Beans & Rice

Marianna LOVES to play with her brother. He's getting a bit more independent these days. He doesn't always want the attention (or to be held) but he is always interested in what the sisters are up to. Marianna doesn't always seem to realize that brother is over half her size now too.

Right before this I missed capturing a sweet (rare) moment where Louis was letting Marianna rock him on her lap.

We have been terrible about taking pictures since we started school full time, but this morning things seemed to be going relatively smoothly so I thought I would try to capture a bit of our morning:)

Beans in the crockpot (for taco soup and the rest for chili)

Snow outside our window!


My busy little school girls working on workbooks, puzzles and having their "fruit and veggie" snack we have every morning. The rule is: one veggie per fruit:) Marianna is off school this week and next.

Black bean dark chocolate brownies from valentines. We love these!

Louis is napping well this morning thankfully, and Daniel is at school!

We also do "morning chore" time every morning which includes one load of laundry off the rack, a new one back up, dishes and cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast. Since Marianna is home, I help and supervise rather than doing the bulk of it! Thankful for that!

The menus are getting pretty boring (almost the same every week!) but that's the way it'll have to be until our schedule changes.

Sunday: Crockpot Beef Stroganoff (on zucchini noodles for me:) over rice
Monday: Chicken in the crockpot, carrots, baked potatoes
Tuesday: Taco Soup (crockpot of course)
Wednesday: Mac n cheese in the crockpot (didn't get to this last or the week before?)
Thursday: Lentil something or other ....
Friday: Burgers and homefries, fresh veg or green beans
Saturday: Soup of some sort, fresh bread

Breakfasts:
French toast
Scrambled eggs
Eggs in a window
Zucchini Bread
Oatmeal

We had a great time tonight with new French friends. Daniel met the husband at Marianna's school when he realized Daniel spoke English. Then we realized our daughters were buddies at school. So we've been talking about having them over for a few weeks and we finally did and were so grateful we did. It was a fantastic time. It probably won't improve our French since they both knew a good deal of English, but we are excited to share friendship with them. I was especially thankful everything went so well because I had terrible insomnia last night and today my cold/fever got considerably worse. So so thankful...and ready for some rest tonight!

Olivia became fast friends with their younger child. They were in hysterics despite the lack of a common language:)


Louis and their younger child.

Marianna and her buddy Z, having a great time.

Around the dinner table with new friends. What a blessing!

We served Taco Salad and they brought wine and really good chocolate:).

Not a great "capture" of this but Marianna was helping daddy assemble her bed here:

Olivia is getting better at helping with dishes. The crockpot is still a bit big though.

And my BIGGEST helper of all, the little rascal who regularly breaks honey jars, dumps baby cereal, pulls out copious amounts of tupperware and pans. Good thing he's cute.

We've all been sick and have started school full-time so this blog has been neglected...so sorry! I need to set myself a posting schedule so I can make sure I take a few minutes every other day to do so.

And just for fun, another video of the boy:
[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/2eJ01sVGQJc?rel=0 ]
He is truly "all boy" and thinks everything in the house needs to be conquered or destroyed. I routinely find things chewed up, pulled apart, or he's pulled himself and is trying to knock it over. So different from the girls!

Sunday: Chili in the crockpot and buttermilk cornbread. Dinner is something french: Pave de porc Savoyard with a cheesy potato casserole. Taking a one-day break from no-grains and also having some bread from the bakery:)
Monday: Leftovers: I made way too much food for my bday!
Tuesday: Chicken in the crockpot, carrots, foil wrapped baked potatoes
Wednesday: Making Chicken noodle soup w/bread for a new mommy, but we'll be having dinner at a friends house, so this will be Thursday's dinner
Thursday: See above
Friday: Burgers and homefries
Saturday: Stroganoff in the crockpot
Sunday: Lentils in the crockpot or clean out fridge

Breakfasts:
French toast
Scrambled eggs
Eggs in a window
Morning Glory Muffins

Big day for Louis: he learned to wave and moved into 18 month clothes. They are a little roomy and long, but I was having trouble zipping up the 12 month jammies.

I love that Louis gouges my eyes out in the last shot of this video. No mommies were harmed in the making of this video:)