Wrap Around Braid into a Side Pony

It is such lovely weather!  And with such beauty comes a beautiful hairdo!  :)   We found this one here: http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com/braids/video-tutorial-wrap-around-french-braid/ at Adopt 'A 'Do - a sweet site to find adorable styles!  Here's our take on that 'do:

I hope you enjoy this one! Quick, easy and adorable.  Off to spend the rest of the day with my beloved and my kiddos.  Hope your day is great and filled with sunshine!

Stacy

Side Pony

For some reason, I couldn't link to this 'do directly, but it is the second one down on the link (as of today).  I love this style, but our's didn't turn out quite right. It was still cute however - and I would recommend it - it stayed in for three days!  Here's our version of this 'do: http://cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/

This weekend has been glorious. Beautiful weather, time outdoors with my family, and tomorrow a picnic.  I hope your weekend is equally as wonderful!  Enjoy your blessings,

Stacy

Homeschool Picnic

Why just have an end of the year homeschooling picnic, when you can add just a little "something" to make it even more fun?  This year, we added a "field day" aspect to our event.  If you want to do the same, this is what we did - easy, simple, old-school - but the kids (and grown-ups) had a blast!

First, feed the masses:

Then pause to take photo of adorable offspring.

Have something for the kids to do while parents get second helpings...we had a "chalk zone",

and a bubble zone.

Assemble the masses in a big grassy spot...

Here are the events we did:

Ball toss (yes, even the parents were involved - this guy threw it the farthest, so his photo made the blog!),

Waterballoon toss - again, parents involved!!!

Plain old foot race - we did have the kids do all the events in age groups - I think it was ages 2-8, 9 and up, and grownups.  See that little guy in blue?  That's my Lex.

Sack races!

Three legged race!

Full family, four way tug of war! (We borrowed the rope from our youth departement at church - they are an amazing resource!)

Finally, a huge waterballoon fight.   This was by far the best action shot I took - can you see who is about to get nailed??

Although I didn't get photos of it, we had this picnic at a huge park that had an equally huge playground with climbers, sandboxes, swings and tons of slides.  When the organized part of the event was over, the kids got to go play, and the grownups ate (again) and had time to chat.  A fun time was had by all!  Here is Bee and her best friend being silly in the baby swings.

I think this might become an annual event.  We had so much fun together.  How does your school or homeschool celebrate the end of the year?  I'd love some fresh ideas!

Have a beautiful memorial day, and as always, feel free to copy!

Stacy

Feeling a little discouraged

I weighed in tonight.
I lost another 4.6 pounds.
That's a total of about 32 pounds that I've lost so far.
In two months.

So why am I down?
Everyone around me keeps telling me that I'm "doing it wrong".
Even tonight, at my weigh-in meeting.
My menu happened to get pulled from the basket (we pull one out each week, and that person shares their "best day" with everyone).   I shared, and they immediately asked me how many calories I had consumed that day.  Mind you - they know I'm counting calories.  It was within my personal goals for the day - but they all kinda jumped on me for how little I ate.  Now before you go on thinking I starved myself - this was my diet for that day:
yougurt with bran buds
grilled chicken wrap with romaine lettuce and mustard
apple slices
ribs (the ones from the last post)
asperagus
It was around 950 calories for the day.  And when I was done eating, I was full! 
Why is it that the american medical association came out with this magic number of 1,200 calories a day being the ideal number for weight loss?  Can't we all be a bit different?  And I get that statistically speaking the faster you take it off, the more likely you are to put it back on.

Each week someone asks me this question: "What will do you do when you go back to eating normally?"
Here's the deal.   I can't.  Period.  I have to eat like this for the rest of my life if I want to be thinner and healthy.  It doesn't mean I'll never indulge - for Pete's sake I ate ribs that day!  But I'm tired of people telling me I'm doing it wrong. Obviously I'm not doing it wrong for me if I'm losing weight.

So here I was, the "biggest loser" of the week, and sorta made to feel like garbage for it, because they all think I'm losing too quickly.  Ugh.   The woman sitting next to me was so sweet, though.  At one point during this time of talking about me (oh yes, they did this for like 20 minutes), she leaned over and said, "don't pay any mind to them. You're doing great.  Keep up the good work. They're just jealous."   It made me smile.  

I'm not going to give up, and all I can do is prove them all wrong. That I can take off the weight and keep it off.   The process in the meantime is going to be long and hard, but I'm up for it.  I've done it for two months now - what could possibly stop me now?

Thanks for listening....or reading...or whatever.
I'm going to bed.
Stacy

Weigh-in Wednesday

I truely love this book:

Really, I can't say enough good about it.  Because I've finally found a diet that is working for me - one that doesn't have horrible restrictions, or deprevations...one I can live with.  I'm learning to cook leaner, which is where this book comes in.

This week, I tried this recipe:

Um, can you say YUMMY???  I know, I know, ribs aren't exactly the healthiest choice out there.  But these ribs were only 400 calories per serving, and one serving was huge.   ( I was only able to eat a half portion) I had never made ribs before, let alone healthy ribs, so this was all new to me.  But the book said that ribs at Outback were over 3,000 calories!  That's more calories in one meal than you should have in almost three days!  Yikes!

