Snack Stations

I got the idea for this from a fun new site called Pinterest. If you haven’t checked it out, you should! It’s an amazing tool for keeping all those fun things you find online in one spot!

This particular idea came from here. I immediately loved it because my kids are constantly asking me for food, and usually they’re whining about wanting chips or other junk foods that we don’t ever buy. The idea is to have baskets of healthy, ready-to-go (already washed/chopped/etc.) foods that the kids (and parents!) can grab whenever they are hungry. I always have healthy options around the house, but I’ve never thought to have them set up this way so *I* don’t have to always get up to prep.

I got the baskets and containers at the dollar store – I decided to buy dollar store tupperware containers to use instead of always having my good tupperware being used in the snack stations. These will be used for fruits and dips mostly. I also got a box of snack sized Ziploc bags to portion snacks out – 3 bags of each thing to avoid fights. These are so easily customizable for whatever your typical snacks are. Our fridge one currently contains: baby carrots, celery sticks, grapes, cantaloupe, nectarines/apples/peaches, cheese cubes (I cut my own instead of buying expensive string cheese!), homemade blue cheese, and this cream cheese/peanut butter dip the kids love for celery and apples. The container for the celery sticks has a bit of water in the bottom to keep them nice and crisp. When I was shopping for the pantry stuff, there was a really good BOGO sale going on at Walmart for various new products, so I got a few things we won’t usually have. The pantry one has: kettle corn, Ritz cracker/pretzel combo thingies, peanuts, granola bars, Cheez-Its, Ritz Crackerfulls, and animal crackers.

This concept has already worked SO well for us! The kids know they have to still ask before getting food, but now there are plenty of healthy options ready for them. They don’t stand there asking me what we have to eat - they just ask if they can get a snack, and I tell them to pick from whatever basket I choose. They also have a rule that they can only pick one thing per day, otherwise they’d be snacking all day long. They are allowed a snack in between lunch and dinner.

The fridge snack station:

The pantry snack station:

A side-by-side view:

Let me know if you give it a try and how it works for you!

Kyrie’s new hairdo

For months now, Kyrie has begged to get her hair cut.  I’ve really dragged my feet because I just loved all the fun things we could do with her hair!  But once we got back from our trip, she was very adamant about wanting it shorter.  I’ve always told her that it’s her head and that I’ll do my best to let her decide what length of hair she wants.  We had battles nearly every morning about getting that hair combed, and I knew that by cutting it, I’d make things a whole lot easier for both of us.  So I reluctantly agreed and took her to the salon.  I think it turned out cute!  It’s short enough to give her reprieve from the heat, but it’s still long enough to pull back into several different styles. 

Before:

 

After:

Here’s the view from the front:

And once we got home and styled it ourselves (check out how much she looks like her dad in this picture!):

Cambria was with us in the salon, and I got this cute picture of her sitting in the empty chair admiring her own reflection in the mirror.    She decided she doesn’t want to get a hair cut ever again and is going to grow her hair as long as Rapunzel’s from Tangled! 

2011 summer vacation - week 7

Our last week! So very bittersweet.

On Monday we had dinner at my mom’s. This was hard because it was our last time seeing most of my family.

Here are some cute pictures of Caleb and Benjamin!

I love this baby so much!

Noah played me a beautiful song!

Logan and Cambria had a wonderful time picking strawberries in Nana’s garden.

Then they had an even more wonderful time eating them!

This beautiful, sweet boy came over and offered me a strawberry. I love this photo. I love the dichotomy between his precious, dirty hands and the strawberry he picked just for me.

Isn’t he wonderful?!

Jonathan and Derk had a great time hanging out, laughing, and playing the guitar.

Then Derk fell asleep, and Jonathan got creepy…

Saying goodbye to Abby and the boys that evening was SO hard. I tried to keep it together, but I just couldn’t stand leaving them. Abby, I absolutely LOVED being there with you – to hang out, to laugh, to cry, to help you when the baby was born, everything. I loved it all. You will never know how much it meant to me that you let me be such a huge part of your life while I was in town!

On Wednesday, it was time to say goodbye to my mom. We were going to Silverwood for the last time, so she asked if she could have the kids over in the morning for a special tea party. She had the table all set up in the back yard, and everyone was dressed in their fanciest clothes!

When we came to pick them up, this is what we saw. Sweet Cambria knew this was her last visit with Nana, and she wanted nothing more than to curl up on Nana’s lap and listen as Nana made up a story just for her.

What a fun memory they created! We love you so much, Mom, and loved being with you!!!

We had to say goodbye to Derk’s parents before spending our day at Silverwood (they were leaving town on business). Poor Kyrie having to say goodbye to both grandmas within an hour of each other! She sure loves her Grandma and Nana! Thanks so much, Mom and Dad, for letting us crash at your house for the summer. We appreciate it so much and loved seeing you. We can’t wait until you come visit us this winter!

Thank goodness we had Silverwood to keep us busy because saying goodbye was hard for all of us! And we were even luckier because my brother came with us! The weather was basically crap, but we still managed to have a fun time!

