Sam's 31st Birthday: Eating Good!

For Sam's birthday this year, he asked for me to cook for him with real whole foods. If I was going to buy something from the grocery store that was processed, it had to have less than 5 ingredients in it. I did great for the first few days, but we had some dorm events and other outings later in the week so I didn't get to cook every meal for the whole week (I made it up to him by buying him a new tv, though, so I think he forgave me!).

Here are some of the things I made him for his birthday.

This is the real whole food I started with.

And that's what real wheat looks like.

And this is what I look like as I grind my own wheat. Which is the easiest thing in the world to do. And the loudest thing in the world to do.

And there is my beautiful wheat flour!

Now to make some bread!!!

Breakfast for the first morning - whole wheat bread with local honey and fresh fruit!

Lunch on the first day - brown rice, the best black bean recipe ever, and toppings of sour cream, tomatoes, and avocados. Yum.

Day 2 breakfast: homemade granola and yogurt (I loved this granola recipe, but Sam doesn't like coconut so he wasn't a huge fan).

Working on dessert for dinner... Lemon Pound Cake This was delicious, but very lemony!

Dinner time! Corn salad (this link is close to what I did - just add 4 c. halved cherry tomatoes), lemon pepper grouper, bread, and pound cake.

Dinner the next night: fresh steamed broccoli and the best frittata I've ever had in my life. Giada De Laurentiis does it right, y'all.

On Sunday, we picnicked in the park, and I brought homemade tortillas, homemade salsa, and made tortilla rollups with cheese and salsa. I also brought fresh fruit and homemade oatmeal cookies.

I splurged for Sam's birthday and went to Margot's Cafe aka the. best. restaurant. in. the. world. Margot's serves all local food and their meat, although not local, is either grassfed beef, fresh caught fish, or pastured chicken from sustainable farms. This night we had flank steak with grilled peppers, onions, and potatoes.

Happy birthday, Sam!

I was exhausted and made a box cake. So embarrassing.

31 years young!

Did I mention I made 9 cakes and had a dorm event so all the guys could celebrate Sam's birthday? I was for real exhausted!

Sam and his RAs, past and present.

It was a great birthday week with lots of good eatin'!

August Fun!

Life has been super busy and super fun at the Parnell house! Lots of pictures starting... now:

Eli-Fireman-Superman as he likes to call himself.

Haha, this is her sleeping face. :)

Lipscomb's new intramural fields are open and we go out there every night. Eli plays baseball and Kate plays on the blanket.

He has gotten so good at T-ball! :)

Eli learned to put on his own shoes. Although I apparently need to buy him new socks.

This is how Eli sleeps.

My husband and his brother

The 4

The loves of our life

The loves of our life with their sweet cousin

We went to Dollywood over Labor Day weekend.

Dollywood is AWESOME for 2 year olds!

Tea cup time

Ferris wheel with Mimi and Poppa

Sisters

About to be miserable on a roller coaster. Oh wait. That was just me. Sam had a blast.

As is evidenced in this picture.

I was supposed to be on this ride. But I promised Sam he could have UT tickets next season if I didn't have to go. :)

It rained while we were there, so no lines for anything, but we were soaking wet the whole day.

The 4

My 4 with the whole family

Eli's favorite ride

The happiest girl I have ever met

Worn out!

Doing a little reading - she is so advanced. :)

Worn out!

Worn out!

Aquarium in Gatlinburg

What a great trip!!!

We have had such a fun month! We are so thankful to have gotten the opportunity to do so many fun and exciting things with the kids and our families!

Homeschool, Week 5: Letter C

We had a crazy week this week!!! We had so much going on with Sam's work and school, going out of town, Labor Day, celebrating my little sister's 21st birthday... I had our letter C work out for almost 2 weeks, and we still only had about 3-4 days that we actually got to work on it. We moved on to letter D today, which has been a hit. I cannot wait to blog about this week. Eli has been loving it!

Day 1 of Letter C: Eli was excited and ready to get started!

I had a few things this week that were a little too difficult developmentally, so they won't make it back to the school table anytime soon, but we will try them again later.

Kate had a blast with the puzzle and books while Eli and I were working.

The theme this week was C is for Cat, but we also talked about pets, which is where the fish tank gluing activity fits in. Eli has started to be really great at gluing! I don't have to help him at all anymore.

No matter what I put on the table, Eli's favorite is always spooning or pouring!

I love the idea of this activity, but it was too challenging for Eli. The point is to measure the various materials and match with the animal that is the same length. Eli liked playing with the materials, but didn't "get it."

Haha, loving the materials, but definitely a little confused! :)

We did stickers of animals.

We usually color our letters, but I thought I would let Eli put the pom-poms on the letters this week.

He loved it and did a great job!

He even made sure to only put green on the little C and purple on the big C.

Kate had a blast!

Eli colored the big Cs one color and the little Cs a different color.

I said the different animal names and Eli colored them.

He colored the numbers.

He colored more cats.

He colored on everything I could find.

And could a momma be prouder!? I went to get something out of the kitchen, and when I returned, Eli had TRACED the Cs by himself! I was totally blown away. He did it perfectly. I was so proud of my smart little boy!

Our letter C week was one that we didn't put enough time and effort into, overall. However, we did have a fun time doing the activities, playing Starfall, and watching Sesame Street podcasts.

To make up for it, we definitely have outdone ourselves this week with the letter D. More on that to come!