Family Fun Continues...

We're still on our kick of packing in as much family time as possible.  I'm getting pretty used to having Mickey home and it's going to be hard to see it end but the bills still have to get paid which means off to work he must go...I think in some ways he may actually be looking forward to the break from all of us.  We're a handful that's for sure.  In the meantime, we're taking advantage of his 24/7 presence and trying to enjoy every minute of it.  This weekend was kicked off with a trip to Lowe's to build a fire truck...

...we never pass up these free opportunities for fun.  Lowe's has a great program!  They even had a real fire truck there that day to add to the fun...

I'm not gonna lie...once we got close to it, it was a little intimidating to the boys.  Mommy and Daddy to the rescue!

We also squeezed in a trip to our favorite "bouncy bridge" park...

We all knows new fire hats are a necessity at the park!

Mickey taught the boys a thing or two about rappelling... 

After all that fun, we were all a hot, sweaty mess and decided to hit up Starbucks for some cold drinks before heading home for lunch...mostly guacamole for this guy...

and naps.  It was a fun morning!

The rain came along during nap time but we made the most of the rest of our day by running some errands and having a pizza and movie night.  Good times!!

Saturday must have worn us all out because we overslept and missed the early service at church on Sunday morning.  Good thing there's a second service.  We enjoyed worshiping together and were happy to have the Ethan Parker Band help lead worship...

...we were seriously impressed!  I even came home and downloaded some of their music.  They were that good.    The message at church was exactly what we needed to hear too.  Love when that happens...love our church. 

We spent the rest of our day at a little one year old's birthday party.  Smash cakes and 1 year olds NEVER get old for me.  Playing with friends and their toys never gets old for the boys...

...even if all of it is pink and way too small for 3 people to squeeze into.

We managed to get in a little run after we got home before the rain forced us inside again.  Early bedtime for the boys meant time to catch up on some tv for me.  Since Mickey was away for the night, I took advantage of the opportunity to watch "my shows" without torturing him.  I might or might not have stayed up a little too late indulging myself with mindless tv...worse things have happened.  

This morning the boys got to go to a play group while I got some time to myself.  Since I had already tackled all of my errands, I took advantage of the opportunity for a stroller-free bridge run (I need to make time to do that more often!) and popped in the gym to lift some weights too.  I also had time for a LONG shower, a rare event these days, and time to restock the boys library book collection.  You better believe I squeezed in a trip to Starbucks too...nothing like a rainy morning to make you crave extra caffeine...

The rest of our day has been spent reading the new library books while indulging in some yummy treats...

....and I got to tutor while the boys napped.  I love my weekly visits from my sweet, energetic student.  

Now it's time to get motivated to whip up some dinner.  And apparently from the photo above, I need to make time to repaint my nails...lol. 

Whole30 Day 5 and Going Strong

I'm on Day 5 of my Whole30 experiment and still going strong.  Fortunately, the food is very satisfying so I haven't experienced any crazy cravings...yet.  I'm pretty darn committed to this experiment too and am not interested in cheating...that is helping me tremendously.  I really want to give this experiment a fair shot so I'm sticking to it to a T.  It feels good!

We've had some fun along with some good food over the last couple of days.  Friday was a pretty ordinary day...lazy morning, then a trip to the library, a stop at the gym, home for lunch and naps, a trip to the grocery store, and some play time outside...

...and some playtime inside...

We also made some homemade playdoh...

Next time I won't double the batch.  That stuff is hard to stir!!

I'm pretty darn focused on this whole30 thing right now so my 3 meals of the day are kind of a big deal these days.  I'm having fun with this new approach to eating.  Bear with me on the food photos...

Friday's breakfast...

(eggs scrambled with coconut oil, caramelized onions, avocado, and tomatoes with balsamic)

Friday's lunch...

(roast chicken, caramelized onions, leftover broccoli soup and an un-pictured peach)

and the yummiest meal of the day, Friday's dinner...

(mocha-rubbed steaks, bok choy, and a sweet potato with coconut butter)

See why this plan is so easy to stomach :-)  It's seriously delicious and satisfying!  I'm hopeful my energy levels come back up soon.  Apparently it can take a while for your body to relearn how to use fats as fuel rather than all the processed carbs which are so quickly digested and leave you craving more.  I definitely notice that an emphasis on including healthy fats with every meal is keeping snacking and cravings at bay, something I was hoping to accomplish.  Score!

Friday's workout included a pretty lackluster legs workout followed but 25 minutes of intervals on the elliptical.  It was better than nothing but nothing stellar.  Sometimes, less than stellar is ok.  

I wasn't even tempted by the boys' cupcake party...

