Paleo and Dinosaurs

We've decided to go Paleo for a while. If you're new to the term (I finally decided to figure out what all the fuss was about a few weeks ago) it means we're going grain/processed food free. We're going to do it for 30 days and see how we feel. After that we'll add some grains back in slowly. Sam has stated firmly that he can't do this for the rest of his life because he would miss cereal too much. I told him I would make him some Paleo approved granola. That didn't make him feel much better haha! Around the time that I had decided I wanted Sam and I to do it I started thinking about all the tummy aches Kaydence gets. And lately it seemed like they wouldn't eat anything but goldfish, animal crackers, and fruit snacks. I don't want my kids to grow up like that, I know I did and there isn't anything wrong with that. I want them to learn how to eat healthy at a young age with things like fruit snacks being a treat, not a snack. I guess I just want them to have a taste for healthy foods, and not chips. Like my awesome brother in law Jason. At first I thought it was crazy (in a good way) that he didn't eat a lot of the things I love to eat. I guess I am crazy now too.

Honestly I thought making this change was going to be really hard on the kids. You wouldn't believe how easy it was. I got a book on my iPad called Eat like a Dinosaur: Recipe & Guidebook for Gluten-free Kids written by The Paleo Parents.  It includes over 100 kid-approved recipes & projects free of grains, dairy & legumes. It includes cookies and things like that for occasional treats. Healthy cookies. There is a chapter for the parents, and then there is one for the kids. We read it for bedtime. Before we started I told them how excited I was about this cool book. If I am excited they usually are too. Happiness is infectious :) We read the book together and I asked Kaydence if she would help us to be better eaters. I told her that it was her job to make sure Mommy and Daddy didn't drink sodas anymore. (I'm still in mourning over the loss of my Diet Coke) Surprisingly the only thing she was sad about not having anymore are her soft crackers. Ritz crackers to the rest of the world. So I told her that we could still have things like that, but only as a very special treat. After that it was smooth sailing.

I also suggested that we learn about dinosaurs (again) this week since we are now going to eat like dinosaurs. Kaydence and Nolan both LOVED the times we have learned about dinosaurs in the past. When Ashley came over Monday morning we talked to her about the changes we have made too. She's having a little harder of a time about the lack of fruit snacks and animal crackers that I used to have. But  she has been happy to have apples and strawberries as snacks, so it's all good. Yesterday when we went to the pool instead of bringing bags of goldfish I packed strawberries, oranges, and cucumbers. We didn't last very long at the pool (the water was freezing and it was windy) but all of the snacks were gone before we left.


We went to grandma and grandpas new house this weekend. There is a spot with access to this little river right by them so we hiked down and played in the water. We found lots of frogs, a crawfish, and best of all these shell fossils! Kaydence helped me collect some of the ones we saw. (there was a ton)
I got them out on Monday and we looked at them and talked about where fossils come from. We read some dinosaur books and I gave them a magnifying glass to look at the fossils with.

Then we colored pictures from Nolan's dinosaur coloring book. I found a picture of a carnivore and herbivore and we talked about what they eat. They colored them and we talked about what a paleontologist is. I told them we are going to be paleontologists this week. I asked if that sounded fun and they all said yes! Ashley wasn't too sure about it though, she said dinosaurs are for boys. Once she saw that Kaydence was excited she decided it was okay to think dinosaurs are cool too. 

Doesn't that look delicious? I wish I had more, but I destroyed it. For lunch yesterday I told them I was making special noodles and meat for them. Ashley was very curious and came into the kitchen to watch me. I browned the steak bits and used a vegetable peeler to cut thin strips from carrots and zucchini. That was the "noodle"in my stir fry. I sliced an onion too. I tossed in some garlic, pepper, red pepper flakes, and ginger. I drizzled a little bit of soy sauce. (I realize that is not "paleo" but I still have a lot left and I hate to waste it.) It was SO good. Ashley ate two helping plus the fruit I gave them as a side. Kaydence and Nolan didn't eat as much, but they still ate their fair share. I ate all of the left overs for a snack in the afternoon.

Sleeping beauties. Completely worn out. This was a rare day when Kaydence actually took a nap. It was magical.

I hid some "dinosaur bones" on this page for them. I drew dinosaur bones with a white crayon and they painted over it to discover them. Not the best dinosaur bones you will ever see drawn, but they don't care. We gave them their own dinosaur names. Ashley wanted hers to be called the Ashley-o-saurus. Nolan was the Bubba-saurus-rex and Kaydence just wanted hers to be a T-Rex. 

I also got this awesome game for the iPad, the dinosaur zoo. It's cool just because of all the dinosaurs. Each one is different and when you touch it they do different things. The T-Rex growls and eventually roars at you. But there is one dinosaur that takes the cake, I won't spoil the surprise in case you get it, but one of the dinosaurs farts and poops when you touch it. You might be reading this and think, "Well, that's stupid." In fact its the greatest farting dinosaur ever! My kids think it's hilarious. Okay, so do I. Right about the time they were ready to stop playing the pooping dinosaur came along. Nolan walks around the house asking for dinosaur poop now. 

"I see saursaur poop?"