After School Snacks

I enjoy being creative with after school snacks.

These peanut-butter apples with nuts and raisins rank high with the girls.

Yesterday we tried a new granola bar recipe, the recipe can be found HERE.

The girls helped make these and they turned out great!

I made a few changes:

-whole wheat flour

-only 1/2 cup brown sugar

-added coconut

-cooked for only 20 min. instead of 30.

This weekend Brinley proudly presented me with this poster she created during 

"quiet time" in her room. I'm pretty sure she was just looking to get a reaction from Mom when I read over the "I like" column, so I did the exact opposite and simply commended her on her creativity in making the list, mentioning nothing about what the list said.

It's a bummer she still has not come around to liking oatmeal since she has the opportunity 

to eat it every other morning of her entire life thus far! Oh and trust me, we remind her what an "opportunity" it truly is to have a nutritious breakfast.

In fact, this week when I served cauliflower soup (pureed in the Blendtec) we had such a  

fun dinner lesson brought about by their absolute disgust of the dish.

The children were given a wonderful chance, again, to practice being polite

when served food that was not to their liking. 

Stories about Daddy's mission in Chili and Mommy's summer in Spain provided wonderful examples of appreciating food even when we don't like it.

I have NEVER believed in feeding children only what they think they like. 

In fact, I can hardly stand picky little eaters and do not tolerate it in my home.
This is one of the reasons I find delight in feeding them new and different foods they may not be to keen on, it'll be for their good in the long run!

(this picture illustrates how NOT to make these, it was my first time, they are too full and the cream cheese was not stirred into the batter. Just follow the updated recipe below and yours will look much better)

Once the girls finished slurping down their bowls of soup, we enjoyed these:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes

 

1 box spice cake mix

3.5 oz. instant vanilla pudding mix

1 c. pumpkin

8 oz. cream cheese

1 egg

¼ c. sugar

*Prepare cake mix as directed on box.

*Add dry pudding packet and canned pumpkin.

*Spoon mixture into cupcake liners, fill only half way, they rise a lot.

*Beat cream cheese until fluffy and then mix in sugar and egg.

*Spoon cream cheese mixture over each cupcake and slightly swirl into batter.

*Bake at 350 for 18-21 minutes.

Our Mountains

Here in our great state we really don't have mountains, we have hills,

and on Saturday we visited them.

The good news is that our children have no clue that these hills are any different 

from real mountains, like THESE ones that I grew up in.

Because we left after nap time and Daddy's post-call daytime sleep, by the time we arrived, 

it's an hour-long drive, we only had time for one "hike" to the beautiful little falls below. 

Even a little time in natural beauty did much good for my soul!

The girls were head over heals excited about all that this natural playground had to offer.

From sticks and rocks to dirt and moss I realized that camping NEEDS 

to become part of our family identity.

Aspen followed along with high pitched squeals and other expressive signs 

of delight as her sisters discovered several little detours from the path we were on.

Daddy taught the girls how to skip rocks. 

Brinley picked it up quickly and was skipping away, 

while Avery preferred stirring the "magic water" with her stick 

and Aspen was happy just throwing lots of rocks into the water.

This little outing helped solidify my resolve to get our family out in 

wilderness much more often...because thank the good heavens above, we just may have time to do that as a family after fellowship is over, HOORAY!

And HERE is an issue we need to ALL be more aware of!  

The full report is one-hour long and available on i-tunes, I can't find it anywhere else online,

might I highly recommend it.

Hungry Ducklings

We still make regular visits to the aggressive neighborhood ducks.

Fortunately this time around the geese were MIA.

Those darn geese are even more aggressive, annoying and loud AND they

bite the ducks and take all of the bread.

Aspen vacillates between being really thrilled to toss out pieces of bread, 

to being really scared as the ducks begin to

mob her and peck at her little hands to get the bread.

Avery has become adept at the "feeding in motion" style where she walks
and tosses bread simultaneously, as demonstrated here.

This week one duck enjoyed a sweet little nibble on Aspen's finger and

I happened to capture the aftermath!

PS- Check out my Mom's blog HERE to see cute pictures of her time with the girls when we were on our trip!

In the Kitchen

For some reason I always seem to do more baking as the air turns cool.

This week for our "Special Sunday Breakfast" I went ultra healthy, NOT,

with this yummy and ever so simple Monkey bread.

After picking only the most delicious Honey Crisp apples at an orchard 

last Saturday we baked these

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

 Brinley was in charge of the streusel and she did a mighty fine job.

2 ½ c. flour

2 c. sugar

1 T. pumpkin pie spice, extra if desired

1 t. baking soda

½ t. salt

2 eggs

1 c. solid packed pumpkin

½ c. vegetable oil

2 c. finely chopped apples

*In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients.

*In a medium bowl combine all wet ingredients.

*Add both together and mix just enough until moistened.

*Stir in apples and spoon batter into tins filling ¾ way full.

*Sprinkle topping over each muffin.

Topping:

2 T. flour

¼ c. sugar

½ t. cinnamon

4 t. soft butter

*Mix together until crumbly.

*Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

And then I packaged them up for teacher treats. 

Now that Aspen is in school the teacher treat wagon has grown once again.

I also used our hand-picked apples to make 

THIS for dessert on Sunday when we had the Drexel's over.

