City Life at a Glance, Part 3

Part 1

Part 2

So far we had had 2 very full and very awesome days of adventures together. Sunday would be a little different, but we still wanted to fill it.
We played for a bit in the morning before heading over to Matt's new church for a service. The kids each went into their own class. Micah, excited! Judah, slightly hesitant. Isaiah, wailed for a bit. It's hard to know my kid is going to cry when I hand them over to someone else. I thought he was out of this stage, but possibly the changes recently have escalated it again. Either way, it's a bit easier if I at least know the person. Here, I didn't. He cried hard for a bit. Long enough for me to question whether I should go back and get him. But just then it let up. And afterward, they all seemed to have had a good class.
We went home and played some more before nap time.  We played outside for a bit but it was SO hot already. We needed to find something WET to do today!
We had plans to go to a pool but Matt's friend called and said he and some others would be doing dinner in Georgetown. They didn't know exactly when, so we decided we would find more to do in Georgetown and meet up with them whenever they came in. We went back to the KidFriendly DC blog and found the Georgetown Waterfront Park.
It was nice, but our least favorite so far of the weekend. Maybe because we had to park farther away. Or because it was so stinkin' hot. Or because it was more crowded. And less shaded...It was nice and we loved getting to see more of the surrounding area, but it probably won't go on our "we are definitely going back there" list.

 (boys. waiting for snacks)

 (snack time)

 (pure enjoyment)

 (i don't endorse this. but this is what Matt told Micah to do when he said he had to pee and we saw no toilets in site.)

 (and the high-five he got when he said he did it)

The boys played hard for a bit. But then hit a wall. Not sure if this is all kids this age, or just our 3 boys, but there is a small window of opportunity that can close quite quickly when they are hungry or tired or both. This window was closing quickly around the same time we found out Matt's friends were not even on their way to Georgetown yet. I saw a Johnny Rockets balloon and we quickly found one nearby. It's weird to think about life before smart phones. It makes finding things spontaneously so much easier!

Burgers and shakes hit the spot and helped revive our tired and hot boys.

We got home a little late, but they were tired and slept hard!
We knew the next day was going to be even hotter, so we decided we would go to a waterpark. We got a good recommendation for Atlantis Waterpark and we were NOT disappointed. It was cheap for the area (cheaper than the closest one to us down here) and there was much more for the boys to do. A whole baby pool area, a giant sand box, a big splash area with slides, and more slides in the big, main pool too. They played hard. We were there for about 4 hours, and would have stayed longer except for the heat and I was worried about the sun on the boys.

 the baby pool part

 Micah waiting for the big dump bucket

 Micah hard core under the bucket

 proud of himself

 Judah tried to do the bucket with Micah but freaked a bit when it started.

 the big sand box

 Isaiah getting buried

 Judah getting so brave at going under water

 treats before leaving. and maybe bribes too.

 definitely a bribe for this one

 sounds asleep while we were still in the parking lot

shortly down the road. 

We will definitely be going back to Atlantis. We went home and packed the car for me to bring the boys home. It was a decent trip home, and a fabulous trip for the weekend!

The. End.

Finally.

Green Stuff

I have recently found the best, most efficient way I know how to get green stuff into Micah's diet. I find it easy to get into ruts with what he is eating...sometimes it's just easier to fall back on things that he is familiar with, he is asking for, and that are easy to prepare. A new one of these "fallbacks" for me is a "green smoothie." It doesn't look good, so don't decide whether you want to try it based on looks. I don't really have a specific recipe that I follow, but we got a new blender recently when our old one broke and it works so much better at actually blender. Imagine that! Needless to say, I find it easier to throw a few things in and give Micah a drink for a snack. And he loves them. To be honest, they are actually really good.
I started with this recipe, and then I started making my own alterations based on what I had on hand and what seemed like it might be good...
So, here's what I do...
Take some frozen fruit (either fruit that I froze or out of a bag that I bought) whether it is just one fruit, like strawberries, or a mixture of a bunch of fruit doesn't really matter. Sometimes I add fresh fruit too, but the frozen helps the drink to be more smoothie-like without just adding a bunch of ice and watering it down.
Add some liquid: juice (sometimes frozen concentrate, sometimes juice that was in canned fruit that I didn't need, etc), or water, or milk, or yogurt, whatever floats your boat and maybe whatever goes good with the fruit that was added.
Then add spinach. I've used fresh and frozen and definitely think the fresh works better in the smoothies. I add a bunch. A bunch like a LOT, not like a little "bunch" that fills my hand.
I try to make it so that each "serving" I give Micah has close to a cup of spinach! The spinach doesn't really have much flavor, so it definitely changes the look of the smoothies, but not so much the taste. And the yogurt or milk usually tones down the flavor (and color) even more if that is what you choose to add.
So, I don't have exact measurements, I do it a little different every time, and sometimes we drink them with Micah...but all in all it is a very healthy snack and a great way to get some green veggies in his diet at a time in his life where he is quite picky about the food he eats and what it looks like...

More on the Food

I wrote the other day about trying peas and carrots together and how Micah did with it. He LOVES carrots. He did OK with the mixture. Didn't seem real excited but seemed interested. Mostly it just seemed harder for him to eat the skins of the peas...
Well, I had some more of the mixture from the batch I had made originally, so we decided to finish it off tonight. And I remembered to get the camera out.
He has had a bite or so (as you can easily see that Dad is feeding him!) here.

Seems to be doing OK. Not getting it all in his mouth, of course, but some of it seems to be going down.

As you can see, he is not overly thrilled, but is still (cautiously) opening his mouth.

He is cleaned up now. Not real sure that he wants to look at what he is supposed to be eating. And definitely not sure that he wants to be eating this at all. We keep trying...

But then we get the ultimate answer as to how he really feels about the peas and carrots:


I don't think we will be finishing the peas and carrots any time soon!

I mixed up some peaches and bananas after this and he got very excited about the fruit!
For a view of what it looks like when he really does enjoy his food...

Arms open and ready. Mouth WIDE open in eager anticipation. A much better response to the good stuff!

New Foods

This has been a great week of trying new foods. Some he has had before, some he has not. This is our first week trying to combine foods (other than something with cereal) and it has been great.

Earlier in the week I mixed avocado with banana. I think this helped him eat the avocado better than he has in the past by itself. I only mashed the banana for these meal and I think that he is not quite ready for this level, but he did eat it.

Last night we tried combining peas and carrots. He has always loved carrots, but this is our first time with peas. I do not have a mill, so I think the skins were a bit harder for him, but he did eat it. He just spent more time concentrating on what to do with it once it was in his mouth.

And today I tried cantaloupe mixed with banana. I had some cantaloupe that was a little soft when I cut it up for us a bit ago, so i put the soft pieces in the freezer for a while. Got them out and thawed them before pureeing them with half a banana. It was probably about 4-5 ounces of food (at least!) and he ate it all. I think it helped to have the banana fully pureed for now, so we will stick with that for a while before trying to mash them again.

I love trying new foods (for us and for him) and I am very excited that he seems to enjoy trying new foods as well. And it's all homemade. FABulous!

I'll remember to take pictures next time. It's more fun with photos!

Applesauce is Easy!

I made my own applesauce today!

I have always LOVED making my own applesauce. I like it with chunks. I like the aroma. I like the flavor better.

But this time it was not for me. I made it for Micah and I am very excited about how it turned out!

If you want to know more about what I did, you can go here and here.