What My Family Ate For Dinner - Week 19

I've been trying to make a point of letting the kids pick a few of our meals each week. Now, Jillian would be happy eating grilled cheese all week, so normally it's Aaron that picks our meals. This week he picked two of the meals, I wonder if you can guess which ones?

Here's what my family had for dinner this week:

Sunday, July 6: Broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken. Aaron LOVES chicken kiev's and this is a healthier version. We love the Barber Foods brand and I love when they are on sale at Publix. We paired this with some brown rice and green beans.

Monday, July 7: Tuna alfredo. This is one of the easiest meals and I try to put this on busy nights. All I do is make whatever pasta we feel like (I used whole wheat penne), light alfredo sauce, frozen peas and tuna. Yum, yum and yum!

Tuesday, July 8: Stuffed potatoes. Scott and I LOVE these! Aaron is not on board with these yet, but I know he will be soon.

Wednesday, July 9: Jambalaya with chicken sausage. I know jambalaya should normally be made with andouille, but for calories (and fat) sake, I sub chicken sausage. I also cheat and use Zatarains.

Thursday, July 10: It was pouring on Thursday night and Scott was running late, so we ordered a pizza.

Friday, July 11: Scott and I had a date night (that included me getting new running shoes!). We hit up Olive Garden and ordered off the Cucina Mia menu. Scott had cavatappi noodles with primevera sauce and chicken meatballs. I had the bucatini with pomodoro sauce and chicken meatballs. So yummy!

Saturday, July 12: We had a pool party at Mimi and PawPaw's and brought in burgers from our favorite local burger place. I love their turkey burgers and zucchini fries!

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Thursday

For those of you that don't know what Thanksgiving Thursday is, it is the one time during the week where you stop and basically count your blessings. Even if you've had one of those weeks, I promise you can find at least one thing to be thankful for, no matter how big or small.

This week I am thankful for:

• Scott finally going to the doctor, it's been years (like 5ish).

• How Scott "geeks" out when Aaron gets a new car or truck, it's like he's a kid again

• The way Aaron says yellow "yell-yo" it makes me smile every time I hear it.

• Jill's love of watching Signing Time, I've watched the 6 DVD's more times than I care to admit this week. It could always be worse, it could be Barney or Teletubbies or that darn Big Rock Candy Mountain DVD *ahem Cathy*

• Olive Garden's breadsticks, especially since my kids are on a bread kick all of a sudden
• Mimi and Paw Paw who love a good clearance at Target as much as I do :) (Maybe Mimi loves it more than Paw Paw?)

• My parents who are already trying to figure out what "Chicago things" to bring down for us in November.
  

• Playdates with great friends! (You have to read Lani's post about our playdate)

• Great friends who share a love of food, wine and great conversation

• Dawn asking if "Dzia Dzio", which is Polish for Grandpa, was the same as "Zsa Zsa, you know like Zsa Zsa Gabor". I'm still laughing (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWN!)

• Two kiddos that always say "hi" to the librarian

• Finally getting a chance to get my haircut/colored tonight, it's been a long time coming

• Johnson & Johnson's detangling spray, I love you even though you are an inanimate object

What are you thankful for this week? Link it up below or leave a comment.

The latest happenings...

It rained pretty much all day yesterday so we didn't do much. Scott had his second interview, and we're hoping for the best.

Jill has become quite the pistol, to say the least. And what makes it worse is she knows that she's absolutely adorable! We have that toy tool bench from Fisher Price and she takes the hammer from it and bangs Aaron in the head with it. Maybe he has a screw loose? Aaron is no angel by any means, he's just a lot more creative. Aaron reminds me of my brother Art and all the stories I heard about him. I will not go into details on those stories because at this time we cannot confirm, nor deny, that any of those stories are true ;)

Their fascination with the dog is growing and growing. I know I write about this everyday, but it grows everyday. Jill walks around with the "d" book from the Baby Einstein Alphabooks so she can kiss the dog, pet the dog, and sign dog to the dog. Then she runs at Morgan and shows her the dog. They both also have to put Morgan in her cage when we go somewhere and have to let her out when we get home. And heaven forbid if you don't get to the door fast enough to let Morgan in from outside. They will both tell you about it until you open the door for Morgan. What's it going to be like when they really start talking????



Anyway, back to yesterdays events...
After the kiddos afternoon nap we went up to Mimi and PawPaw's to visit with everyone and go for dinner. Jill has definitely found a new friend in Kaitlyn, and the cheetah that holds her MP3 player. They were listening to "Funkytown" by the Chipmunks and shaking their groove thangs if you will. Aaron spent most of the time "cutting the grass" with his lawn mower that he got from Uncle Michael, Auntie Sandi and Kaitlyn.

We went to Olive Garden for dinner last night, and to my surprise the kids ate the chicken tenders, as well as their weight in Nilla wafers and garlic (yay) breadsticks. I hadn't been to this Olive Garden yet, it just opened a few months ago. It's nice to have a new restaurant in our area. Most of them are where all the tourists are, which makes it near impossible to get it, especially in the summer, unless of course you would like to have dinner at 3:30.

Not too sure what our plans are for today, it's going to depend on the weather. And don't worry Mom, my thanksgiving Thursday is coming later :)

Here's some photos and video from our afternoon...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com