Sunday, February 26, 2017

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Feb 27 - Mar 5)

Last week was very interesting because I was hurt all week.  I did the best I could to shop and cook and we did OK staying on our plan.  I did not reset back to the healthy eating and exercising that I intended to so there was more junk that I planned.  We took the weekend to just eat some of the junk that we have in the house and will be starting fresh tomorrow with healthy eating for sure.  The goal is to eat healthy for the next month, until my birthday, then take a break for a few days and then get back to it.

One of our favorite meals last week was the Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Cauliflower Soup.  It was really easy to make, delicious and filling.  Plus I finally got to use the Ninja blender attachment.  I use the single serve cup and the food processor all of the time, but haven't used the blender yet.  I was very excited with how well it blended our soup.
Here's what we're eating this week.  You'll notice a few carryovers from last week:
Monday - Asian Salmon with Sweet & Spicy Green Beans
Tuesday - Spaghetti with Shrimp and Broccoli
Wednesday - Whole Roasted Chicken
Thursday - Butternut Squash and Turkey Chili
Friday - Moo Shu Pork with quinoa and lettuce cups
Saturday - Steak, baked potatoes & whatever veggies we have left after the week
Sunday - Meatballs - subs for the boys & over zoodles for me and Adrian

Water Flavor - Mango

I'm also starting to make some more options for breakfast and lunch.  We have really gotten into overnight oats and are making a few jars each weekend to eat during the week.  This week we're having original, chocolate peanut butter & banana chocolate chip oats.  I'm also making Cherry Pie Oatmeal Squares for breakfast or snacks and Chicken Avocado Soup with the leftover chicken and broth I'll make with the bones from Wednesday's chicken.  That will just be for me since Adrian doesn't like avocado.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 2/17 - 2/23)

Friday (2/17) Everyone had off from school today and when I asked earlier in the week, no one really wanted to do anything special.  They really wanted to spend time watching and playing video games and playing with their new toys from the birthdays.  They also wanted to go get their donuts from Krispy Kreme for their report cards.  All of that seemed doable...except for the fact that my back was still bothering me.  I rested most of the day and then took them to Krispy Kreme for donuts.  They also had some shopping to do so we went for a quick trip to Target where they each got a toy, a new shirt and Zak got some new pants.

I was in rough shape after all of that, but we had a sitter for the night I did not want to miss out on our first date night in over 3 months.  So I sucked it up and got ready to go out.  We went to Cooper's Hawk Winery for dinner for a late Valentine's date.  The food was excellent and so was the wine!  We joined their wine club so now we will get a new bottle of wine each month.  This month we got a bottle of their red sangria.  Can't wait to try it out!
Saturday (2/18) I struggled to sleep last night and my back is killing me today.  I decided that I am spending the day on the couch resting.  The only thing we had to change was Zak's soccer make up.  He will go next Saturday instead of today.  Adrian took AJ and went to Brain Balance and soccer this morning.  While he was there I stayed home and did as little as possible.  Daniel and Zak were a big help, hardly asking me for anything.

In the afternoon, I continued to rest while Adrian took Daniel to his basketball game.  They played great and won again.  Daniel didn't get a basket this week, but knew his memory verse and helped set up his team mates.  Adrian stopped home for a brief time to swap out kids and then took AJ to his basketball game.  His team lost, but AJ had a good time.  They ran to Meijer quickly after the game to get some Aleve for me and some appetizers for an easy dinner for all of us.
We finished up the night with some video games and TV.  It was a super lazy day for me, but I did manage to get a bunch of things done while sitting.  Plus Adrian and I got caught up on "This Is Us" which is an awesome show!  And we celebrated National Drink Wine Day.  I think all in all it was a pretty good day.

Sunday (2/19) I was still hurting when I got up but we had a party to get ready for!  I finished the cupcakes and cookies for Daniel's birthday party and packed up all of the other snacks and drinks while resting as much as possible.  We picked up some friends and headed over the Engineering for Kids for his Minecraft birthday party.  We had 16 total kids there and they all had a blast!  They played Minecraft together for an hour and a half (which wasn't long enough for most of them!) and then we had cake and snacks.  Daniel got a ton of awesome gifts from his friends.  And when he bit into his cupcake, he lost his front tooth!  It was a fantastic party and we are thankful everyone was able to come and celebrate with us.


