Gale Woods Farm

Saturday we had BIG plans to pick up daddy at the airport shortly after noon. We were all super excited and VERY ready for him to come home. He got to the airport at 4am his time in Geneva (roughly 9pm Friday night our time). After hours and hours of lines and waiting and trying to get different flights - short story first flight delayed causing him to miss second flight, ending in not getting home til another day in the evening :-( boo hoo!

So since we weren't going to get him and basically have another two days to kill I connected back with my friend to take her back up on the invitation to join her at Gale Woods Farm which is a ways out of the city and opposite direction from the airport so it wasn't working before, but did in the end. 

It's usually impossible to get this crew fed and out of the house to make it to something on time so it was a big push on my part to get it done. Quick breakfast which 2 out of 3 ate, then in the van. 

Isaac got this mask yesterday at a Friend's park/house party and has refused to take it off since.

We arrived at the farm, paid our entrance fee and got to see the animals. First up was the cow, who had a freshly born calf just a week ago.

Since we got there right when it opened it wasn't yet crowded and the guy let our guys milk the mama cow, who was quite full. Our friend's kiddos did it and Emma was willing but as she approached the cow she pooped, which frightened Emma way and then none of my guys wanted to get near that end :-D

Next we went over to the chicks and chickens.

And got to see the baby pigs. They were so CUTE!!!

Then the sheep and baby lambs. They were also adorable!

They were able to run around with them outside and pet them and hear them "baaa". Isaac thought it was pretty cool hearing them "baaaa".




The big mama pig was relaxing in the sun and would oink everytime the kids scratched her back.

She went back inside for a minute to check on the babies maybe and then came back out






An attempt at a photo to send daddy...

More petting on the way back in through the barn


We took a little walk outside to enjoy the day. Going down to see the big cows.




They had those foot scratcher/cleaner things around the farm. The kids were enthralled by them and since they had poop on their shoes we tested them out. At one point Mary was trying to get her foot in the opening and lost her balance. There wasn't anything around her to grab onto and she fell forehead first into the gutter drain lying near the barn. It was an open gutter with the trough style opening. Poor thing got hit pretty hard on her noggin. Thankful it didn't break the skin. Here's her mark an hour or so later.

Lunch at noodles cuz this mama is sick of cooking. These two being goofballs as usual.

Then a quick park visit before we went home. It's a beautiful day out but since Mary only slept about 5 minutes in the van on the way home I knew nap was going to be a struggle so decided to just get our outside time in and go home and veg out instead of fighting them to nap.

We hit our neighbor's lemonade stand when we got home. They thought that was pretty fun since we read books about lemonade stands. Paying more for the experience than the actual product, sheesh high mark up these days. 

Springtime Grandma Judy Visit

Grandma  Judy came to visit to break of our time while Kyle is on a business trip in Geneva, Switzerland for two weeks.

We picked her up on Saturday and she helped watch the kids at a church playground so I could help my MoM's group tear down the sale (I didn't get to help out much since I was solo with Kyle gone). Then Saturday evening we chilled around the house and watched Moana, Isaac was dying for grandma to watch it with them. And grandma got to experience watching a movie with three preschoolers, ha - not much for hearing what actually goes on.

Sunday was kind of dreary and raining. We made a run to KMart and Grandma bought the girls some Easter dresses then we went to eat at New Bohemia with excellent brats. Sunday evening I made dinner at home and we just laid low.

Monday we went to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum

Many of the models (okay all) were hands off, but they did have operation buttons the kids could press to see the models run. This table was pretty cool as it had lots of fun things for them to move like carousels, roller coaster, light up signs, carnival type games to watch.

There were kid train tables set up in back and they had two tables like this that had accelerator trains they could control the speed and beep the horns.

There was also a fun toot horn to pump and hear the air make sounds through the flutes.

And a big bell to hand ring. The kids had fun and it was a good morning activity.

That afternoon I was able to go to my dentist appointment and sneak in a chiropractor appointment.

