

 

will says ben looks like linus. linus is will's favorite peanuts character...well, besides snoopy, of course. ironically, baby ben is wearing his snoopy t-shirt in these pics. awww.

this particular evening ben was so pleased to sit on the driveway with his blankie and a new better homes and garden magazine...that is until he noticed his big brother and neighbor playing down the street. 

 he quickly got up to join the big boys...but was sure to bring along blankie...and bhg. :)
what's a little dirt, right?! i think so.

later he decided to be big and carried out this little ladder in order to climb the basketball pole like will.

his blankie was a big help. 

oh boy, i love this boy. and since he loves his blankie, i love it too. :)

"ooh la la" shower

My dear, dear friend, whom i've known since we were 15, is getting married in a couple weeks and i had the lovely privilege of helping to host a lingerie shower for her. She is a perfect kind of bride for this somewhat embarrassing kind of shower: confident, beautiful, has a terrific sense of humor so is always ready for a laugh...lots of them, especially on this night. :)

I got the invite inspiration off of a picture i saw on pinterest but since i don't have any fancy photoshop/design stuff on my computer, i got to have lots of fun making them old-fashion style with scissors, fabric, markers and glue. :)

My beautiful co-host made all the snacks including the ever-famous cake pops and hilariously "cheeky" sugar cookies.
Other than that, we made Pioneer Woman's iced coffee and pink lemonade, played silly games and chatted the night away. It was a great way to spend an evening and send a lovely gal off on the right foot before her honeymoon! haha

Oh, one last thing...i tried to be discreet around my kiddos when preparing for this shower, but eventually Will saw the invite and some of the preparations and promptly asked,
"Is this a swimming party??? Why would Sarah need a Swimming party when she's gettting married? Are you going to have the party at the Fun Plex?? Is that why you put swimsuits all over??"

Yes. Yes, Will, we're having a swimming party. Every girl needs a swimming party before they get married. You'll learn that one day. :)

happy day project- Organize Something!

The oomph for this organizational project came from the lovely Alicia of "La Famile" She started the "happy day project" where each wednesday she announces a new challenge to help make your day happy. This last weeks was to organize something.

Now, i wish i could say that the real challenge for me was finding an area in my home that needed some help in this department but the truth is, our whole, entire house is in need of organization.. Which is why, in fact, we are slowly working our way through Organized Simplicity. But....i was lagging in motivation until i remembered the happy day project! yay! i wanted to have a  happy day so i tackled this armoire in our living room.

i wish i would have taken a before but just think "stuffed to the brim...glassware precariously stacked on top of cake plates, baskets and candlesticks...trays, fake greens, tea cups. squished in between..." and you'll get a good mental picture.

Here's what the cabinet barfed out. ;)

2 hours later.....Ta- Da!

Yay! i can see to the back of the cabinet!

And here are some pics of what is leaving our house. mmm feeling lighter and happier already. ;) So, thanks Alicia for the great challenge! If you want to participate, she has a new Happy Day project for today! Look here :)

Easter Day

We had a lovely day on Sunday.We enjoyed gorgeous Colorado weather and thankfully the kids' fevers broke just in time to enjoy a full day with lots of family and good times celebrating our RISEN SAVIOR

Here's our risen Jesus outside of the tomb of our little resurrection garden. :)

little side note: I can't tell you how excited i was to find a girly shirt in the exact same yellow as the little polo i found for Will. I knew the whole easter "dressing up" notion wouldn't be a bit appealing to our little Sophie but at least i had the "Your shirt gets to match Will's!!!" angle that ended up helping tremendously! ;)

Here's the coo-koo girls.

Baby Ben was ecstatic to participate in the egg hunt and couldn't hardly contain his excitement when he realized there were treats inside them! Double win. 

The cousins...it was so sweet to be able to enjoy the day with the gaggle of little people.

oh baby ben! you're just the cutest thing ever. and thanks for holding my hand through at least part of the hunt.

chocolate

Madeline was the only one willing to stop in the middle of the hunt to take a picture with me. 

Nana made her famous Bunny cake. He was greeted quite warmly by all the little peeps.

My wonderful Sister and her super sweet and completely adorable family. 

Oh and in case you were dying to know, we gave up on adding our Easter movie to blogger (thank you for your suggestions heidi...andrew said we're still having "file type compatibility issues" whatever that means! :)  Anyway, we decided to upload it to Vimeo. Click here if you'd like to view it .  

Here's the long awaited video:

Easter Story with Playmobil and Kids

Hope you all had a blessed day. 