 After the party, a few of the kids played out in the parking lot (it was mostly empty since lots of the places were closed on Sun) with their new toys from their goodie bags.  It was gorgeous outside and I enjoyed chatting with the other parents.  Then we headed back towards home, stopping to pick up our dinner on the way.  We finished up the night with some video games and experimenting with coding on our computer thanks to a gift from Daniel's friend Keaton.  Adrian and I were exhausted!!  We had a glass of wine and called it a night.

Monday (2/20) Happy Presidents Day!  Adrian and Zak got the day off and I took the day off since they were off.  Then AJ and Daniel had a two hour delay and we decided to just let them stay home all day and have a family day.  We decided to go see "The Lego Batman Movie" but Zak didn't want to go.  So I took AJ and Daniel and met Carl and Isabelle while Adrian took Zak so they both could get haircuts.

We met up with Carl at Easton only to find out that the movie was sold out!  I guess everyone else who had the day off decided a movie was a good idea.  We quickly ran to Cheryl's so AJ and Daniel could get their free cookies for their good report cards and then ran down the street to another theater to see the movie.  We all really enjoyed it!  It was funny for both the kids and adults, had an OK story line and a nice moral at the end.  Nice way to spend our morning.
After the movie we headed home to get a few things done around the house, including haircuts for AJ and Daniel, and have some extra video game time.  We also enjoyed some time in the yard since it was 60 degrees this afternoon!  My back was still bothering me so I went to the chiropractor for an adjustment.  He said it was really out of alignment and tortured me so it would feel better.  He gave me some stretches, instructions for icing it and an order not to exercise for at least the next 2-3 days.  Boo!!  We finished up the night with Adrian heading to his basketball league while the boys and I watched some TV and had some ice cream.

Tuesday (2/21) started with craziness!  The freezer that we bought way back in Nov and has been back ordered for months was finally delivered.  But of course they delivered it at 8:30am, right in the middle of the school chaos.  Thankfully Adrian was running late for work so he took the boys to school while I dealt with the delivery guys.  I'm SO happy to have the freezer here finally!  Can't wait to start stocking it up.
My back was still bothering me so I took the day off of teaching classes and tried to rest as much as possible.  Zak and I played a few games in the afternoon and watched some TV.  Adrian was late getting home so I had to take AJ to Brain Balance at night, but thankfully it was just me and him.  I ran to the Giant Eagle down the road to grab some basics that we are running out of since I'm laid up.  We ended the night watching my new favorite show "This is Us."  I cried.  A lot.  Big ugly sobs.  It's a great show!!

Wednesday (2/22) I dropped everyone off at school then Adrian and I headed into Daniel's school to see his wax museum presentation.  He was Abraham Lincoln and did a great job with his speech.  He looked very nervous but still basically remembered his paragraph.  It was a lot of fun to walk around and hear all of the other kids' paragraphs as well.  They all did a great job!  And I even learned a few things.  After the wax museum closed, I headed into AJ's class to continue working on the math books.  There were a bunch that were copied wrong so next week when I go in I'll be copying instead of assembling.

After the morning in the school my back was really hurting so after I picked up Zak I rested for a while and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with him.  I'm starting to feel a little better but this pain just won't go away.  The weather is staying pretty warm around here so Zak and I walked up to pick up AJ and Daniel from school.  Then we got some homework done and headed out to soccer for Zak and Daniel.  They both did awesome as usual.  Daniel is really having a blast playing soccer!  We finished up the night with pasta for dinner, ice cream for desert and our Weds comedies (The Goldburgs & Modern Family).

Thursday (2/23) started with everyone in great moods and we got out early to school.  I was finally starting to feel less pain in my back so I decided to run errands while everyone was at school and I wasn't working.  I got a ton of things done in a short time, it was awesome!  I finished up and picked Zak up from school and we headed home for lunch.  It was dinosaur week at school and he made his own dino.  The head fell off so we had to fix it when we got home.  We set up his new dragon race track from his birthday and played with this, watched some TV and got to walk again to pick up the other boys.  We walked outside and he said "It is a beautiful day for a walk!" I couldn't agree more!  I'll take almost 70 degrees in February.
After we got home it was a balance of fun and work.  Thankfully the boys didn't have any homework since Thursday is our busiest night of the week.  We ate dinner in stages and Adrian took each boy (AJ and Daniel) to their basketball practice while I hung out at home and cleaned up.  We finished up the night with more ice cream leftovers (still eating cake from all the birthdays!) and some comedies on our DVR.  I'm so thankful my back is feeling better and I'm looking forward to a few good nights of sleep and getting back to my normal routine!