Tuesday we had BSF and dropped Grandma off at the Galleria to explore while we did our thing. Then we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and made a quick trip to the Minnesota Arboretum. It's still not fully open (the 3 mile drive is closed to cars) and nothing was in bloom but it was still fun to walk around and let the kids burn some energy.

We did get to see the cool maple syrup set ups they had. We saw three different collection methods. I only got photos of two. The third was a bucket much like the blue bags. 

These were really cool taps, that had pipes running down to the sugar collection hut.

Wednesday we had music class and then took Grandma back to the airport. We stopped for a quick lunch at Sun Street Breads on the way.

Greek Turkey Burgers

I love when last minute ideas become a success. I had bought some ground turkey on BOGO sale but didn't really have a plan for it. We had some of this Greek style yogurt cucumber sauce at home (from Costco) so decided to roll with the greek theme. 

Here's the burger recipe: 

1 lb ground turkey

1 small onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp oregano

1.75oz of fresh spinach (frozen for a couple hours so it crumbles well)

1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

1 egg

Mix all together well with hands, then broiled until cooked (internal temp of 165 degrees)

We served the burgers with the sauce on top and in between these flat-breads (also from Costco):

Fix Count: 

Yogurt sauce a blue

Flatbread a yellow

Burgers a red and half a green

Baby Update midway point

A little overdue for an update, well 11 days. We had an ultrasound on March 10th. And everything looked good! Praise the Lord. We had missed the early trimester screening and decided not to do the quad scan, so we were praying for a good read. That hematoma had also cleared up (or debris of second baby). 

Baby was very active and it was fun to watch HIM! (Yes it's a BOY!) 

He might have big feet like his brother.

Luckily no news is good news so nothing else really to report. Here is an updated timeline of my belly photos. It's been fun (and challenging) to get the designated fruit each week. I had to search all over for a pomegranate. Ended up paying $4.99 for it, but at least it tasted good and the kids enjoyed eating it. The artichoke was only $2.99 and it didn't get eaten. I was excited about the coconut ($3.99) but when we got it open half of it appeared to be rotten :-( 

Size of an avocado at 16 weeks:

 

Size of a pomegranate at 17 weeks:

Size of an artichoke at 18 weeks: 

Size of a mango at 19 weeks:

Size of a banana at 20 weeks:

Size of an endive...?? at 21 weeks or baby bok choy... seriously!?

And currently

Size of a coconut at 22 weeks:

Here are some outtakes and misc belly pics. 

This was today, Mary LOVES snuggling with baby and gets in quality baby time everyday. If she leans on too hard, or bumps into my belly she will say "sorry baby". In the morning she likes to get under the covers and curl up with my belly. It is the sweetest thing ever. 

Picking out the coconut

 

Coconut outtake:

Post workout belly pics:

 

Sloppy Joe in a Bowl

Or as my kids called it: spaghetti soup. Which they all ate it, score!

This makes a large pot so plan on left overs for lunches. I love dishing it out and having it ready to grab the remainder of the week. It definitely had a canned tomatoes taste which I am not a complete fan of. But that's rather unavoidable when using canned tomatoes. Would be so good with 4 cups diced up fresh tomatoes in place of the two cans.

Makes about 10 servings
Takes about 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 tsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey or lead beef (or half and half)
2 - 15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
15 ounce can tomato sauce
3 Tbsp coconut palm sugar
1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons hot sauce
12 ounces whole wheat pasta
shredded cheddar cheese for topping

Directions:
In a large pot (I used my enamel coated cast iron) place oil and add vegetables once oil is shimmering. Add in meat and cook until browned.
Add in cans of tomatoes/ sauce. Use an empty can and fill halfway with water, add to pot. Stir in sugar and sauces.
Drop in the noodles and stir til covered. Cover the pot and simmer for 11 minutes until the pasta is cooked.

Top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Fix count: 1 cup= 1 yellow, 1 red, 1 green
Cheese topping: 1 blue (or 1/2 blue if you don't want to use a full blue of cheese)

Adapted from original recipe here:
http://www.aspicyperspective.com/one-pot-sloppy-joe-noodle-skillet/2/