Rainbow supper

We have been talking lately about having a "fruits and vegetables week". All fruits and vegetables, nothing else. We thought of this idea because the kids don't eat vegetables. No, really, at all.

Evan and Laura eat mashed potatoes. Kendra likes mac-a-corn but won't touch corn in any other fashion. That's it. That's the extent of their vegetable eating. I put pureed squash and/or zucchini in a lot of things (and they know it's in there), but that's it for vegetables. Evan will try a bite of other vegetables but usually ends up coughing/gagging and spitting it out. Laura willingly tries a bite of nearly everything now, but she often spits it out and says she doesn't like it. Kendra won't try any food she deems as "new" or "bad", but that's a whole different post that I don't feel like doing.

Fruit is a little better. Kendra likes canned fruit, bananas, and sometimes grapes. Evan would happily live on bananas, grapes, kiwi, clementines, grape tomatoes, apples, raspberries, strawberries, and probably some others I'm forgetting right now. Laura likes bananas, apples, and sometimes canned fruits. Evan will try any fruit. Kendra, again, won't try anything that isn't already a guaranteed like. And Laura is, for some reason, more leary of trying fruits than vegetables.

Chad and I get frustrated.

I had had the fruits-and-vegetables week idea one day last week. I didn't say anything about it to anyone. A day or two later, Chad said, "maybe we should have an all fruits and vegetables week." And, so it was born.

A couple nights later, I had the kids help me make an A to Z list of fruits and vegetables. (They're, surprisingly, ok with this whole idea.)

Yesterday, I got groceries and ended up getting a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables even though we're not ready to start our week yet. So we had a trial run last night.

We had rainbow supper.

We talked about how eating a rainbow of foods is very healthy for you. So everyone had to put something of each color on their plate. The choices were:

Red: grape tomatoes
Orange: carrots and clementines
Yellow: bananas
Green: celery
Blue: blueberries
Purple: grapes
Protein (which isn't a color, but it was a food option): almonds and sunflower seeds (with no shell)
Extras: ranch dressing to dip in, and peanut butter and raisins to put on your celery

How'd it go, you ask?

Well, Evan tried everything except possibly the sunflower seeds. Kendra didn't complain. She also didn't eat, but she didn't complain, so it's still a win. Laura tried everything except the grapes and bananas that she knows she likes (have I mentioned that she's a goofball?).

Evan liked some things, and there were some things he didn't like. Kendra ate a few raisins and one chunk of banana. Laura remembered sunflower seeds, which she hasn't had for a few months, and dove across the table to claim the whole bowl of them as her own. Chad asked how you know when you've had enough to eat at a meal where everything is cut in little chunks and is in 9 different bowls on the table. I enjoyed it but was hungry an hour later, which is when I realized that I didn't eat much since I was busy putting peanut butter on Laura's clementines and telling her she could dip her almonds in ranch dressing.

So, the question is: Do we do a fruits-and-vegetables week? It is very likely that Kendra won't eat anything all week. It would be very expensive. It would be a great opportunity for the kids to get hungry enough to give fruits and vegetables a try. It could be a very long week. What do you say? Yes or no?

Today I said...

...Don't put Tinker Toys in your nose.
...No, I'm not going to look right now. I'm kissing Daddy and that's more important.
...Don't put your feet on your sister's eyes.
...Yes, you can dip your almonds in ranch.
...Yes, I'll put peanut butter on your clementine for you.
...Go ahead and get out the big onesies. You're not sleeping in them tonight; it's too cold. But you can put them on in the morning, and we'll have a baby party.
...I love you. Sleep well. Good night.

Falls down like rain

What makes a girl this happy at 8:10 in the morning?

Mommy complying with her 8:00 should-be-getting-in-the-van-not-starting-on-hair request.

What was the request for how to have her hair today?

"Like rain. I want it to look like rain coming down my head." 

And, yes, even though we started on this at 8:00, we still had Evan to school early and Kendra to preschool by 8:15. Who knew "rain" would be such a quick hairdo!

Flashcards

Last week, we went to Evan's parent-teacher conference. I always enjoy these (Kendra's preschool one was last night), and I like hearing what the teachers have to say.

Evan's kindergarten teacher gave all the parents a packet of papers. It had lists of activities you could do at home, some samples the kid's work, and a set of uppercase, lowercase, and number flashcards.

Last night during supper, I cut out the flashcards, and we played with them while the kids ate.

Silly me, thinking I knew how this would go.

I knew the kids would like it, but I didn't anticipate laughing so much.

Why did flashcards make me laugh, you ask?

Well, because Kendra said this:

was a Pause sign.

And because Laura's response to "what's this letter?"

was "I don't know, but it starts with Kangaroo."

Go color

It's a good day to color,

so go find a friend,

and get to coloring!