Monday, February 20, 2017

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Feb 20 - Feb 26)

We mostly stayed on our plan for last week again which is great.  We did have to bump Saturday's plan of meatball subs to this week because I hurt my back and wasn't able to cook.  We got some frozen appetizers and had those for dinner instead.  At least I didn't have to worry about running right out to shop for Monday and Tuesday nights dinners.

As you have been reading, our eating has not exactly been healthy recently.  I've been feeling the effects of the eating and really need to push the reset button.  I'm giving myself Monday since everyone is off and we're having meatball subs but then I'm really bucking down on what I'm eating.  I'm going to try to eat well straight through the next 4 weeks, which will just about bring me to my birthday and the boys' spring break.  That seems like a good week to take a break anyway.

Adrian is also trying to eat foods that lower your bad cholesterol and raise the good.  So you will hopefully see more of that in the upcoming weeks, starting with salmon this week.  And I will be continuing to empty our fridge and then our pantry.  I'm taking this week off because I made this meal plan and shopping list (and wrote the post) while I was laid up on Saturday.  Since I didn't want to go thru the fridge, I just planned.  I'll be back to using up ingredients next week for sure.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Meatball Subs
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday
Wednesday - Pasta
Thursday - Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Cauliflower Soup with Salads
Friday - Leftovers for the boys, I'm going out with friends
Saturday - Steak, baked potatoes & whatever veggie I can find on sale
Sunday - Asian Salmon with Sweet & Spicy Green Beans

Water Flavor - Mango (I always buy one when I see them on sale now because it's my favorite flavor)

Overnight Oats Flavors - Chocolate Peanut Butter, Plain and Blueberry Cobbler

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 2/10 - 2/16) - Part 2

This week was super busy again so I split the week into two parts.  If you missed the first half of the week, click here to read what we did over the weekend.

Monday (2/13) AJ and I still weren't feeling 100% so we stayed home while everyone else went to school and work.  He mostly rested on the couch watching TV while I bounced from resting to trying to do a few things around the house.  It was nice to have him home in the afternoon to play with Zak.  They played some board games (usually my job) and some Minecraft while I showered and rested up for my Zumba class.  Thankfully Adrian was able to come home early so I didn't have to take the kids with me.  We finished up the night with more relaxing and TV and Adrian went to basketball practice.  Not an eventful day, hoping to feel better tomorrow!

Tuesday (2/14) Happy Valentine's Day!!  AJ and I were feeling a little better so we decided to give our morning plans a try.  He went to school and I went to teach a class, thankfully a Silver Sneakers class.  As soon as I walked out of the class, I got a call from the school asking me to come pick up AJ, he wasn't feeling well.  He missed his class party, although his teacher sent a goodie bag home with some snacks and his Valentines from his class.

Zak and Daniel were able to enjoy their parties with their class.  Zak played games, did crafts, ate snacks and exchanged cards with his friends.  He had fun and his favorite part was making a sand art craft.  He thought it was so fun to mix all of the different colors of sand together to make his cross.  Daniel had a great time at his party as well.  They decorated (and ate) cookies, made a craft, had some snacks and exchanged cards.  He was so excited when I picked him up and even though I was sad to miss the party, I'm glad I got pictures from my friend and his teacher.
Since AJ wasn't feeling well, we decided to skip Boy Scouts tonight.  I did go teach my Zumba class which was probably a mistake because I felt horrible after it.  But I survived and even did a quick trip to Aldi after class since I haven't had much time to go to the grocery store with AJ being home sick.  We finished our night with some ice cream cake and Charlie Brown's Valentine's special.

Wednesday (2/15) AJ was feeling better again so we tried school again.  I was volunteering in their classrooms this morning so I told him if he didn't feel good, he could leave with me at any time.  He thankfully made it through the day and seems to be on the mend!  I got to work with the students in Daniel's class on counting change, they are all doing very well with it.  And then I went to work on the math books in AJ's classroom.  His class is reading a new book and his teacher suggested I check it out too so I'm on the waiting list for it at the library.

After volunteering in the school I went to pick up Zak from school.  We came home and rested because I was not feeling well still.  Then we went to pick up the older boys and headed to the Y for my Zumba class.  I struggled thru but I made it.  Then we hurried down the street for soccer for Daniel and Zachary.  Both boys are doing excellent, Zak even played all of the games this week (even the one he normally sits out).  We got their recommendations for next session and both boys will be moving up to the next level.  Yay!  We finished the night with our traditional pasta Wednesday meal and some TV time together.

