Last Weekend

On Saturday Jacob came down with pink eye. I took him up to Kelsey Seybold (love them!) to get him a prescription.  Luckily we caught it really early and so far none of the rest of us have gotten it. Although you know when your child has pink eye then right away your own eye starts to feel weird and twitchy.

In other news, I spent some time in the kitchen this weekend and here is what was accomplished:

   

• 2 Lasagna Casseroles
• 1 batch of popcorn chicken
• 1 batch of ground chicken tacos
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1.25 lbs ground turkey

For the meats, I just cooked them with sea salt and dehydrated onions, so the taste is neutral enough to be added to just about anything. I got this idea from Hillbillyhousewife.com because she wisely points out that cooked ground meat defrosts in a fraction of the time as raw frozen meat.  It was very satisfying to get all that done.

I have adopted a new strategy at dinner time. I make one meal and put it all out in serving dishes on the table and we all eat it. The kids manage to find some pieces of most meals that they will eat.  Sure, sometimes it results in odd pairings for instance tonight Jacob had apple sauce, tortilla chips, rice and milk for dinner; the other night Bella wouldn’t eat garlic chicken pasta but she did eat bread and salad. Wait – I know you are thinking, how is this new? isn’t this how normal people eat dinner. Yes I know but I am one of those Moms that somehow wound up as a short order cook every night – I would make one meal for Will and I and then another one, maybe even two, for the kids. Well, I just finally got tired of it, it wasn’t helping the children try new things, and by the time I sat down to eat everyone else was done! 

I was worried that the children would revolt or starve, but so far it’s working.  I am sure there will be some meals that are too spicy or fancy for them, and so I’ll make them something else but I want it to be the exception rather than the rule.

Sunday afternoon we were meant to go visit our friends that have a new baby, but with Jacob’s pink eye I didn’t think he should go. So, while Will and Bella went to visit (and drop off some of the food I made), Jacob and I went to the zoo.

If you can handle how cool and breezy it was (we bundled up) then I totally recommend going to the zoo on a not so nice day. The weather combined with the Superbowl meant we had the place to ourselves. There was no line for anything! We rode the carousel twice and both times we were the only ones on it!  After their visit, Will and Bella joined us – the kids just ran and ran and played and played.

 

 

I’ll have to dig up my other zoo photos in this spot for a comparison.

This is one happy kid! Fun with his new camera My favorite shot

Bella in the eagle’s nest

After the zoo closed we all went to eat dinner. The kids were happy and exhausted and went to bed. Then Will and I opened a bottle of wine and watch Night at the Museum.  (Will got Netflix from me for his birthday)

All in all it was a most wonderful weekend even though we did sit out from watching the Super Bowl. I think the football guys did ok without us. Go Saints.