This was what was for dinner last night. Rice. Black beans. Tomatoes. Fajita chicken. I knew the kids would turn up their noses at it, even though I thought it was super yummy.

Frankly, I didn’t want to hear about it. So I devised a scheme to get my picky eater to try everything on her plate. Behold — the taste test.

What the…?

I like this idea! (I also am not as picky as my sister.)

The food, minus the spinach.

Spinach? “No.”

Chicken? “Yes.”

The results:
Sydney – No to tomatoes, spinach, black beans and rice. (“Rice tastes like flour. And broccoli.” This is mostly funny because she likes broccoli.) Yes to chicken, rolls and fruit. But she tried everything. WIN!
Brenna said yes to everything except tomatoes, which is funny because earlier in the day she had eaten an entire tomato like an apple. Then she asked for more spinach. This kid is one of a kind.

I highly recommend this rather manipulative idea for your picky eaters. It was a rather enjoyable, non-whiney meal. Amen.

I grow tired of writing blogposts that begin with, “It has been a while…” I’m not even going to apologize because, frankly, I’ve been busy living life instead of recording it for posterity. So let us not go there… to the guilt-laden pleading. Let us just enjoy what we have? Shall we?

Spring Break is finally upon us. We began our week with a trip to the Norfolk zoo. Hampton and York County schools were out last week week, so we thought we’d enjoy a lazy day at an empty zoo. Plus, the weather was perfect! Alas, Virginia Beach schools were out for their Spring Break and the place was bustling. We arrived with Kim, Maddie, Bella and Emily and miraculously got rock-star parking. We spent the next few hours wandering around, having pizza and ice cream and watching some fun animals.

Barely got all those seats wedged into one car!

And we can’t forget this sweetie.

We had a very low-key day today. Aside from going out to dinner at Red Robin, we stayed home and vegged. So today, please enjoy these pics and videos of our silly girls and dog.

Dog Training by Brenna

Sydney Training by Brenna

Boomer is not always that placid. Observe:

Sydney

I call this one “Brenna’s Revenge.”

I call this one “Boomer’s Revenge.” (see bottom right corner)

It has been fun blogging our week this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Well kids, as usual, I dropped off the girls this morning at school. Then I walked Boomer and Chance (it was COLD and Kim had walked Boomer for me yesterday when I had my morning meeting.)

After that, I had to hit the commissary. I took a stealth picture before going in the gate. Air Force installations generally frown on you just snapping pictures all over the place. Touchy, touchy.

Here’s the Langley commissary:

I thought about pretending that this was all I bought:

But, again, keeping it real…

Back at home, my helper did not help at all.


And 20 minutes later:

This was about a week and a half of groceries, minus milk, bread and assorted produce that we pick up as needed.
I got chicken breasts (thin sliced – love these), salmon, steak for the crock pot, and pork chops.


Alrighty, bored yet? I ran to McD’s and got hot chocolates for the carline teachers at the girls’ school, then went to pick them up. Did you know I love bringing people drinks? I don’t know why. Quirk of mine.

After lunch, Syd, Brenna, Maddie, Bella, Kim and I and our 2 new friends Lillie and Katelynn went to paint pottery at a local place. L & K’s mom and dad are old friends of mine. I met them when I was in college. Their mom Katie went to Baylor and my boyfriend at the time Chris was her next door neighbor. Katie was dating a soldier at Ft. Riley, near Manhattan, KS, where I was attending Kansas State. One weekend, I rode with PJ all the way down to Waco, TX to visit Katie and Chris. So I had last seen them at their wedding a few years after that. 12 years ago, in fact. But now PJ is stationed in VA and we loved spending some time with their kiddos today! Fun story. Fun times.

Back at home, I made hawaiian chicken, green beans and broccoli cheese rice for dinner. It was yummy and easy (bottled marinade.)

Cory and the girls played a little Skylanders.

And I read this:

Then the girls went to bed, and I tuned in to see the series finale of my favorite show Extreme Home Makeover — they’re in Joplin, MO, building 7 homes in 7 days for victims of that terrible tornado.

Man, this show kills me. I just bawl every time. And when I was pregnant, dang. It was bad. I will miss it! So sad this is the last show! And that, my friends, was our Friday.

This morning after dropping off the kids at school, I rushed home to vacuum because at 9:00, we had a MOPS leadership meeting at my house.


My buddy, Gabi (and aren’t I looking stunning this morning? right!)