Thursday (2/16) started with chaos when I got the call that AJ and Daniel were on a two hour delay because their school had no power.  Thankfully Adrian was working from home for the day and he was able to stay with all of them.  The problem was my van was at the dealer for some work so he couldn't get them to school on time since I would be at work.  We decided I would just do my stuff and then drop them off even later.

I headed out to Zak's parent teacher conference.  His teacher had great things to stay him academically.  He's really grown since the year started and is improving in all areas.  He is struggling though with social skills and expressing himself.  This is not new territory for us since we've heard this about all 3 boys.  I'm a little surprised to hear this about Zak though since he is very social when he's with me.  We're going to keep a close eye on him for now and hope he finds his groove with school in the next year.

While I was at the conference, I got the call that power could not be restored to the school so there was no school today.  While I have been wanting a day off, this just felt like the wrong day to have off and kind of threw us into chaos.  But we made the best of it!  I went and taught my Silver Sneakers class while Adrian worked from home.  I made a quick trip to Meijer, he went to the dentist & we picked up our van from the dealer in the afternoon.  We had pizza for dinner in boxes decorated by AJ and Daniel, such a fun fundraiser for their school!

After all of that, we did our normal busy Thursday night routine.  AJ and Adrian headed to basketball practice while I hung out with Daniel and Zak.  Then I dropped Daniel off for basketball and picked AJ up to take him to Brain Balance.  Zak enjoyed building some really cool things at Brain Balance while I chatted with the other moms.  I hurt my back somehow in all of this so I tried to rest as well.  It was a long and crazy day and I'm hoping for a normal day tomorrow, even though there is no school for anyone!

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 2/10 - 2/16) - Part 1

Friday (2/10) Happy 8th Birthday Daniel!!  We all headed off to school where Daniel got to wear a birthday hat all day.  He celebrated with treats from his two other classmates who had birthdays today.  They brought Oreos and donuts.  He had a great day at school and wanted to wear his hat to the Y while he was there for my class so everyone knew it was his birthday.
Unfortunately the night took an upsetting turn when AJ wasn't feeling well and we had to cancel our plans with Carl & his family.  Daniel was so upset that he couldn't see his cousin Isabelle on his birthday.  But after some tears, we worked it out and ended up having a fun family night.  We had Jets pizza for dinner, Oreo ice cream cake for dessert, opened presents, video chatted with my parents & watched his favorite video game.  All in all not a bad night even if it wasn't what we had planned.

 

Saturday (2/11) started with AJ still not feeling well.  He had to miss his Cub Scout camping trip and is instead spending the day on the couch watching TV and resting.  I'm hoping he can shake this pretty quickly!  Since Adrian didn't go camping either, he headed out to help coach AJ's basketball team this morning even though AJ wasn't playing.  Their team won and the snack person sent a snack home for AJ which was nice.  Then he came back and picked up Daniel to take him to his basketball game.  Their team won as well and Daniel got his first basket!!

After the games, I headed out with Daniel and Zachary to celebrate Isabelle's 5th birthday party at the trampoline park.  The boys had a blast running and jumping all over the place.  They especially liked running up the walls and then sliding down.  We also all enjoyed cake and pizza.  Isabelle had a great time and loved all of her presents.  It was a fun afternoon!

 
 We ended the day with some TV and video games at home.  Daniel and Zak started on their Valentines for their classmates.  And poor AJ stayed on the couch and dozed on and off all night.  I'm hoping he feels better in the morning.

Sunday (2/12) started rough for AJ and I.  We both were not feeling well, he still had a fever, coughing and vomiting and I had a horrible sinus headache and drainage.  We spent most of the day on the couch watching TV and trying to recover.  I also tried to get as much done around the house as I could handle.  Adrian took Daniel to see "The Lego Batman Movie" which was one of his requests for his birthday weekend.  We all wanted to go together but AJ and I just couldn't do it today.  We'll go again as a family next weekend.  They said the movie was awesome!  Finally Daniel went to his friend Xander's birthday party.  He enjoyed roller skating a little but loved talking with his friends that were there.  Zak spent the day mostly hanging with me and AJ on the couch.  He enjoyed watching video games but I think he got bored as the day went on.  I'm sure he'll be excited to go to school tomorrow to get out of the house.
This week was super busy again so I split the week into two parts.  Check back tomorrow for part two of our recap!!

