Another gluten free menu plan

Just in case anyone wanted a peek at my menu for the week.  I know that it helps me sometimes to see what others are having when I get in a rut.  So here is what is on tap for the week.

Here are our 5 dinners.

1.  Taco pasta - This was an easy to fix meal that everyone liked.    Sides were fruit and fresh cucumbers.

2.  Baked balsamic chicken
    Roasted broccoli - maybe this recipe
    Mashed potatoes

3.  Mac and cheese - Trying a new recipe and hoping its as good as the other one.  GF mac and cheese can be very yummy!
    Kielbasa
    Salad and/or raw veggies with dip

4.  Taco Bowl - Good for a night when I have to leave early for play practice.  Everyone can fix their own dinner as they like it.  Good way to use some leftovers too.  :)
   
5.  Egg, polenta, salsa dish - polenta with a fried egg, black beans, sliced avocado and salsa on top.  YUM!  We may be having grits instead of polenta as I'm having a hard time finding that around here for some reason.

For breakfast we can have any of these options:

eggs and bacon
grits
yogurt and granola
cereal

For lunch:
hot dog and fries
quesadillas
pizza
salad
fruit
And look what I made tonight for the rest of the week!  :D  I'm really excited to try this out.   You can read more about salads in a jar here.

Last week, two of my boys made a restaurant for us to enjoy for lunch one day!  It was great.  Pretty tablecloth, placemats, menus - the whole works!  I am hoping to see this happen more often.  :)  We are working on cooking lessons a bit this summer at their request.  I love having children that enjoy food and cooking!

Hope you are off to a great start for your week.  I'll be posting the next couple of days some of my May catch-up and then its on to June.  I'm getting there and hope to be fully caught up soon!

Have a great week!

Blessings
Leslie

B4 FIAR co-op: Play With Me

This is such a sweet story and a perfect one to read in the spring.  Its about a little girl who goes outside and is looking for someone to play with her.  She excitedly asks each animal she finds to play with her, but each animal quickly hides or goes away.  When she sits quietly by a pond (a bit sad that nobody will play with her), she then finds that all the animals return and she is delighted!

For this story, we decided to meet outside at a local park.  It was a perfect day and a fun time with our friends.  We continued with our typical format of having a devotion first.

We did the creation story.

A fun spot to sit and learn.  So many fun places to learn and being outside of definitely a big one!

Reading our story.

Playing a game of riddles to figure out the animals.  You can find that resource and others to go along with this book here at  homeschool share.

Each child was given an animal picture card to try to figure out the riddle that went with their animal.  Eliana was given a deer.

Next it was time for a snack.  Isn't this adorable?!  Can you see the butterfly with treats inside?  Too cute!

For our craft, the kids decorated egg cartons to collect treasures in.  There were stickers and foam pieces, markers and more to choose from.

Eliana really liked putting lots of stickers on hers!

Then we went on a walk around the park.

My girl ... blazing her own path ... full steam ahead!

Too tired to figure out how to change this one now.  My sweet girl stopping to observe.

I love photos like this of paths.  So many images come to mind about life and the journey that we are on.  I'm so very blessed to on this path.  So very thankful to be right where God has placed me.  Very grateful for the many friends and family with whom I travel.

The lake is a fun place to look.  And to throw things (found in nature) into the water.

We found a turtle sunning himself.  That was a sweet treat to see one of the animals from the story.

Cute kids, climbing up for a better look.

After our walk, we headed back to our original spot.  We were eating lunch and one of the children said, "I see a snake".  Another piped up, "I see one too.".  I went over to look.  They were right and it was not a little one either!  We gathered around, but not too closely to watch him.  He slithered along the ground for awhile.

And then climbed a tree.  And to think he was probably there the whole time we were doing our lessons.  :)  No worries as it was a harmless one.

As always, it was a delightful morning with our friends.  Just one more story before we finish for the summer.  I'll post more on that next week.  :)

I hope you are able to be outside and enjoying God's wonderful creation!

Blessings
Leslie

FIAR Vol 4: Cowboy Charlie

This was our last co-op with our FIAR volume 4 this year.  We all had a lot going on in the month of May so ending early seemed like the best thing for all of us.  We are going to pick up again in the fall and finish off the remaining titles before moving on to Beyond FIAR.  :)  I'm glad we did that as I find that if I'm tired and overwhelmed with other things, that I just don't have as much to give to our FIAR studies.  I want to really enjoy these books and our time together as it really is sweet and fun!

So, our last book of the year was Cowboy Charlie.  This is a true story about Charlie Russell.  Its a fascinating look at a boy who was captivated by the Wild West and then went to visit and work there and ended up staying.  He worked as a cowboy, but his true passion was art.  He painted beautiful pictures of the west.  You can see them here.  

There are so many great topics to explore in this book!  We touched on a few of them in our co-op.  We learned more about buffalo/bison.  Did I mention that here in North America that we don't have buffalo?  What we have are bison.  You can read more here about the differences.  

The kids did an activity where they had slips of paper with various parts of a buffalo listed on it.  They learned that when the Native Americans hunted them that they used all of the parts of the animal.  Then the used were listed and the kids tried to figure out which part was used for that.  Make sense?

Here is a look at the picture with the parts and the uses matched.  Its truly amazing how resourceful the Native Americans were!

These are incredible creatures.  Our field trip to the farm just prior to the co-op to learn about them was wonderful!  If you are local, you should go visit!  Sunset Ridge Buffalo Farm

 They learned some of the history of the area of the country where the story took place.

 In particular, they compared the states of Missouri (where Charlie was born) and Montana (where he lived as an adult).

