Working for the Weekend

This weekend was one of those weekends that is so filled with fun and activities that you are left on Sunday night trying to catch your breath and wondering where the time went.  We went non-stop from the time we woke up on Saturday morning until we went to bed Sunday night. 


This weekend was the annual Battle of Plattsburgh event that our town hosts to remember the famous battle that happened here in 1814.  Each year, they have games, activities, reenactments, and music that lasts through the weekend.  We look forward to it each year.

So, we filled our weekend with Battle of Plattsburgh activities. 


We ate ice cream downtown while enjoying the festivities.



We marched in a parade.






Right before he fell asleep

 It was Amelia's first time in a parade.  It was Ben's  first time too, but I'm not counting it since he slept through the entire thing...in his stroller...while we walked behind a high school marching band.  Seriously, who is this kid?


We played old time children's games at the Children's Village Fair.



Amelia loves Little House on the Prairie. 
This is her "Mary" dress.



We ate our last Italian ice of the season (well, I didn't eat any...).

      

The Battle of Plattsburgh took up a lot of our weekend, but we also had other things to do.

The kids had karate and swimming lessons.

(There are no pictures of Ben's swimming lesson because I was in the water with him)

We visited a co-workers farm where we held baby chicks and fed goats and sheep.

Amelia attended a friend's birthday party at an indoor waterpark and finally conquered her fear of the waterslide.

It was crazy and chaotic, and sometimes even frustrating, but it was also a really good weekend.  We may be tired and behind on the laundry and cleaning, but we are all starting the week with smiles on our faces and the memories of the past two days.  That's really what life is about.

In the midst of the crazy weekend, I was able to stick with the CFC.  I ate a lot of fruits and vegetables and whole grains.  I avoided all of the junky snacks at the Battle of Plattsburgh celebration, including two of my favorites...fried bread dough and poutine.  For those of you who don't live directly below Canada like I do, poutine is an incredible dish comprised of hand cut french fries, cheese curds and gravy.  It's basically a heart attack in a dish.  It doesn't sound very appealing, but trust me when I say it is amazing.  I think I'm going to create my own "healthified" poutine to eat once the challenge is over.  If I'm successful, I'll post the recipe here.

The one area that I didn't do well with was my water consumption.  I didn't drink my 120 ounces each day, so I'm trying to be more diligent about it this week.  I'm not going to list my meals for you because they were basically repeats of what I have been eating all week, but I do have one meal that I'm going to highlight.  On Sunday night, I made myself this for dinner. 

It was fabulous.  The burger is a Sunshine Burger, which I decided was OK to eat as part of the clean food challenge because it contains only whole, real ingredients.  I made green bean "fries" by roasting them in the oven at 425 for about 20 mins.  I'm telling you, these are good!  I drizzled some sriracha on to for a little heat, topped the burger with avocado and tomato, and dug in.  YUM!  Who says clean food challenges actually have to be challenging? 

In the chaos of the weekend, I was also able to get in a long run.  I did 9 miles with some women from work on Sunday morning and it felt great.  The sluggishness I experienced on my previous run was gone, and I felt like I could run forever.  My legs felt great, my lungs felt great, and my mind felt great.  I don't know if it is the fact that I have less chemicals in my system or if I was just having a good running day, but I had a really good time.

I planned to talk about my exercise goals and future fitness plans, but this post is too long already.  I think I'll save that topic for tomorrow or the next day.  I hope your weekends were filled with fun and excitement like mine.  If not, there's always next weekend.