a crazy week it will be

My good friend, Valérie, is in France this week with her dad. Her kids and their dad stayed here. He'll be working, and I'll be watching their three girls...

So that means, two 7 year olds, a 4 year old, a 3 1/2 year old, 18 months, and a just-turned-one year old.

DURING THE HOTTEST WEEK OF THE YEAR (so far).

I wanted to head to the park early this morning to get some running around in before it got too blazing hot, but by 9:30am it was already 26C (almost 80F). We went anyways.

And stayed for all of 15 minutes. Just long enough to snap a few pictures to prove we were there.

Then we came back home and raced to get into our swim suits to cool off. Peter had just filled the pool this morning, so it was COLD. But I still made them lay down in the water for this picture... Doesn't Liam look like he's enjoying it??

(not pictured: Liam, who inhaled his popsicle then went back in the pool)

Marilou sat for most of 45 minutes, savouring every bite of her blueberry/banana/spinach popsicle. Who wouldn't?? But seriously, Val, she was happy as a clam, sitting in her highchair in the shade watching the water war going on below.

After a quick lunch outside (dining al fresco) it was time for naps... Have you ever tried to put four kids to bed in three different rooms ALL AT THE SAME TIME?? Doesn't work so well. Must figure out plan for tomorrow's naps. Léa and Liam did a great job entertaining Marilou will I put the other three to bed, but I don't know if that will work every day.

And the plan for this afternoon? TRY NOT TO MELT.

And make more popsicles.

when green smoothies are NOT so good

Yesterday, Andrea from A Peak inside the Fishbowl (AKA @missfish) linked to a post at Fed Up With Lunch about how to help our kids learn healthy eating habits from a young age. One of tips given was to drink green smoothies.

Although I haven't written about them recently (HERE are some old posts), green smoothies continue to be part of our routine and meal plan. Peter, who at first was reluctant to try (to the point of refusing them for the first few weeks of my green smoothie experiment about 18 months ago), is now by far the biggest consumer. He fills up an 18 oz bottle of smoothie to take to work for his morning break (I'd like to say he does this daily, but it (and by "it" I mean my making them) seems to go in spurts... every day solid for a few weeks, then I get lazy or we run out of some ingredient).

Simon and Liam happily drink them or eat them as popsicles (which we'll be doing more and more as the weather warms up), and even Andrew's eyes light up at the sight of his sippy cup full of smoothie.

Andrew, in fact, loves anything green. When it's time to eat, he'll predictably pick out the green things to eat first: peas, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, celery, avocado... If it's green, he'll eat it first.

Take last night for example...

He'd been super fussy while I was getting supper ready, but we figured it was because he was hungry. When it came time to eat, however, all we could coax into him were a few bites of sausage, some avocado, a spear of asparagus, a small stick of celery, a dozen frozen peas, and however much green smoothie he drank from his cup. Sausage excepted, do you see what these things have in common? Green avocado, green asparagus, green celery, green peas... GREEN smoothie? That's right, class, they're all green.

And mixed together, they make for a shockingly green coloured vomit. 

Yes, you read that right.

He continued to fuss after supper, so I laid down with him IN OUR BED to nurse him to sleep, thinking that would help settle him down. I should've known something was amiss when he would hardly nurse, even after eating so little for supper. Thankfully, he made a few telltale gagging noises before the main event and I was able to quickly swing him up and over AND AWAY FROM THE BED just in time. 

(I was also very thankful for easy-clean laminate flooring in our bedroom and not the off white berber we've had in other homes.)

After the tweet from Andrea yesterday, there were quite a few local moms who were talking about green smoothies on twitter last night. I was all set to jump on after the boys were in bed and Peter was snuggly tucked in downstairs watching playoff hockey and tweet about the numerous benefits of green smoothies, when I instead found myself on hands and knees cleaning up green smoothie.

But even that experience isn't enough to deter me from making -and loving- them!

I challenge you to...

...to 30 days of Green Goodness!

Jennifer of Happy Foody fame has launched the 2009 Green Smoothie Challenge. Those of you who have been reading my blog for more than a year (so, um, only my family and in-laws since my blog was private until early January '09) will remember my initial posts about green smoothies as I attempted to increase our raw food consumption AND sneak more veggies and greens into Simon's diet.

The whole green smoothie thing went from Peter rolling his eyes at me as I tried to convince Simon to "just try it", to Peter trying one AND LIKING IT, to Peter grumbling and whining if I don't make him one.

Every. Single. Morning.

We've come a long way! But although I've been making them for Peter, I haven't been that good about drinking them myself... especially after my *ahem* postpardum plumbing problems and consequent advice I received about it perhaps being an issue with all the spinach. I began to fear the spinach.

All I really needed was a kick in the pants a gentle nudge back in the Green Smoothie direction. If youre wondering what the heck I'm talking about, here is my inital post and here is one featuring a video of Jennifer making a green smoothing in her super blender (like a Vita-Mix... *swoon* Viiiiiiitttaaa-Miiiiixxxx).

Here are the details of this year's challenge (taken from Jennifer's Happy Foody blog):

We will begin on August 17 and end on September 17. Here is what you are committing to:

• Drink at least 16 oz. of green smoothie per day (a quart would be even better!)
• Do some sort of activity every day. This could be an intense workout, or just dancing with your kids around the living room. It could be a 15 minute yoga session or a walk around the block.
• Add a green leafy salad to your lunch or supper (with light dressing…stay away from the creamier sauces).
• Stop drinking pop.
• Cut out all white sugar.