Margie’s blueberry peach coffee cake

After a productive meeting, I picked up the girls. Kim, Maddie and Bella came over for lunch, then we had a donut left over from the mtg. (thank you, Erin!) and went outside. It was GORGEOUS here today. In the 60′s and blue skies.

Sydney demonstrates the life skill of consuming and burning calories at the same time:


Security was on guard.

Very exciting happening today — Sydney tried out her new inline skates and LOVED them.

Bella rocks the hula hoop. Super star.

Shortly after Kim, Maddie and Bella left, our neighbors Serenity and EJ and their mom Avis came over to enjoy the nice day with us.

Did you know play doh is more fun outside? Little-known fact. Did you know Boomer needs a LOT of attention? Well-known fact.

Eventually (at like 4:30, no joke) we pulled ourselves away from the fun and went back inside for homework and a little down time.

In the interest of keeping it real, I also changed the water filter on our fridge and it was DISGUSTING under there.

After taking care of that mess, I made some stir fry for dinner. Cory was running late, so he got something else. We read books, brushed teeth, did devotions and put the girls to bed. After I post this, I am meeting Corbett in the living room to preview this “Laugh your way to a better marriage” dvd that we are considering using for a small group study in our home. The chaplain lead this dvd series/study when Cory was in Iraq and he enjoyed it. So we shall see what we shall see. Over and out.

Boomer came with for school drop off today.

Because afterwards, I took him to “The Doggy Hotel” (aka our Vet/Kennel) for a bath. I will miss the tree-lined roads of VA when we leave here… but not in the mid-afternoon because then the sun shining through them (rapidly flashing light is the effect) is annoying.

So here we are at Salty Paws. Nice, eh?

After dropping Boomer off I went home, had breakfast, did devotions and spent some time on Pinterest before heading off for my normal Wednesday volunteering in Sydney’s class.
Usually it’s a reading activity that we’re working on, and we split them all into 3 groups and they rotate through me, Mrs. Sawanowich and Mrs. McCloud, who is the aide.
Here is my first group, hard at work spelling words with magnets. I’m blotting out faces for privacy here on the blog.

I think I can safely leave G’s face on this one. Bet you thought it was Syd at first, huh? G’s sister has red curly hair and is in Brenna’s class. God is kinda funny sometimes.

Here are Maddie and Sydney and friends!

After school, we went to pick out a toy at TRU, because someone finally kicked a habit that she had been working on for a long time. It involves toenails. That’s all I’m saying. So 2 dragons later… we went to lunch at Jason’s Deli, our fave!

Then we picked up somebody who is looking very handsome!

We had approximately one hour at home to fold several loads of laundry before our favorite babysitter Alex arrived to watch the girls so I could go to a mtg. at Syd and Brenna’s school.

I actually took a picture in this meeting — for you guys! My faithful readers — even though it probably made me look very silly.

We are planning an awesome banquet fundraiser for the school. I tried not to volunteer for more than I could handle. We shall see how that works out.

Then I met my hot boyfriend for bang bang shrimp and chocolate cream brulee at:

It was yummy and so nice to talk without interruptions. And by the time we got home (7:30) the girls were already asleep. And this is why I love Alex. The end.

We had time after breakfast this morning to build a fabulous tower for Pteradon (also known as “Toothless the dragon”) with citiblocks. Do you have these blocks? They are phenomenal.

Usually on Tuesday mornings, I would go to Bible Study at church but we haven’t started yet after the New Year, so I went about my business like it was another Monday… took the kids to school in Cory’s car today (we switched so it could get detailed.)

Here’s Brenna in her class:

And Syd in hers:

Plus a bonus of the adorable 3 year olds doing shaving cream in my friend Rachel’s class:


Then Boomer and I met Kim and Chance for a walk.

Then I went home, had breakfast and did my devotions:

Then, since I do what I want, I watched a little Gilmore Girls and relaxed.

Then I took a quick trip to Target to look at curtains for our new office (old pink room) but I didn’t find any. Maybe I’ll make some? But I did find clearance PJs for the girls! Brenna approved.

So obviously, i had picked the girls up by then. We had lunch and they watched “How To Train Your Dragon” while I reorganized our ridiculous coat closet that is always a giant disaster.

It will look like the first picture by the end of tomorrow again, but hey… at least I tried.

After the movie, we did our learning time. Brenna calls it, “My Work.”


Sydney is using this:

Sometimes we just read a Dr. Seuss book or I read to her, if she brought home a book from her class library or if we have books from the base library.
Then we did our thank you cards from Christmas. We are a little late with those, but better late than never, right? I found a cute kit with stickers, so basically they did the stickers, I did the writing and they signed.

