7th Annual Sun Party!

When I was growing up, my mom's best friend Connie used to throw a "sun party" to celebrate the end of the school year.  I adopted the tradition when Madeline started school and my kiddos look forward to it each year.

We always ice sugar cookies with yellow (sun!) icing and drink lemonade.  This year we spent the afternoon swimming and lunching at TCC.

Welcome Summer '13.  We have been waiting for you forever.

OH. MY. WORD.

This picture is frightening.  Especially given the fact that he was almost in tears after I served him a glass of freshly squeezed carrot juice at breakfast instead of his normal green smoothie.  He insisted on having some of "Mommy's."

He's Not Even 4!

Funny story.  I saw the KaZAM balance bike on Shark Tank last week and since Lincoln has been begging me to teach him to ride without his training wheels, I ordered it.  It had nothing to do with the fact that Amazon's 1-click shopping makes it so easy.

It came (exactly 1 day later!) and he's been spinning around the house on it.  This afternoon, I hear Lauren giving him tips on how to ride a "real" bike and next thing you know we are outside and he's racing around the cul-de-sac like he's competing in Tour de France.

A Green Smoothie a Day.....

I recently had someone ask if we were still doing green smoothies..."because you never post them on your blog!"

The answer is: Yes. Every single day.  No. Matter. What.
Even when we are traveling, we pack the BlendTec up along with the toothpaste (flouride-free of course! ;)) and hit the road!

This morning, we used our CSA greens which were picked fresh yesterday morning.  Does it get any better?!

Here's what we threw in this morning:

purified water
1 organic lemon, with the peel cut off
handful of organic raspberries
large handful of kale
tons of tons of mixed greens (I mean, TONS!)

We grind it down several times and continue adding more greens until it looks perfect.  I drink the jar you see above (a quart) in the morning and then 8 oz before lunch and dinner.  The kids drink about 12 oz a day and Ron is all over the map, drinking anywhere from 12 oz. to 60+ per day, depending on how crazy he's feeling.  Or better yet, how gooooooood he wants to feel!

Raw Food Week

Madeline, Lauren and I are on 7 days of raw foods.  Why 7 days?  Who knows?  And why are only 3 of the 8 of us participating?  Who knows?  Actually, I do know that, the 3 of us volunteered. :)
Our family is well over 50% raw and I am probably closer to 75-85% but we thought it might be fun to go 100% raw, well, just to see how it felt.

We are on Day 4 and it's been fantastic.  I've also made 4 trips to the grocery.....you need a loooooot of fresh fruits and veggies.  And we planned well ahead by having a plethora of raw nuts and seeds on hand, soaked and dehydrated.

So far we've made dehydrated veggie burgers, cashew granola, flax and herb crackers, oat groat cereal (tastes just like grape nuts!) fudge (yes, fudge!) and much more!  All 100% raw!

This afternoon, Madeline made a raw cocoa and banana shake for a quick snack.  Yum.  There is no way you could possibly miss cooked, processed food after drinking a glass of this delicious goodness!

Inspired by the recipe book shown (one of our favs!), this is what she did:

1 frozen banana
1 cup of raw milk
1 t. vanilla extract
1 T. raw organic cocoa powder
pinch real salt

(the recipe called for stevia or raw honey but she didn't think it needed it)

Add the above to the BlendTec and blend until smooth and creamy.  Simple!