...looks like there's hope for me killing my sweet tooth after all.  I'm so excited!

This morning kicked off bright and early after this guy had trouble sleeping and joined me in my bed at 6 am...

...needless to say, I did not get back to sleep.  Obviously he did, though, which is much more important.  Those boys NEED their sleep.

Once we were all up and at em, we hit the road for a drizzly run.  Thank goodness for my running buddy who held me accountable and pushed me on a pretty dreary, sticky day.  She even convinced me to run the bridge, something I would have avoided on my own today. Let me tell you...it's especially hard to tackle that thing in the wind while pushing over 100 lbs.  Now that it's over, I'm glad I did.  It was a torturous 5 miles but s susual, misery loves company, and we got through it together.  With exercise out of the way for the day, it was time to tackle breakfast...

Eggs scrambled with coconut oil and doused with hot sauce (I might have gotten a little carried away. LOL) along with some bok choy, avocado, and strawberries on the side.  Yum!

Our next order of business was a stop at Starbucks for some black coffee...I forgot how hot it is without cream...so we left it in the car to cool off a bit while we hit up Home Depot for the kids clinic.  The boys had a BLAST building their little lawnmowers.  I gotta say, I was impressed with their hammering skills...

Can you guess which one of the boys is the sleepyhead who ended up in my bed this morning???  Silly Colton!

Our next order of business was a stop at the park for some exercise for the boys while I finally enjoyed my cool-enough-to-drink coffee...

Those boys sure do love the park.  And mommy loves her coffee...

After about an hour, our growling stomachs and the need for a restroom got the best of us so we headed back home for the day.  Check out my awesome lunch...

Now that's what I call a salad!  Mixed greens, tomato, avocado, and leftover steak drizzled with balsamic vinegar.  Divine!

Now it's time to put up my feet for a bit and read while the boys nap.  I'm really digging my new read...

...an easy read with interesting characters...perfect!  Happy Weekend!

Crammin' In Some Fun Today

At the end of the day yesterday, I realized I hadn't spent much "fun time" with the boys and was feeling kinda bad about it.  This might have been the most excitement they had all day...

These little gems are at the place where they go to their play group.  Some of the moms got together for a deep-cleaning of all the toys in the room before we take the summer off and the boys lucky enough to get to come along with me for the task.  I never let them get on them because it's darn near impossible to get them off but I caved yesterday and they were pretty excited.  It's the little things...I think I should probably give in more often.  They were in heaven for those 3 minutes.  Now I just need to figure out a way to get them off the toys and into the car...

We swung by the grocery store and the gym yesterday too.  The boys made me these adorable flowers while I worked out...

We love our gym!  It's hard to get them to leave the play room there too...I need to work on that it seems...

We spent the rest of the day doing the produce thing.  We are finally restocked with yummy fruit and they boys already devoured a melon and two containers of strawberries.  I have to sneak my share before it's gone.  I never seem to order enough...

We tried out a FABULOUS recipe inspired by Budget Bytes' maple dijon chicken last night.   I just subbed pork chops for the chicken since that's what we had on hand...YUM!  Colton was especially with the bone which he kept telling me looked like an alligator...

I pretended to see what he was talking about...haha

We ended the evening with a wagon walk before a little downtime on the couch before bed...

They hardly ever watch TV so when I let them, they TOTALLY dig it!  I love their amazement at Curious George.

To make up for our somewhat lame day for the boys yesterday, we packed in extra fun today.  We kicked off our morning bright and early with a run that included a LONG stop at the park....

They are in love with this park and call it the wobbly bridge park.  I love that it's within running distance and has great shade and a waterfront breeze.

We've got quite the little climbers...

They're getting interested in learning some tree-climbing skills too... 

This was our turnaround point for our run...

Being the multi-tasker that I am, you know I had to squeeze in a stop to the bank and a trip to the library as well on our outing.  I love being able to get lots of things done on foot.  The boys had a great time with Miss Lisa at the Family Place...

We swung in the Fresh Market on our way home for some 2/$12 chickens...the good ones!  Needless to say, the boys passed out on the way home from all that fun...

We spent the rest of our afternoon poolside once they woke up...

The boys are a little scarred from swimming lessons but we worked our way from the baby pool to some fun in the big pool later.  We ended up having a lot of fun...thank goodness!

Time for some A/C and snacks before heading off to take care of some other errands this evening, including a stop by Red Box to pick up this movie...

If it has Matt Damon in it, it's gotta be good, right???  Looking forward to putting my feet up tonight.    We were beyond due for a day like this.  What a fun day!  Here's to hoping the fun continues all weekend long.