Then we just played together for a while.
Something about a dragon convention


And the “Royal Scepter”

Then we played zoo for a while.

Boomer worked on his new bone.


Then, I cleaned up the kitchen, did the dishes

And made mini meatloafs (Schwans) angel hair noodles, mixed veggies and crescent rolls for dinner.

A Week In the Life continues…
I had to haul everyone out of bed at 7:10. That’s sleeping in for us!

It was dark and dreary outside, so I think that was part of it. Boomer went out and wanted right back in.

Mondays=blues.

We ate some breakfast, got dressed and were headed out at our normal time.

Oops, I forgot the kids!

Just kidding. I took that picture right after going through the carline at school.
Then this guy…

and I went to
Back at home, I threw some chicken chili in the crockpot

Some bags in the back of the van for goodwill

Then this guy

watched me do some dishes and laundry.
Then Kenny arrived. He does some work around the house/yard/garage for us occasionally and he was here to tackle what we have always referred to as “the Pink Room”

Then Boomer and I took a long walk.

Hey, there’s my friend Kim’s house! I dropped off a “present” from Boomer in her trash can (it’s trash day in the neighborhood!) but don’t tell her.

And it was already time to pick up the chicklets.

So I jumped back in the car and headed up to school. Once there, I called Kim who was 2 cars ahead of me in car line.
She didn’t answer! Booo. So I got out of the car and harassed her in person. I mean, I invited her over for lunch. Her mom was on the phone, in case you were wondering. Sure.

Picked up the girls


And we went back to our house for lunch with Kim, Maddie and Bella

Kimberly is 38 weeks pregnant, and pretty much my only hope of making this week in the life project very exciting.

Brenna put her pajamas on within the 1st 5 minutes of being home, which is standard.

The girls had grilled cheese, grapes and pretzels and watched some silly 1990′s cartoon on Netflix while Kim and I had roast beef sandwiches and sun chips and took turns checking FB and going over plans for what will happen when and if she goes into labor.

Then I had to run back to Lowes and get some more paint for Kenny because I forgot how much paint our textured walls suck up. So Kim stayed with all the girls and took these pics of the goings on. A deck for the Pteradon and some sort of tower Bella made. Probably Rapunzel?

Later, we had gymnastics.


The low light in the gym is not conducive to picture taking, but I tried.
Brenna on a rope.

Sydney on the bars.

Back at home, Cory and I had chili and the girls had nuggets and broccoli for dinner

Then a bath

And books


And an interloper.

We go to bed about 45 minutes later on Monday nights.

And in case you are wondering how the “Pink Room” is turning out, here’s a sneak peek…

( I am loving the color. Cory is not so sure. Oh well, dude.)

This morning we went to Sunday School and church.

After lunch at home, the girls watched some TV and did some projects.
I straightened up the kitchen

Clipped some coupons.

Picked up the living room a little

And did a few loads of laundry.

If you don’t know about the color catcher sheets, you should educate yourselves. That is all.

Cory was working on his french, with a little help from 2 petite … um, helpers.

Then one of those little helpers helped me with a little Target shopping.

Back at home, I had a little cooking to do. Dinner for Cory and the girls (sloppy joes) started on the left. Fajita chicken for “my” famous Apple Cheddar Tossed Salad on the right.

Here’s the salad (dressing in tupperware) that I took to my Echo group tonight.

Echo is a small group bible study/fellowship time with high schoolers from our church. My friend Ginny and I lead the 10-12th grade girls group.
Here are (most) of our girls this year:

Katie, Katie, Claire, Natalie, Emily, Alba (last year’s group, back for Christmas break), Olivia, Jordan, Savannah and Ginny. She loves this picture, I’m sure.
Here’s a better one:

Tonight I had my first Boston Creme Cake ever. It was AMAZING.

Laura (who is our host and the one in white in this picture of us with Alba)
made the cake AND these awesome scarfs she gave Ginny and I.

After Echo, I came home to find the girls in bed and Cory watching football. I made his lunch and the girls’ snacks for school tomorrow. Now that I’m finished blogging, I’m going to finish the book I’m reading on my Kindle and hit the sack. Stay tuned for the goings on this week!

Several of my friends who blog are doing a Week in the Life project this week. I am participating as well, so I’m beginning with our adventure from yesterday. We took advantage of the crazy-nice January weather we’ve been having here in Southern Virginia and drove down to Virginia Beach. We had some lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, checked out the Hampton Roads Auto Show, had ice cream and spent some time on the beach. Here are my beauties: