Meal Planning 101

On Thursday night, my friend Julie taught a meal planning class at her house. It was so much fun! We each had to bring two recipes to share and a tip that makes our work in the kitchen a little easier. Then Julie introduced us to her method of meal planning for her family. She keeps a binder (similar to what is pictured above) that includes a list of her family's favorite things to eat, the recipes for the favorites, a meal planning template and more. I really liked her system and am determined to try it for our family. Julie has a website here with product information (she sells meal planning notebooks and an instructional DVD) and a link to her blog, where she shares ideas for cooking. If you click here, you will find her helpful templates.

I'm all about fun organizational projects so I made my own binder. I couldn't decide which of the designs to use as the cover, so (as you can see above), I did both! Luckily, it is double sided craft paper so I can switch them around when I am tired of looking at one of the designs. :) Now, I love to do these organizational projects, but I am not always great at follow through of these projects. So feel free to ask me if I'm keeping up with my meal planning every now and then. Haha! Now I shall go forth and plan!

Waiting for me to get her out of bed

Spring? Are you sure?

Just the other day I was thinking how thankful I was that spring was here. It has still been a mix between cloudy rainy weather and patches of sun, but it was feeling a lot more like spring than winter... until today. I took this picture a few days ago...

And I took this picture this morning...

It snowed for a few hours and we ended up with a few inches of snow! They were huge flakes! Of course, later in the day the sun came out for a while and most of the snow disappeared. Strange, strange weather.

Here is AB looking out the window at the snow. She really really liked standing on the windowsill.

What a joyful little girl we have!

Expensive Eye

I think Belle has expensive taste! She loved carrying my mom's Coach purse this last weekend. Her drink in one hand, a purse in the other... she's all girl!

Miss Potato Head

Marine Life Center

I have recently found out about two helpful websites that offer ideas of places you can take kids to in Bellingham - Neighborhood Kids and Busy Babies and Tots. Both sites mention the Marine Life Center, which is down in the harbor. It's just one room with 3 large aquariums, a touch pool and an observation pool. We got to touch purple sea stars (like below) and sea snails. We also saw some pretty big crab and some funky flat fish. Since its not that big of a room, we were only there about 20 or so minutes, but it was still nice to be out of the house and see and touch creatures we don't always see.

Larabee State Park

We have been trying to go on little family adventures each Saturday morning (after our Saturday morning pancake feasts!). This last Saturday was quite cloudy and a bit chilly, but we still wanted some fresh air. We drove out to Larabee and walked along the beach and played on the playground.

Future spelunker?

Daddy and daughter exploring the beach

I just had to get a picture of this tree. It looks as if it is hanging on for dear life to the edge of the cliff (is it considered a cliff if it is only about 8 feet from the bottom?) with its roots. It kind of reminds me of an octopus.

The result

I've been meaning to let you know how Trev's concoction was... delicious!
He made a Southwestern style soup with chicken, black beans, tomatoes, corn and of course nothing that Trev cooks is complete without beer in it. Haha! Oh, and he topped it off with a little dollop of sour cream. I meant to take a picture, but I forgot. Trev really is a chef!

Trev the Chef

We have some leftover chicken pieces in the fridge right now. Trev calls me up this afternoon and tells me we've just got to use it tonight. He volunteers to make some sort of stew. I ask him what else he is going to put in his concoction. He proceeds to tell me he will put in, "the chicken, some beans, and just a bunch of pastes." Pastes?!! I wonder what sort of pastes he is hoping to find around the house. Maybe you had to be there, but I thought that was pretty funny. I mean, paste? He's working on his stew right now. I'll let you know how it turned out.

Dijiridu

We had a wonderful dinner with Nick and Andi on Wednesday night! Great fellowship, great feast! To top it off, Nick showed us his sweet dijiridus. Those are the cool Australian Aborigine instruments that make the deep rumbling throaty noise. We had fun trying to learn how to play them. We made some pretty funny noises trying! Belle was sleeping just on the other side of that wall and surprisingly, she didn't wake up to our shenanigans! Thanks Nick and Andi for a fabulous time!

The sunny days just keep on coming

Well, its not sunny today, but we have had for more sunny days than normal for this time of year. These pictures are from a few days ago went we went for yet another walk at Boulevard Park.

Busy little hands exploring the holes in the wood

This last one reminds me of the old Uncle Sam posters... the "I Want You" in the army posters. Hahaha! Really she was pointing at the camera because she wanted to play with it.