Monday, February 13, 2017

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for Feb 13 - Feb 19)

I mostly stuck to my meal plan last week, except for the fact that AJ came home from school on Friday sick and we had to cancel plans with my brother.  I already had the pizza so we have a ton of leftover pizza to eat now.  We are having that (again) today and I'm bumping the omelets to tomorrow night.  I'm still working on cleaning out the fridge, then will start on our pantry.

This is another easy week for me since we're still celebrating birthdays.  We also have a Marco's pizza fundraiser this week.  AJ and Daniel both decorated a pizza box and when we order pizza this week it will be in their boxes.  So fun!  It's a fairly busy week for us so I'm happy to have that day's dinner taken care of.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Omelets with peppers & spinach (to finish up the open egg beaters)
Tuesday - Peach Salsa Chicken with Brussels Sprouts Gratin (to use up open salsa & the rest of the fontina cheese)
Wednesday - Pasta after soccer (using up a jar of open sauce)
Thursday - Marco's pizza
Friday - probably pizza for the kids.  Adrian & I have a date night and are going to Cooper's Hawk Winery
Saturday - Meatball Subs (AJ's pick)
Sunday - Jets pizza & Oreo ice cream cake with Carl and family to finish celebrating Daniel's birthday

Water Flavor - Grape

The meals this week will pretty much finish up the open stuff in the fridge that I want to use up.  I also have 3 open things of icing that I will be using for Daniel's cupcakes for his party.  I need to double check the stuff of the door (dressings, sauces, marinades, etc) to see if there's anything there that should be used up then I will move on to the pantry.  We have already started using up some stuff from the pantry because Adrian has been eating oatmeal for breakfast each morning.  We are both going to start having overnight oats for breakfast as well.  This week we are making some plain overnight oats and some chocolate peanut butter oats.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 2/3 - 2/9) - Part 2

This was a very busy week for us so I split it into two parts.  Click here for the first part of our week.

Monday (2/6) morning came very early after the late night of football and a rough night of sleep since Adrian is not feeling well.  I managed to get everyone up and moving and we got to school on time.  AJ needed to do a service project for Cub Scouts so he helped me deliver some donated food from our church to his school.  It was eye opening for him to hear that there are kids in his school that might not have enough money to eat.

After I dropped everyone off, I headed to out to run errands to get ready for the week.  I went to Dollar Tree, Aldi, Target, Meijer and Giant Eagle to finish food shopping, birthday prep, camping prep and gift shopping.  I also gassed up with my fuel perks to be ready for all of the running around.  Then I picked up Zak and came home to deal with the plumbers working on our pipe out front.  They finally got it replaced after hours of work.  The tree in the front yard really did a number on the pipe!

I picked AJ and Daniel up from school and got a sub for my Zumba class because I was still dealing with the plumbers and both Zak and Adrian weren't feeling 100% so I felt it best to stay home.  Adrian ended up getting stuck at work pretty late so it was nice not to have the extra stress of teaching a class tonight.  I took the boys to Menchie's to celebrate National Frozen Yogurt Day with some buy one, get one free yogurts.  They were so excited since it's their favorite place to go.  A very full day and it felt like I was all over the place.  I hope we all sleep well tonight!!
Tuesday (2/7) sort of felt like the calm between the storms (birthdays).  Although we did wake up with some sickness - both Zak and Adrian weren't feeling well so they stayed home.  I took AJ and Daniel to school and also dropped off Daniel's birthday treats for his class.  Since there are two other students in his class with the same birthday, we decided to celebrate his birthday early.  He was very excited to celebrate with his class!
While they were at school I went and taught my new strength and balance for seniors class.  It went really well, I had more people than last Thursday so that's awesome!  Then I came home and hung out with a bored Zak.  We played some Mario on the WiiU, watched some TV and played with cars.  Then we picked up the other boys, all headed to the chiropractor for adjustments and then I went to teach my Zumba class.  We finished up the night with a Brain Balance appointment for AJ.