First Day, Take Two

Aspen started preschool last week!

She had been anticipating the blessed day for months and her 

enthusiasm did not waver one tiny bit when the day finally came.

She wore her backpack throughout morning responsibilities and breakfast time.

When we arrived to her classroom door she bolted inside without 

so much as one little look back.

I was juggling shooting video for Cody, still pictures for the blog and the older two children who needed to be rushed to their school right after we dropped off Aspen. 

Needless to say I did capture more with the video camera than 

with the still camera that morning.

SO I tried to make up for my lack of pictures by taking
one of her eating lunch after preschool ended.

In this picture she is demonstrating her love of Edamame beans.

So far her favorite things about preschool are:

1- The "ding bell" she hears at recess.

2- Dress-ups.
3- The inside gym.

Each time I pick her up she starts right into a nice long monologue about 

the specifics of the "ding bell." 

Our Week in Paradise

Cody and I just returned from a glorious week at THIS resort in Mexico.

Everything was perfect and wonderful and amazing in every way!

The fact that we paid $0 to the resort for our week of luxury was not such a shabby deal either.

I am a part of THIS organization as one of their traveling instructors.

This means that I can travel to any one of 45 top notch all-inclusive resorts, 

along with an adult and up to two children, for FREE,
as the "visiting instructor" for the week.

(This sign with my bio hung on the "activities" boards at the resort)

I do have to pay a "fee" to Fitness Pro Travel also have to buy airfare, 

but it still comes out to be quite the screamin' deal. 

Especially when, like our week in Mexico, I only end up teaching a total of THREE classes!

The food was phenomenal. For breakfast and lunch we opted to eat at the buffet which boasted an international cuisine with seemingly endless options. 

My favorite meal at the buffet was breakfast which included scrumptious oatmeal and a made-to-order omelet. The fact that their milk had the taste and texture of cream made anything with milk my favorite!

Cody's favorite meal at the buffet was lunch. We both developed a great appreciation for the fresh made-to-order taco's and stir-fry.

The coconut ice cream was also a favorite and we had to make a few emergency stops just to pick up a scoop now and then.

This picture shows a portion of the main pool with it's swim up bar, although there was never much need to actually "swim up" to the bar since the waiters would come to you at any place you happened to be in the pool.

The staff got a kick out of our desire for all alcohol-free drinks. 

The entire resort was well manicured with modern decor, it was built only 2.5 years ago.

The guest rooms boast huge windows, jacuzzi tubs, enormous showers, balcony's, a living room area with couches, flat screens and very comfy beds!

We relaxed and read books here by the family pool.

Here underneath four-post cabana's with curtains at the adult pool.

Here in hammocks overlooking the ocean.

 And here at XEL-HA, 

during a day-long excursion.

At Xel-Ha we enjoyed tubing down a natural river, which eventually lead into the ocean, cliff-diving, zip-lining and relaxing while overlooking the beautiful natural aquarium...

however the highlight was snorkeling in and out of small caves and coral reefs among a 

gaggle of tropical fish.

One day went to a tiny village called Puerto Morales just about 10 minutes down the road.

We lucked out and ended up with a private snorkeling tour 

guided by a local young man from the village.

Although I've done my fair share of snorkeling, I saw bigger fish during this trip than I have ever seen before! The water temperature honestly like bath water, 

which naturally makes every water-bound experience 10x better!

We also went to the "Jungle Spa" where local Mayan give native Mayan massages. 

We heard about it from resort guests we ate dinner with one night and they

raved about their experience.

The spa was actually started by a women who lived in Ohio at one point in time. 

She eventually ended up in Mexico helping to empower these women in her area by providing them with a facility and publicity.

Laying in the middle of this "jungle" underneath grass roof bungalow's, we each experienced the "Aloe Vera and banana leaf wrap massage" described on their website HERE.

It was simply divine and we would both highly recommend 

you make it there if you are ever in the area!

Aside from our morning trips to the gym, 

we did manage to squeeze a tiny bit of physical activity into our relaxing days.

Cody was quite impressive on the beach volleyball court after countless 

years absence from any type of sports. 

One day I participated in the Mexican variation of aqua aerobics. Can you spot me? 

I am the glowing white figure near the back with a hat to protect my scalp, 

which will even burn through my hair if not covered by a hat!

As the day wound down and the sun began to set we headed back to our room to  
shower and get ready for dinner at one of the 6 restaurants.

Our favorite was the Asian Spice restaurant featuring four large Teppanyaki grills.
We also enjoyed the French and Italian restaurants for dinner.
Although the "adult only" restaurant was exquisite and fancy in decor,
the food did leave a bit to be desired.

A few of the evenings we attended the nightly entertainment. 

Here is a sample of the "Mexican Fiesta Show" we watched one of the nights.

A HUGE thanks to Grandma Ginger who was the  

childcare warrior that made this trip possible 

and for her side kick Leslie who helped out as well.

We returned home to a house filled with craft projects of all sorts and to three girls who had such a fun week that I think they thought they were the ones on vacation!

Since most of the time that Grandma was here we were kickin' it in the Caribbean,  
I failed to get ANY pictures of their time together,
but I'm sure Grandma will blog about it and then I will link her post.

Being with my husband for a full week without kids and without residency 

(the third member in our marriage) was such a sweet and even life-changing experience!!!