Happy 4th Olivia! (party time!)

Our "dynamique" and full of life Liv is 4! Here she is eating her birthday shish-kebabs (with the requested shrimp) and at the birthday party with friends. Yes, I did some face painting...that was interesting! The kids enjoyed it though:)

Balloons, balloons and more balloons!

I don't think I'll take up face painting as a profession anytime soon...but it was fun:)

Birthday legos (camping car!) from grandparents (Crosby and Gregory!) She loves it:)

Day 17 of Whole 30

Honestly, because of my terrible track record with sticking with eating plans (for whatever reason..losing weight, healing the gut, etc.) like GAPS I am really excited with the fact that I've made it this far.  Being what I would consider fairly restricted makes it a challenge some days.  As my family eats my sourdough crackers and piles loads of creme fraiche on their soup...I look around for more veggies or have a hard boiled egg.  Or some avocado.  Maybe a banana if I'm being wild.   But that said since this is not a specifically weight-loss diet (only anyway) I am not trying to eat less. Just different. 

Yesterday we had a gathering with some other folks heading to Africa (and one family heading to PNG) and a french friend who bakes AMAZING cakes.  And I didn't eat one.single.bite.  It was an amazing feat of self-control.  Or not.  Maybe it was the fact that everyone knew I was on a no dairy, no gluten no sugar and pretty much everything in that gorgeous cake was INTERDITE.  A little positive peer pressure (in my mind anyway). 

In other not-very-interesting news the best Whole thirty dessert (besides coconut oil...oh how I love thee...) is dried apricots and almonds.  Gotta eat a little of both in every bite.  So good. 

I think I'll try my hand at homemade almond milk soon.  But...happy day in a week and a half I get to reintroduce DAIRY!  Raw milk in my coffee (I drink it somedays)..here I come!

Liv is 4 today and menu

This pretty girl is 4 today!  She has always been a mama's girl and to prove it she waited until the day after her "due date" to start thinking about coming into the world...then took another 2 days worth of labor (44 hours!) to make her grand debut into the world.  She never does anything the easy or unassuming way...she is full of noise, laughter, more noise, and loves snuggles.  She is smart and has picked up french super quickly...gaining lots of compliments from native french speakers (one recently asked us if her english was as good as her french because they were so impressed by it!). 

She loves playing with her little brother and they compete for the family clown title everyday.  Olivia is definitely our child that stretches us the most...but with her personality we know she will do great things someday!  We all just have to make it until then:)!  Liv being her quirky self requested shrimp for her birthday dinner weeks ago and has stuck with it.  Since that's our one birthday tradition (getting to pick out your birthday dinner...and sometimes the other meals depending how generous their mom is feeling!) we had shrimp tonight.  Good choice Liv. That leads into our menu for the rest of this week:

Tonight:  Shrimp and Chicken Shish Kebabs (with zucchini, cherry toms, mushrooms and pineapple) and rice cooked in chicken broth.  Super yummy dinner!
Friday:  Bunless burgers, fries, peas
Saturday:  Some sort of skinless boneless chicken dish in the crockpot w/ zucchini
Sunday:   Veggie packed meatloaf (I shred carrots, zucchini, and onions into it), mashed cauliflower

We're still hoping to celebrate Liv's bday with friends in the park on Saturday but the weather is not looking promising.  We have all the "stuff" ready to go so if we can't do it in the park we'll have to get creative. 

What's on your menu?  Any birthday traditions in your family?

Park, Picnic and Playground

Everyone had the day off today (Monday) so we decided to spend lunchtime at our favorite park/playground. Here it is way too easy to pack a picnic with good cheese, good hard sausage and fresh bread on every corner. The abundance of cheap fresh fruits and veggies doesn't hurt either! So we loaded up our goodies plus some hard-boiled eggs (Marianna can down 3 in no time) and went to the park for almost 3 hours. The kids had a blast and we did too. That many hours in a row where everyone is happy and the mess stays outside...yes please.

Two weeks down, two more to go!

14 days of dieting fun are under my belt...and thankfully my belt is just a wee bit looser for it.  The hardest part of the Whole 30 gig is hunger between meals.  I try to eat more during meals (and I eat a lot!) to prevent that but inevitably the hunger is there again 2-3 hours later.  I try not to snack like they tell you to, especially since I am usually too sick of veggies to snack on them (I eat a ton during each meal now) and I am concerned about eating too many nuts and too much fruit.  Meat doesn't sound good between meals either, but sometimes I'll have a slice of chicken or something.  Anyway, lest this get too boring, I'll wrap up by saying my clothes are definitely looser!  I have noticed almost nothing in the way of health changes otherwise (still hopeful!) minus the fact that I am definitely sensitive to bell peppers...especially the green ones.  Heartburn every time.  Lightly cooking the colored ones seems to help, with stuffed peppers for example.  

Here are some meals that have been super easy to adapt for the whole family:

Taco Salad
Stuffed Peppers
Hamburgers w/o buns (sweet potatoes for me, reg for everyone else)
Stir fries (we had sausage, cabbage and green beans sauteed in olive oil tonight) with rice for everyone else
Chicken and "mashed potatoes" made with cauliflower and carrots etc. pureed


I've had to change some things on our monthly menu just to use up things that I bought too much of etc. So I'll be back with a menu plan for this week (Liv's bday edition...she'll be four and requested SHRIMP for her bday dinner...how weird is that?!?). 

First week of May Chez Crosby

Our boy who loves to make us laugh and get his picture taken!

Louis on his sweet wheels

This is one big sister who LOVES to have a little brother (except when he messes with her toys:)

 Enjoying park du buisson rond again....

Pretty girl in a field

Singing while they get ready to go

Stopping to smell the flowers?

 She may have had a wee bit of help with this lego boat.:)