Wednesday (2/8)  Happy 5th Birthday Zak!!  We got a late start tonight, no one wanted to get up and moving.  I wish we could have taken a "mental health" day but it wasn't in the cards this week.  So we all got up and out to school.  Zak brought ice cream cups for his class to celebrate his birthday.  His class is also celebrating their 100th day of school this year!!  It's a big party for them today!
We did blow off soccer tonight so we could celebrate earlier and longer.  We had gnocchi for dinner at Zak's request and then he finally got to open his presents.  He got Yo Kai medals and plush guys like he asked for, some pants, a new jacket, a new towel and Bunchems alive.  Plus Adrian and I bought a giant set of magnetic blocks for him and Daniel for their birthdays.  They are SO happy to finally have some to play with at home.  They are obsessed with playing with them everywhere we go.  We also bought them bases so they can make cars with the blocks too.
We finished up the night with Oreo ice cream cake, again at Zak's request.  And then we watched our brand new cable TV.  After 18 months of unplugging from cable, we got frustrated with the other options and also got a deal from DirectTV that would be the same as we were paying for internet and PlayStation Vue.  So we made the switch again.  I hope I like it better than the last time we were customers!

 

Thursday (2/9) we all got up and out the door to school and work and were on the early side for once.  I went and taught my new Silver Sneakers class and it went really well.  I had less people but it was snowing out so I'm assuming that less people made the trip.  After that I picked up Zak and we went to Target to buy a birthday gift for his friend and spend some of his birthday money.  He bought a new game (Hungry Caterpillar Silly Slides) and a Minecraft diamond pick axe that turns into a diamond sword.
After shopping we came home to have lunch and enjoy watching our new cable TV.  It's a novelty to have it now but we are enjoying it!  We picked up the other boys from school and got ready for our night activities.  Adrian headed to basketball practice for AJ's team, we let AJ take the night off from practice.  Then Daniel and Adrian headed to their basketball practice while I took AJ to Brain Balance.  I dropped him off there and Zak and I went to visit my friend Joy where I also bought some new LulaRoe.  I think I finally figured them out and bought a cute outfit of leggings and a matching shirt.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Keeping Up With...Family (Weekly Wrap 2/3 - 2/9) - Part 1

Friday (2/3) was a fairly typical day.  We all went to work and school.  I took a barre class at Pure Barre, one of my last ones since my month is up.  We went to the Y in the afternoon for me to teach my barre class.  My legs were killing me after both of those classes!  Adrian got stuck at work so AJ had to miss soccer (again).  I ended the day by going out to dinner with one of my girlfriends.  We went to the Asian place up the street, Sakana.  It was so nice to get out and relax!!  The food was great, the wine great and the conversation was great.  Nice way to end a busy week!!

Saturday (2/4) started early for all of us and didn't really stop!  I took AJ and Zak to Brain Balance where they both got to "shop" with their brain bucks.  AJ got a $10 Target gift card and Zak got a new light up alien.  While we were there, Adrian took Daniel to his first basketball game for the season.  They won and Daniel memorized his Bible verse, scored a point in the halftime competition and won the "encourager" award.  He had a great time!!

After all of that, we met back home to exchange kids.  Adrian took AJ and Daniel to Red Robin for their free lunch while Zak and I stayed home and did some party prep.  When lunch was done, Adrian took AJ to his first basketball game for the season.  They tied and AJ memorized his Bible verse and won the "good team mate" award.  He had fun and hopefully will continue to play after his rough practice on Thursday.

Finally we ended our day with Zak's birthday party at Glow Putt.  We had 11 kids and 7 parents for the party.  The kids enjoyed playing mini golf, seeing everything glow and eating cake and pizza.  Zak was a little overwhelmed by all of it but he said it was the "best day."  He got a lot of fun gifts and can't wait to play with all of them!  I think his favorites were the Pokemon toys - a plush Charizard X and a Poke-belt.  Here is a brief photo dump of his party:
 

 

 
 
 
 

Sunday (2/5) started slow and we all slept in.  We were all going to go to church but Zak's nose was running really bad so we decided he should sit this week out.  Adrian went and the rest of us stayed home.  I spent most of the day working around the house trying to get everything done.  We ended the day watching the Super Bowl, of course.  I enjoyed the Star Spangled Banner by Luke Bryan, the coin flip by George Bush, the half time show by Lady Gaga and almost all of the commercials.  The game was pretty boring, of course until the end.  While I am obviously NOT a Patriots fan, I have to give them credit.  That was a great comeback and Tom Brady is an amazing quarterback.

I'm going to split this week in half because it's a very busy week around here.  Come back tomorrow for part 2 of our week!