Love, 

Meg

Easter happenings

I rarely think about preparing for a holiday in advance...they always hit me like a big surprise: "what?! it's the 30th of November and I haven't started an advent calendar?? What?! It's already February? I just barely took down Christmas! What?! Thanksgiving is in 2 weeks and i have a month-long unit study on the pilgrims!" I seriously need to get organized...speaking of which, i felt a huge boost of inspiration today from Alicia. Do you know her?? You should. I've never met her but she makes you feel like you might as well be besties. 

All that to say, Easter, came as a surprise again this year.

 Somehow all but 4 of our "stand-by" Resurrection eggs were missing and i kept seeing great alternatives, like this Resurrection Garden above, get passed around during the month of March and kept thinking, "yes. that would be good. my kids would like those. i should really do these readings, or those fun crafts"

And then wham! it's 2 days before palm sunday and i finally pull up the instructions for the garden and read that the wheat berries should be planted at least by palm sunday. So, i load up my 4 kids, (1 still in their pjs) and head to walmart to find some dirt. The rest was so easy and the kids have loved watering it each day. Today, we read the crucifixion story, made a stick cross, put a playmobile jesus inside the tomb and covered it with a large rock. Anyway, i guess i'm learning that its better to do something than to just quit if i can't get it together to do everything.

This is a picture of the huge, white and terrifying angel getting a little antsy to open the tomb.

******

I overhead a argument conversation between Will and Sophie a couple of days ago. it went like this:
Will: No, Sophie. Sophie! Jesus did not have a sword!
Sophie: YESSSS! He really wants a sword
Will: No, you need to learn this.
Sophie: AHHHHH!! Will! Jesus WANTS a sword!!
Will: No...i don't trust you.....
Sophie: WILLLLLL!
Will: fine. here's a sword.
~ quietness ~
Sophie: ching! ching! aHa! Arrr!

******

Today in the car,  Will out of the blue asked me "So...what exactly do easter eggs have to do with Easter? like, what do they mean??" 
The first answer i thought of was, "they mean that we will get chocolate."
But don't worry, thoughtful questions like this don't happen all the time so i tried to do my best to take advantage of it. ;)

Well...i guess that's all for now. I wish i knew how to upload an imovie onto the blog because Will got it into his head to recreate the Easter story with Playmobile and we all had a fun time acting it out...maybe i'll get my techy Handy Andy to work on that as soon as he gets home from this trip.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Easter week. If you need some oh so lovely table setting or dessert inspiration go see my sis here. :)

8 YEARS...and counting

wedding day 2004

Well, its that time again, time to bring out the old wedding albums, cringe at what babies we were, how little we really knew each other, how we definitely didn't know what were signing up for and how much uncertainty and even anxiety there were behind those picture-perfect moments on our wedding day.......

Then we happily close up the books, take a deep sigh of relief that, by God's grace, we have MOVED ON! I honestly never expected married life to be this good. I knew Handy Andy was the one for me when i was just barely 19...but honestly, it was a major leap of faith. We had just turned 20 when we were married and didn't know but a bit about who we were as individuals let alone who we were as a couple. But our God is more faithful than i ever really gave him credit for and has created a friendship and a love sweeter than i ever thought was possible (NOT perfect, mind you! but still very sweet). We've now come to happily appreciate that instead of ever having the chance of "falling out" of a young twitter-pated love, we instead got to grow into a true love we never really knew existed.  

So, Happy 8th(right?) Anniversary Cutie Pie ;)

 BABIES!!!! i seriously look 15. See what i mean? Who took us seriously!! :)

1st anniversary 2005...or at least close to it...in reality i was 7 months pregnant on our anniversary and not feeling a bit photogenic.

 2nd Anniversary 2006- went to denver for the weekend with our little baby Will

3rd Anniversary 2007- recreated the picture where Andrew proposed....awwwwwww

 4th Anniversary 2008- just a couple of weeks after our twins were born...feeling the fog of exhaustion but still got a dinner out! yay :)

 one of our favorite pics...taken on our 1st generation flip phone! haha

5th Anniversary 2009 - took a quickie, and i mean a 25 hour quickie trip (that Andrew piloted!) to LA. super, super fun.

6th Anniversary 2010- "the honeymoon we didn't have" in Mexico...turned out a little less than idyllic...think: diarrhea, pregnancy, killer sunburn, smashed toe nail- poor andrew; i was seriously a walking hazard for 5 days. :)

yay. we're finally going home. heehee

7th Anniversary 2011- quick family pic before we took the kids to grandma's house for a get-away

fun fun fun

  2012 - I love you sweetie! Looking forward to another year...and a date night next week when the sickies in our house are well again. ;)