A lovely weekend plus meal plan

Hi friends!

I just had a beautiful weekend with my girls, and although I think I have finally succumbed to the cold that has been threatening to overtake me for the past few days, I'm feeling so happy that we had such a nice time together.

C had her second dance competition yesterday and, in the week leading up to it, had begun to feel nervous again.  I think I mentioned here before in a post that she LOVES LOVES LOVES to dance, and is crazy about her teammates and her teacher, but the stage fright aspect of dance team has been a challenge for her.  When she heard the competition was in New Hampshire she remembered our vacation there a few summers ago, and she asked if her reward for being brave and doing her dance well could be an overnight in a hotel up there.  I thought it sounded like a great idea, so onto hotels.com I went and scored us a good deal.

N had planned to be with Grandma this weekend, and Daddy had to go to a friend's wedding (a good friend, actually, and I'm sorry I had to miss it!) so unfortunately neither of them could be with us, but it was still really great and fun with just the four of us.

L was an AMAZING helper.  She is growing into such a responsible young lady.  She helped me shop for the food, and packed our lunches and snack boxes for Saturday all by herself.  She packed an activity bag for J and kept her entertained most of the morning Saturday while I was helping C get ready at the competition, doing hair, makeup, and costume.  Now that I mention it, I should give a shout-out to J too, who was angelically good despite an early wake-up, a long car ride, and a four-hour wait at the competition.

C ended up not really feeling nervous at all once we arrived.  I expected to have to walk backstage with her and hold her hand and witness her tears like last time, but when the time came she just marched backstage like NBD and danced her dance with a huge smile on her face.  She told me beforehand that her "challenge" was to have fun and she definitely achieved it.

I was just so proud of ALL of them.

{I thought I did a pretty good job on her glamorous eye shadow, don't you think?}

Afterwards we stopped by a Wal-Mart for some hot dogs (C's favorite) and checked into our hotel.  We had a long swim in the pool

(blurry picture but love her happy face! she got her wish!)

J is doing an amazing job swimming all by herself!  Very independent little girl!

After swimming we went back to the room, showered, got in our pjs, warmed up our hot dogs in the microwave in our room, and ate them (along with our packed fruits and veggies) while watching Zathura.  Super fun!

Everybody crashed pretty hard.

...including Mama, not long after the girls fell asleep!

In the morning we enjoyed the free breakfast, and since checkout wasn't until 12 and we were done eating breakfast by 8, we enjoyed some snuggle time in the bed with some Fruit Loops from the breakfast bar and a second cup of coffee for Mama.

Then we loaded up the car and shoved off for home.

I'm taking the night off from singing tonight due to my bad sore throat... hopefully some R&R in my own bed will set me right again.  But I'll take this opportunity of free time at home to meal plan!

Sharing the plan with you here this week, and maybe I'll get back in the habit of a weekly check-in along with my meal plan.  We shall see.

Breakfasts:

steel cut oats in the crockpot

eggs

cereal/oatmeal

popovers

Lunches:

sandwiches/salads

Annie's soups

quesadillas

Suppers:

Teriyaki Salmon with rice and roasted broccoli/carrots

Wild rice with feta, walnuts, raisins, and green onion

quinoa tacos

chicken sausages with cut-up fruits and veggies

snacks:

Cliff bars

fresh fruit

smoothies

homemade popcorn

Have a great week, everybody!