We are so glad you came with us, Jon, and had the BEST time hanging out with you!! You’d better come down this winter like you promised because we miss you already!

The following morning, we got up bright and early to set out for home. My sister Katie came by to see us off. More goodbyes! I hate goodbyes. Kate, I had such a blast with you and am so glad I was finally able to meet Stellan. I hate that we live so far away! You guys have got to come visit because I can’t stand the thought of not seeing you for another year! We love you guys so much!

We arrived in Salt Lake City late Thursday night. Then we woke up on Friday and drove to see my very best friend April! I was so excited to see her – we haven’t seen each other in a few years! We spent most of the day with her just hanging out and having a good time. We took a loaf of bread over to a local farm and fed all the animals. The guy had a really huge assortment of animals, which was quite interesting.

I caught little Ashton sneaking bites of his bread in between animals….

Check out this picture of our sweeties from the last time we hung out!

And here they are now, 3 years later! April, I just realized they’re all sitting in the same spots as the previous picture! How cool!! We totally didn’t do that on purpose.

I love you, girl!! Don’t know what I’d do without you in my life!!

After hanging out with friends, we continued on to St. George. We stayed in Derk’s uncle’s condo for the night and had fun swimming in the pool. Saturday meant the last leg of our trip home! Just a short (ha!) 7 hour drive. We made it home around 5:30pm, and we all literally breathed a sigh of relief when we walked in. As much fun as we had in Idaho, there’s NO place like home!! Thanks to everyone for helping us have a super fun summer!

2011 summer vacation - week 6

On Monday, shortly after tucking the girls in that night, I went in to check on them and found them snuggled up together!

We went to the Kroc Center with Mike and Jessica and had an awesome time!!  We were so glad Jess and Mike decided to come with us.  They had a great time playing together in the water, and Kyrie even talked Jessica into going down the slide! 

Saturday was Derk and my 10 year anniversary!!  Can you believe it?!  I sure can’t.  We had a very nice day together thanks to Derk’s mom, who watched the kids for us the whole day!  We did some shopping, saw Harry Potter, had sushi for dinner, and walked around the boardwalk in downtown Coeur d’Alene for a bit.  Of course I didn’t think to get any pictures until then!  Check out the gorgeous sunset!

The love of my life! 

Today I went into the bedroom we’re staying in to find Bri had snuck Isis into bed with her.  How sweet is this?!  She’s missed having her kitties inside so much, I didn’t have the heart to take Isis out!

This evening we went to my mom’s and got to enjoy the pool we set up a few days ago.

I can’t believe next week we’re going home!  It’s gone by so fast.

2011 summer vacation - week 5

This week started out with Derk’s brother, Drew, and his family coming into town to visit us!  We had some fun at the park the first day.

 

For the 4th of July, we all went downtown to watch the parade, and my sister Abby and her little family even joined us.

After the parade, we went back to Grandma’s house for some lunch and then went back downtown with Drew and Rebecca and their kids to swim. The water was FREEZING still, but Derk, Drew, and the kids still had lots of fun jumping in!

Rebecca, Dallin, and I stayed nice and dry on the warm rocks. Bri (seen in the background) wasn’t brave enough to get wet, either, and had fun walking along the beach. My sister-in-law glows in the sun!

We don’t have any life jackets and didn’t want to buy any just for our trip this summer (nowhere to use them back home…), so Abbie and Lauren were nice and shared their vests with Asher so he could jump, too. He preferred to wear Lauren’s since Abbie’s was pink, but he got over it pretty fast and looked pretty darn cute sporting that pink life jacket!

Then later it was back downtown for the fireworks. Asher and Abbie were so sweet and were just inseparable the whole time. I was really surprised how well the kids did with how busy our day was! We were constantly on the go the whole day, but they were all so well behaved!

Tuesday, Derk went golfing with his dad, Drew, and Kevan. He got some really pretty scenery shots!

While the boys golfed, we took the kids to a splash park by the church.  Abby and her family joined us again.

After that, we went and took some impromptu family pictures.

Here’s our little fam!

Drew, Rebecca, Abigail, Lauren, and Dallin. I have a better picture, but I could NOT resist this one. Abbie’s face is priceless!

Jenna, Kevan, Zariah, Maleah, and Anoni.

All the siblings (minus Jessica) and cousins!

Jean with her boys!

Grandma with all her grandkids.

The 6 year olds – Asher and Abbie.  Best buds!

The 4 year olds – Zariah, Cambria, and Lauren.

Sweet little Dallin!

Bri.

Asher and Abbie, taking pictures of each other taking a picture.

On Thursday we hit the beach with my mom and brother, Caleb. Here’s my mom with the girls.

And a couple more cute shots.

Friday was rock climbing with Drew and Rebecca! We took all the kids with us, and they all had a blast climbing. Unfortunately, Drew was so busy belaying everyone that he didn’t have a chance to climb! For not climbing in so long, I was very impressed with all us adults – we all made it to the top!!

Here’s Derk!

Lauren!

Abbie!

Asher!

Kyrie!

Cambria!

Rebecca!

Me!

And some cute shots in between climbs.

Sunday we had dinner at my mom’s house!

What a fun-filled week!