I'm calling these the "miracle ribs" because of what happened at my house after they were cooked.  You see,  I have two (out of the three) very picky eaters.  For Bee, it's new textures that make her not like foods. For Alex, it's anything new in general.  Jake eats (almost) whatever I put in front of him. Anyhow, these ribs looked a little freaky to them - with their bones sticking out, and having to eat them with their hands. But when they started to try them - this is what happened...

First, Jacob tried them:

Then Bridgette, upon seeing Jake's reaction gave it a go:

Finally Alexander caved and tried one:

 

This was the reaction from ALL THREE KIDS:

and the end result?

They ate every rib I cooked!   For me, if it is healthier, tastes great, and kids like it too - it's a winner that must be repeated.

As icing on the cake, if I'm able to eat ribs and still lose this week (I'm typing this early in the day, and my weigh-in isn't until tonight) - I'll shout it from the rooftops. I'll update to this post later tonight with how I did at my weigh-in.  I've been working it this week, so hopefully it will be great!

Enjoy the sunshine if you have it, we do!

Stacy

Cross Over "X" braids

I found this style here: http://cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/2008/10/cross-over-braids.html  We needed a quick and easy do.  I am thrilled (and possibly a little embarassed?) to say that this stayed in her hair for FOUR DAYS!  When we took it out (sorry, no picts) it was so pretty and curly.  Here's our take on that 'do:

We had a busy but fantastic weekend as a family - will update with photos (tomorrow?).  I hope your weekend was just as fun!

Stacy

Spring - Warning LONG post - but does include a hair style, I promise!

Ah, spring.  The lovely weather, the flowers, the warm air returns from the south - such a lovely time of the year.  For our family, it also means:

Putting on our game face (their coaches have them practice this face - it cracks me up):

For T-Ball practices and games:

Going on Field trips:

With our best friends:

Lots of playdates at the park (this was actually the same day as the previous photos - because I don't usually take my camera every time we go to the park...):

I've found that when I'm busy and set my kids to learning on their own, they come up with things like this:

And somewhere in the past few weeks, my daughter has musically become a 'tween:

And dance practice, and gymnastics, and weight loss meetings (I'm down a total of 28 lbs as of last night's weigh-in!), and church, and picnics, and swim lessons, and a girls weekend, and a trip to Buffalo for Bee, and hanging with these guys:

And lots of adorable hair styles that I just haven't taken the time or effort to photograph and post here.  Sorry about that.  Here is one I did last week which turned out so cute.  You can find it here:  http://dostochoose.blogspot.com/2010/03/quick-and-easy-barbie-bun.html

We made our bun sock a little bit smaller - but here are our results:

I thought this was so pretty - but it was a one day 'do.  By the next day, it had mostly fallen out.  So pretty though, for the day it was in!

I guess this is all to say that we've been busy. Good busy. I'm not complaining - not even a little bit. I'll be the first to tell you that my life is a blessed one.   My hubby is good to me, and as we joke, I'm a "kept" woman.  I've just had less time to blog the past few weeks. Here's to hoping that we get back to it!

I hope your spring is just as exciting and fun filled as ours has been!

Stacy

weigh-in Wednesday

Holy cow has our life just opened up with activities!  Swim lessons, t-ball, dance, gymnastics, smallgroup, playdates, field trips, church activities.  YIKES!!  All good stuff, and not complaining an ounce. I'm thankful to live in a country where I can stay at home and love on my kids, and do all the fun stuff I'm doing. I'm a blessed woman.

Anyhow, here's my dieting tip for the week.  I just discovered these: http://www.carbritediet.com/store/html/category.cfm?id=45 They are sooooo yummy!  Don't freak about the price.  You can buy them individually at your local healthfood store or grocery store (I get mine at Wegmans).  Buy only enough for one week (like one a day) and it is less than ten bucks. I don't think that is too bad considering what I used to pay for takeout, restaurants, etc.

They taste really great, are low sugar, low carb, low cal and really high protein.   Here's the part I love the best - about twenty minutes after you've eaten one, you are full.  I mean really, really full.  Almost like you've eaten too much kinda full.  And the full lasts for hours!  This is a big deal for me, as sometimes my meals and snacks have to be spread out due to our running here and there and everywhere. 

And, drumroll please....at weigh-in today, I lost another 5.2 pounds!  Loving this diet - loving the way I am feeling.  I just may conquer this beast after all.
-Stacy

Quick and Easy Sunday Style

In a hurry, but don't want to sacrifice your girlie's hair on a Sunday before church?  I didn't have time to brush out every knot this Sunday - we were running a tad behind schedule when I realized that I had forgotten to do Bee's hair!   Here is a simple trick to give a quick and easy bun a little something extra.

Make a bun as you normally would, but place it about the height of a high ponytail.  Then, wrap a wide ribbon around the bun and tie the bow in the back.   I have a knot at the front because I had to tie two smaller ribbons (the only lime green I had on hand at the moment) to make one big enough to go all the way around.  I secured the ribbon in front with one small bobby pin, just to be sure it wouldn't fall out.   That's all there was to it!

She's showing her nails in the last photo - this was the first weekend she could wear sandals to church - and Bridgette has we have a strick rule around here about our toes and fingernails matching in public.  :)

I think she'll do this one again for dance tonight - but with a different bow.

Easy, huh?

Have a beautiful day, and as always, feel free to copy!

Stacy