Louis' super busy day

Our little guy is always on the move.  Daniel was trying to tape him playing with his animals after finding him enraptured with them right before the video...lining them all up standing.  But instead he did about a dozen other things...also cute.  Excuse the drool...he's cresting some big boy teeth right now:)

Naptime is never boring

Sweaty Kids

Daniel often takes two or three of the kids out while I clean up the kitchen after dinner...which I love. I actually enjoy cleaning the kitchen when I can do it without interruption now! Here Louis and Marianna were sweating it out at a new to us park:

Enjoying the playground, not the heat.

Sweating it out but enjoying our dinner: omelettes and zucchini bread...made in the crockpot! I actually used

They enjoyed their food...even with the zucchini in BOTH dishes (I put a bunch in the omelettes, along with tomatoes and mushrooms, cheese and bacon bits.

Although its hot, its good practice for Cameroon, right!?

Menu Plan

Baby it's HOT outside! In France air conditioning is not the norm. Going to a doctor's office for example, is not a guarantee of air conditioning. Actually more likely you won't find it there or much of any place else except huge supermarkets or the movie theatre. So we sweat and sweat. I dripped my way through church today(with Liv, who is a fellow heavy sweat-er). But it isn't that bad unless you have to be out in it for long periods under the direct sun or at night. Nights are hardest because it really hasn't been cooling down and the windows are open (so it is noisy!) so I usually can't fall asleep until close to midnight. 6am comes too early these days!

Anyway, because of this I'll be using my crockpot as much as possible. I was still doing soups at least once a week from our GAPS, but Daniel's patience (and pretty much everyone's) patience is wearing thin with hot soup in hot weather. So I'll have to try to be a little more creative!

Sunday: Had Quinoa in the crockpot (mexican seasoned) over lettuce with meat and all the taco salad toppings. I've had a hard time getting quinoa buy in previously, but everyone seemed to like it this time!

Monday: Leftover Quinoa made into stuffed red peppers (mixed with ground beef, onions)

Tuesday: Broccoli Cheese Casserole in Crockpot, rice

Wednesday: Baked Beans in the crockpot and....? I really would like to do hotdogs and veggies to be easy but I know they are so not good for you! Any ideas for what to do with baked beans?

Thursday: Shepherd's pie in the crockpot? Or a quiche/breakfast for dinner Friday:

Burgers, fries, raw veggies. Not sure how to do this one w/o the oven!

Saturday: up in the air!

 What's on your menu..is it too hot to use the oven where you are?

One year old boys...playing kitchen

We were blessed to have some friends over for lunch the other day before they leave. We had a lot of fun and our kids did too. The younger of our friends' two boys is just a couple months older than Louis and they "almost" played together...the video is pretty much the depth of their interaction. My favorite is when the boy keeps telling Louis "no no no" and later Louis puts a lid on his head. What silly cute boys!

Morning at the beach!

We FINALLY headed to the lake and the beach here today! It was a gorgeous day and it was actually one of the first ever times we actually had a relatively stress free outing with all three kids. It wasn't relaxing necessarily...as you might imagine three little kids and lots of water wouldn't be. But there were no tantrums and very little whining the whole trip, just a bit on the way home when everyone was totally exhausted. Louis actually passed out in his stroller which I haven't seen him do in months and months. The water is really shallow for quite a ways so the girls didn't have to have someone within inches so that was nice. Louis is still at the kamakazee age and will run head first and end up under the water super quick. He loves water and is fearless. But we just took turns with him or the girls and it was great. Packed a picnic of leftover quiche, veggies and fruit from Daniel's bday and everything went smoothly as one could hope with three littles. We are so glad we finally did it!

They also had a crazy playground thing there and Marianna climbed to the top...she's such a brave monkey! Daniel said he was even a little nervous at the top...not her!

Rachael and the kids...soaking up the rays and the almost warm water.

Sandcastles (the girls and Daniel built....Louis tore down. Mutual existence.

Don't mind Louis' pink little swimmer pants...gotta do whatcha gotta do...and sometimes older sister hand-me-downs work!

All in all it was an awesome day...oh and we were there early so we even got in free! Cheap fun to boot (it normally wouldve' been 8 Euros or so to get us all in). Hopefully we'll be able to go once more before summer is over!

