Cutting out the Crap

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the food we eat, especially the food we feed our children.  It's easy and convenient to feed your family prepackaged food, which usually include a list of ingredients I can't pronounce.  Living in Germany has given me more time to prepare healthy foods for my family and prompted me to make some of those staple snacks my kids love that we can't get here.  I ran across an amazing website with healthy recipes for kids, superhealthykids.com.  The snack recipes are fantastic and include many of the typical snacks your kids love.

This past week we tried out several recipes and I was shocked at how much the boys loved them.  I wasn't sure if they would like snacks that have flax seed oil and wheat germ in them, but they didn't even notice.

The first recipe I tried out (not on the website) was homemade fruit snacks.  I love this recipe because it has 4 ingredients that are much healthier than store-bought fruit snacks and the boys could not get enough of them.  I ended up making 2 batches last week.

Homemade Fruit Snacks: Inspired by Robin from Thankyourbody.com

Ingredients:
2/3 cup fresh orange juice
 2/3 cup frozen or fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries are all great.)
1 – 2 Tbs honey
5 Tbs gelatin

Directions:
1. Pour juice and berries into a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until berries become tender and begin to soften.
2. Add honey and stir until completely incorporated.
3. Puree mixture using a blender
4. Let sit, off heat, for 5 – 10 minutes.
5. Slowly whisk in gelatin, one tablespoon at a time. Whisk vigorously until completely incorporated, mixing the gelatin in very gradually to avoid lumps. (If you do get lumps, just run the mixture through your blender again!)
6. Pour into a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 glass dish. Refrigerate until set (30 minutes to an hour). Cut in small squares. (You could also use some fun molds and create awesome shapes).
Note: I like to keep these in my fridge, but they do transport and keep nicely at room temperature.

 We then tried homemade granola bars, which I found on superhealthykids.com.  I was a little worried that Isaac wouldn't eat them because they have wheat germ, flax seed oil, almonds, and cranberries (to name just a few ingredients), but I added the chocolate chips and he (and Zach) loved them!  They stayed good for a week in a ziploc bag and were a tasty mid-morning snack.

We also tried homemade goldfish crackers.  These are definitely an acquired taste, but they turned out great and Isaac loved making them.  He loves anything with cheese.

I'm also looking for ways to take snacks they love and incorporate at least something healthy into them (so it's not all sugar). One morning we made frozen banana pops with yogurt and sprinkles.  I've also been adding flax seed and spinach to their morning smoothie, they don't even notice them!

For dinner I've been trying to cut out the processed foods and home-make ingredients if I can.  I've started making my own tortillas (delicious), whole-wheat rolls, and this past weekend I made my own chicken broth.  Slowly but surely I am cutting out the crap in our food (and feeling like a SuperMom)!




With love,
Janelle

Valentine's Day Fun

Since living in Berlin is the first time I get to be a full-time stay at home mom, I decided I wanted to take advantage of it and really do some fun and educational activities with the kids.  I recently came across an amazing website for Mom's, www.notimeforflashcards.com.  It has great crafts, activities, book recommendations, and loads of other ideas for parents.  Last week I tried their Letter of the Week activities and I have to say it was amazing.  It filled our day with fun crafts and activities, the boys had a blast, and Isaac really learned a lot.  Our days went much smoother having planned activities and I will admit I kind of liked lesson planning at night and getting my materials ready for the next day! ( I loved to play school as a child and now I can put that to use).  The website had lots of great Valentine's Day ideas so I figured I would share some we did with pictures of the boys. 



The first activity we did was making Valentine hearts on coffee filters.  We colored them with markers and then the boys dropped water onto the filters and watched as the colors merged into one. 

We then made a Valentine for Daddy.  Isaac made one for himself also, as he wanted a Simba one and Daddy needed the Mufasa one (We just got The Lion King and Isaac is really into that movie right now)!

We had a fun lunch with heart-shaped cheese and strawberries, pink yogurt, and alphabet soup.

And lastly Isaac and I played musical hearts.  Each heart had a fun activity to do when you landed on it, Isaac's favorite was wiggle like a worm! 

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day.  I have to leave you with this last picture, Isaac took it of Gabe and it looks like the cowboy hat has been passed on......

With love,
Janelle

Take 4

This past Tuesday we welcomed the newest member to our family, my sweet little nephew Liam Edward!  I wanted the boys to make a little video for him since we won't be able to see him for a long time.  As you can imagine, with two little ones who rarely sit still or say what you want them to, it took several takes to get it right.....

 

And we finally got one!

Congrats Troy and Jess! We can't wait to love on that little guy.

With love,

Janelle

As they grow

It's been a while since I've filled you all in on what the boys have been up to lately, so here ya go!  It's been really cold here lately so we've had to really bundle up in order to go outside.  Luckily we have a lake and park close by so if we need to get out of the house we always go there. We started a new gymnastics class for both of the boys, which is a great way for them to burn off some of their energy, especially when it's so cold outside.  We are getting ready to celebrate Zach's birthday later this week.

Gabe enjoying his Christmas presents.