I've got the smoothie part covered. The activity will be easy too. The salad with supper? Honestly, I'd rather have another smoothie! I don't drink my pop as it is (although I've been known to steal sips of Peter's most nights once in a while). The sugar... um... like the sugar in chocolate? And ice cream? And Swedish Berries?? Ouch. That one might hurt, but I know it'll be worth it.

So anyone want to join me? If you haven't tried a green smoothie before, trust me. You can't taste the spinach. They really are delicious. And so good for you. And delicious. LIKE CANDY. If you're looking for more information, recipes, and great testimonials extolling the benefits of green smoothies, head over to Happy Foody's Green Smoothie Challenge post.

And if you covet a Vita-Mix as much as I do -but likewise choke a bit at the $450+ price tag- head over to Jessie Hawkin's blog and enter to win one! I would burst into tears were I to win... that's how badly I want one. (sigh)

Where was I? Oh right, Green Smoothies... Anyone up for a challenge??

a better day and more green goodness

Well Liam did much better at school yesterday. No tears, quiet or otherwise. When I dropped him off after lunch, Simon and I stayed outside the fence for about 15mins til they lined up to go inside. Knowing I was there, Liam ran right over to the group of boys he'd played with that morning and started playing soccer. Every few minutes though, he'd run back over to where Simon and I were... with a big grin. Clearly even our very peripheral presence was enough to put him at ease. I noticed more than a few sideways glances from the teacher but, again, Liam is my concern, not her.

(Although it was nice to be able to give Liam the support he needed - and for Simon to get the chance to run around - the whole talking/waving/goodbyes through a chain link fence had a distinct prison yard visitation-ness to it... a small exercise yard surrounded by high fences, patrolled by overseers, full of inmates who speak another language... Liam's kindergarten is like A PRISON IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY! No wonder it's a bit overwhelming at times!)

Another thing I did yesterday was put together a series of pictures for Liam to take with him. The paper is printed on both sides and about 1.5" tall and 4.5" long (a bit wider than a bookmark, but shorter). It has the following pictures on it:

He was thrilled when he saw it, exclaiming, "That was SUCH a great time!" when he saw the picture of he and Peter kayaking. He keeps it in a special pocket of his school bag for when he's feeling lonely. I love that kid!

Other than that, I have some exciting news on the green smoothie front...

While we still haven't found any popsicle molds, we did find something to fill in in a pinch. So here's a series of photos to show the transformation, from this:

To this:To these:To this:The one Simon's eating in the last pic had a bunch of blueberries in it, hence the purple colour. He eats a popsicle at almost every meal now! It's every kids dream to get "treats" at breakfast, but what Simon doesn't know is that that treat is half spinach! Mwaahaha! So I have no problem giving them to him often.

For all the skeptics out there, you really can't taste the spinach ONE BIT! It's amazing! The only downside to these green smoothies that I've found is that, since letting Liam watch a Popeye cartoon on YouTube he sings, "I'm strong til the finish cause I eat me spinach" almost every morning... which means that I'm humming it to myself several times a day!

green smoothie day three

I should've taken a picture of our smoothie this morning! It was kryptonite green! Here's what was in it:

- two huge handfuls of spinach (it filled half the blender lightly packed)
- 1 1/2 apples
- 1 banana
- approx. 1/2 c apple juice
- approx. 2 1/2 c green grapes

Liam loved how green it was (I served it in a bright green cup too). When I told him it had spinach in it, he asked if that's why it tasted so great. Yes, Liam. Yes, it is.

Simon, on the other hand, refuses to try them. He had one little sip day 1 and now runs away yelling, "NO DA DOO!" (No thank you!) when he sees me coming towards him. I'm so disappointed since he's the one who really needs some more veggies in his diet. Day 2, I was able to sneak some into his parfait instead of using all soy yogurt and he didn't seem to notice.

I think I'd have better luck if it was in popscicle form, but we seemed to have lost our forms in the move (only have the sticks). I'd really love to find some non-plastic popscicle moulds, but I'm not sure that exists. Failing that I'd take regular ones, but we've searched EVERYWHERE here with no success... Walmart, Zellers, Canadian Tire, four different grocery stores, even two second hand shops! Nothing! So if you see any while you're out and about, think of us! Think of poor veggie hating Simon and his love of popscicles!

I'll take pics tomorrow. Promise.

Oh and here's (hopefully) the Green Smoothie video I promise a couple days ago:



Woo hoo! I did it!

green smoothie day one

I've been reading a bit lately about the benefits of a raw foods diet. Not that we'd EVER be even close to completely raw, but I certainly see the need for more raw food in our diet, fruits and especially vegetables. Our diet is currently about 90% whole foods (so very, very little processed foods) - more out of financial necessity than anything! - but I still have an awfully hard time getting veggies into Simon especially.

Enter the Green Smoothie.

To give you an idea of what I mean, here's a YouTube clip (if I can figure out how to embed it...). My favorite line is:

“If you do nothing else that’s healthy all day long…do this!”

Okay, so I can't figure it out! I'll be back later to add it cause it really is worth a view. Right now I have to get Simon up and the boys fed so we can get ready for Liam's first day of school. sniff, sniff. Thankfully I get to go with him today.