Washing the dishes

Watch for the surpise ending...and no worries...no toddlers were permanently harmed or injured in the making of this youtube clip.
Really...he was just fine:)

Menu Plan

Monday: White Beans, bacon and broccoli over quinoa
Tuesday: Chicken, potatoes, carrots in the crockpot
Wednesday: Taco Soup in the crockpot, raw veggies, fruit
Thursday: Fried Rice  with salad
 Friday: Sourdough Rice flour pizza
Saturday: Burgers on lettuce, homefries, veggie tray
Sunday: Up in the air!


Mornings are back to green smoothies made with kefir, frozen fruit and spinach.  Now everyone likes and drinks these (especially since the GAPS diet).  Most of the time we have eggs of some sort.  Once a week I made soaked sourdough rice flour pancakes which are SO good!  We occasionally do a german pancake or baked oatmeal but haven't really done that since the GAPs but will again soon.

As far as the GAPS diet goes we are not following it anymore but have incorporated a lot of the practices into our diet...more broth, more vegetables, soaking any grains and I am trying not to do anymore than necessary of processed food (still use a few things...pre-made peanut butter, tomato paste for example).  Our little one with the digestion issues hasn't had any problems since the diet.  Its been really exciting to see her feel better without medication!  We actually went off the really strict portion of the diet because Olivia starting having the opposite problem and we don't know why.  She is going to go to school in a few weeks and we were nervous about continuing something that was messing with her ability to get to the potty on time this close to school.  She's doing better now and I think its been good for all of us to continue without the gluten, sugar and processed foods.  

The boy loves him some water

Daniel came home from grocery shopping with a little (and I mean really little...it is very much Louis sized) $3 inflatable pool for Louis last week. He LOVES it!

The girls love it too but are too big for it so they use it to get water to play cooking in their kitchen.

When Louis isn't in the pool (and we only take it out when its really hot) he is doing this:

He pushes the heavy dining chairs all the way into the kitchen to "help" me do dishes. He loves playing in the sink SO much. Between that and the vacuum, (well and maybe his sisters) the boy needs no toys.

Danse Classique Jumelles

Three little monkeys

Our three little monkeys have been having fun lately. Marianna is enjoying her summer home and still enjoying our "homeschool light". She seems to be remembering more french words and making connections with letter sounds. Louis has a new favorite activity: playing in the sink. He literally played "washing dishes" for hours this morning.

In other news, we had a consulation for Louis with a pediatric specialist yesterday and it went amazingly well! Louis will be having surgery for a problem he's had since birth sometime before Christmas. Thankfully the surgery won't even be overnight and he'll be running around by the next day. The doctor was sympathetic and helpful and spoke some english! It was a nice suprise.

My little princess twins here are playing one of their thousand pretend games in Liv's bunk. Today they dressed up like twins:)

Menu Plan

Let's just get right into it: a not quite GAPS friendly, but low grain, gluten free menu plan for this week:
Monday: Crockpot Porkchops, cabbage stir fry

Tuesday: Smoked Chicken, carrots, Salad

Wednesday: Crockpot curry over rice

Thursday: Pumpkin Soup in the crockpot, gluten free rolls maybe?

Friday: Hamburgers

Saturday: Taco Salad, Rice, Chips, Fruit Salad

Sunday: we'll see!

Breakfast ideas: scrambled eggs, green smoothies, sourdough brown rice pancakes, oatmeal, granola with kefir.

What's on your menu this week?

Climbing mount bunkbed

This video is a few weeks old now, but as I am way behind in posting I thought it was pretty cute. We now have to take the ladder down when Marianna isn't in bed so he doesn't climb up and out the window nearby!

Party week!

We had some great photo "opps" this week with two parties--one for a going away friend and fellow student and then a birthday party for our friends' kids, but we didn't take pictures at either!  But here are a few pictures of the kiddos from around the house instead. Marianna meticulously decorated the table for a "meal":

Louis' new favorite activity is playing in the sink. Just a tiny bit of water (or none sometimes even works) and a few utinsels and he is in heaven. Marianna got in on the act this time and washed green beans and cut carrots (I was filling the crockpot while they were playing).

Here in our neck of France it has been HOT, but today we are having a refreshing storm. Lots of thunder and lightening! The farmer's market here is in full swing and has been loaded with goodies. We probably buy about half our food at the market nowadays. The girls have been on a special diet, but I haven't been strict with it after the first week and a half. The girls had their first sugar yesterday, which we planned to do ahead of time, but at home we will continue with no sugar (some honey occasionally) and, almost no processed foods or grains. School's going okay, I'm only doing 2 days a week this month. Daniel is going 4 plus tutoring, so that's good. Well, off to church!