 They also learned about some of the Native American customs.  For their craft, the each made a teepee/wigwam.  They could each choose to decorate in any fashion that they wanted.

 Here are some of the finished products.

 Here is Daniel showing off his creation.  Pretty neat, huh?

This is a fun book and so many avenues to explore and learn about.  

Enjoy your day!

Blessings,

Leslie

April - with a lot of photos!

This is going to be another whirlwind type of post with LOTS of pictures.  I had some trouble loading this post and after copying and pasting and deleting photos, I'm hoping this will work.   :D  This is a quick look at our April.   Enjoy the photos!

We signed up Eliana for a special needs sports team.  They played t-ball and soccer.  She tried a little t-ball, but mostly wanted to just "kick a ball".  They had a song for the group and every time I played the cd, Eliana very happily said, "I kick a ball!".  It was a great group and we enjoyed being a part of it.  I hope we'll be able to do more with them in the future.

 My two beautiful daughters looking a little bit like twins.  I love how Rebecca spends time fixing Eliana's hair so beautifully.  Everyone will certainly notice the change when she is gone in the fall.

 One of our field trips this month was to Sunset Ridge Buffalo Farm.  We had a beautiful and cool day for our outing.  What a fun place to meet up with our friends!

 We loaded up into a big wagon for our tour of the farm.

 We were a little tight on space, so some of the boys volunteered to ride in the back of the pick-up.

 We learned a lot about this powerful animal.  Its really a bison and not a buffalo.

The animals are raised and eventually sold for meat.  I'm not telling him that though.

After our tour, we were able to buy meat and spend time picnicking with our friends.  This is a really fun visit if you are local.  The kids had a great time playing.  

We made a quick visit to see my Mom and Dad.  Its always good to be there with them.

 Fun group photo.

Playing some with the settings on my camera.  Eliana loving on her big brother!

 Here is another one.  I like the color in this one - and of course I love the cute girl.

Our book club read this month was The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki.  An interesting book of historical fiction about Benedict Arnold's wife and the role she played in his actions.  Its based on some true accounts and certainly gives much food for thought as to how this might have really happened.  

 Our co-op studying Robin Hood spent one of our meeting times learning about archery.  Also a fun way to spend the morning!

Our FIAR group hosted a Geography Fair this year for the first time.  It was a big hit and we plan to repeat it next year!  Each child/family/friend group chose a country and then was able to present information about their country in any way that they chose.  We met in this beautiful outdoor/covered setting.

I loved watching my children become fascinated with a country and working to learn more about it.  So, from the pictures, can you figure out which country these guys did?  You can guess or peek at the answer at the end of this post.)  

Most of the presentations included poster boards in addition to other items from that country.  If there was a FIAR book related to the country, that was included too.  Can you see them in the picture below?

After all the presentations, it was time to eat.  Each family brought food from the country that they shared about.  It was a feast!  I'm not sure the picture really shows ALL the food that was there.  It was so very yummy!

And desserts too!  This was a delightful day.  I love it when a new idea comes together and really works!  Looking forward to next year too!

Our co-op group also got together for a pottery lesson.  Each child was able to make several pieces.

They were each able to throw a piece on the wheel.  (Harder than it looks!)

And make a piece by hand (or several).

Rebecca attended a homeschool dance with some of her friends.  Aren't they lovely?

TIme for Easter pics.  We travelled to VA to spend Easter with our friends.  This has been a fun tradition for many years.  This year, we brought Emily (Christopher's girlfriend) with us.  She is a delight!  She and her mom made this treat for us!  Isn't this great?!  We love deviled eggs in my family and what a treat to have them in such fun colors.  Oh, and they were yummy too.

While we were there, we played.  We brough KanJam which is always a hit.

 Aren't they cute?

We also attended a carnival type event at their church.  Do you see this ride?  It was a kind of fast barrel ride and my big girl rode in the last car all by herself!

There was a massive egg hunt.  

Bounce house, snacks and more.  Fun morning!

 In the afternoon, some of us went for a hike while others rested.  They found a neat cave.

Places to conquer ...

 and explore.

The hike was fun and there were pretty flowers and a creek nearby too.

 The rare photo of the moms.  Catherine and I have been dear friends for over 20 years!  (22 to be exact)  I'm thankful for her and just wish she didn't live so far away now.  Thankful that we can still visit!

 This isn't a great picture, but I wanted to share our fun activity with the teens.  Flashlight egg hunt.  Its so much fun and is a great way to involve those that are too old for a traditional hunt, but still like a challenge and candy.  :)

 After church on Sunday, it was time for some pictures.  Everyone under 22 in this one.  :)

We did family photos.  My heart swells with these people I love.  :)

 Christopher and Emily.

Just wanted to show off this little cutie in her Easter dress.

 We got one of the girls, but not the guys.

 Roger and I even got one.  I know about the sunglasses, but I could not see at all by this point.

One more egg hunt for the younger ones that did not join in on the night hunt.

 Love this picture of Joshua helping Eliana get to a hard to reach egg.  We had a wonderful time with our friends and also celebrating the resurrection of our Savior!  He is risen!

 Krispy Kreme doughnut day!  I was in Cary and met up with them for a late night snack.  :)

Tired yet of reading all of these and looking at so many pictures?  Bless you if you have hung in this long.  :)  Hope you enjoyed them.  Yes, she is tired - and fully asleep.  She crawled into the chair beside me and fell fast asleep.

More soon on some of our FIAR co-ops in April and then it will be on to May.  :)  Really wanting to share some superhero party pictures soon!

Hope you are having a great summer.

Blessings
Leslie

Answer:  Lichtenstein