Gabriel:  What is this boy not doing?! Seriously, he is the type of child you have to watch at all times, and if he is quiet for a second he is getting into something.  He can climb on anything and everything: step-stools, tables, couches and chairs, and the list goes on.  He has gotten so fast lately and loves to run around with Isaac.  He has actually gotten pretty ornery and will take one of Isaac's toys and run away as fast as he can.  He then gives the toy to Isaac as soon as he asks, he just loves the thrill of the chase.  He also has decided he likes to go to time-out, so the other day he hit me several times just to go to time-out.  It was seriously the cutest thing though, he would be sitting in the time-out chair with the biggest grin on his face.  He continues to eat everything and would probably eat constantly if I let him.  He is finally off the bottle, and officially a big boy. (Makes me sad he is no longer a baby).

Isaac moved up to a big boy car seat

Isaac:  Today was a big day for Isaac, he went on the potty all day and did not have any accidents! This is a big thing for him because we have been working on potty training for a while, but with our big move here we've had some set-backs.  He also called my Jesse (Toy Story) all day and he was Buzz Lightyear.  I was pretty flattered by this because Jesse is his all-time favorite and his best friend, so I'll take it.  He has the best imagination and our days are spent pretending to be various characters. He just started swimming lessons this past weekend and he's loving them.  He continues to say the most hilarious things and the other day in the shower he asked Zach if he was using girl soap because it really smelled like girl soap.  He has become a pro at using his bike here, which if you haven't seen them they do no have any pedals.  They are amazing and teach the kids to balance at a younger age.  The other day he went down a hill and lifted his feet the entire time, it was amazing!







With love,
Janelle

Refreshed

 Back Home Again

The boys with Santa, Gabe was a little horrified, but didn't cry

And we're back after a long break for the holidays!  I will admit, before we went home for the holidays I was feeling a bit down in Germany.  It was cold, which makes it difficult to get out with the boys and no car, it gets dark at 4 pm, and the Germans aren't the friendliest of people.  That being said, I was a little worried about coming back after being spoiled in America.  However, much to my surprise I feel very refreshed after spending time with family and friends, being surrounded by friendly people, and eating delicious American food (I literally ate Mexican food 4 times)!

Sweet little Annie came for a visit.  And Isaac is just in love with her!

This post will mainly be of pictures of our time at home.  We stayed at both grandparent's house, although my Mom definitely got the worst of it because the boys were sick (and puking) for half of her time, although they were champs at cleaning up puke :) Besides the sickness we were able to visit with extended family, friends, and our pup Harper, who the boys could not get enough of.  We went to Target several times and the first time I went I brought Isaac with me and man was that boy in heaven.  He was literally running around the store picking out everything he wanted from Toy Story Band-Aids to Spiderman macaroni and cheese.  He told me multiple times this is his favorite store. We made sure to bring some of those staples back with us.

 This is how the boys spent most of their time with Harper, either riding him or curled up with him.  He is seriously the best dog and it broke our hearts to leave him again.

                           The boys on Christmas Eve.  They are turning into the best of buddies.

         Christmas morning with the Kleiner's. B-Pa is a little Christmas elf who spoils all of us!

                                   The boys with Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Trevor.

We are now home and finally adjusted to the time difference.  It's nice to be back in our home and back on a schedule.  I definitely have a better attitude about being here and am looking forward to visits from family and friends and doing some traveling of our own.  Hope you all had a lovely holiday season filled with family and fun.

With love,
Janelle

My little 3 year old

Hello friends,
   This past week we celebrated Isaac's 3rd birthday.  What a sweet boy he has become.  I have to say 3 is looking like a fun age.  They start to say the most hilarious things and they become compassionate for others.  What an amazing thing to see your child develop feelings and ideas.  Some of the things he has said recently that just crack me up; pointing his finger in the air saying "That's an idea," and "Oh Mama, I'll be so happy."
   Isaac had a fun filled day on Thursday.  He got to open a present in the morning when Daddy was home and have some treasured Macaroni and Cheese for lunch, followed by cupcakes and presents after dinner.

We had a Big Buzz Lightyear (as Isaac calls it) birthday party on Saturday with some of our friends.  All the kids had a great time and Isaac loved opening his presents and eating cupcakes.  I had the cupcakes on display and at one point Gabe comes walking over cracking up holding a cupcake in his hands with icing everywhere! That little stinker reached up and grabbed a cupcake, he couldn't resist. Man do these boys have a sweet tooth, I don't know where they get it :)

 Have a great Thanksgiving! And I'll leave you on this happy note, how can you resist this little guy?!  He may be wild but is so stinkin cute!

With love,
Janelle

Halloween

This past week we had our first visitors, friends from France with two little boys the same age as ours.  We all had a great time and the boys played so well together, even though they did not speak the same language! They happened to be here over Halloween and we decided they needed to dress up the boys and experience the tradition.  They didn't get the full experience though because not many people actually celebrate it here and we only went to 4 houses, 2 of which were our American friends! But the kids got to dress up and got candy so they were happy! It was impossible to get a picture of the 4 of them together but they all looked so cute.

Isaac trick-or-treating at our friend's house

Gabe knows where to find the good stuff

 We were also able to do some exploring of downtown Berlin and see some of the major sites, like the Berliner Dom pictured below.

The boys looked like regulars riding the subway

And we ran into a random Micky Mouse, which Isaac just loved!

The end of November my cousins from California are coming to visit and then we go home in December.  We are really looking forward to some much needed time with our family, friends, and pup Harper!

With love,
Janelle