It's All in the Presentation

The same smoothie these kids rejected in the morning because they "didn't like it" was eagerly gobbled up that afternoon after I froze it into popsicles.

I've found the importance of presentation to be especially true when dealing with children. After I tried sneaking kale and spinach into some of our smoothies, our kids have become wary of the term "smoothie." They will eat them sometimes, but they don't jump at the chance as quickly or consistently as I would like. Half the time, they don't like it and I end up drinking everyone's smoothies myself (this is usually when I try to sneak in a little extra nutrients by adding flax seed or something). The other half, they love it and I don't have enough to go around.

The younger they are, though, the easier it is to persuade them to like something. For Charlie, I call my berry smoothies a "banana-berry milkshake," and he will drink it down much more willingly than if I just call it a smoothie.

Frankie loves them every time. The only problem with him is that he really likes to play with his food. Half the time, he dumps his smoothie into his lap and starts rubbing it into his legs so he ends up with red legs covered in stuck-on raspberry seeds.

A trip to the cities

We had tickets to a children's theater in the cities so we decided to make a weekend of it with the kids. We went to the play - "Stone Soup" - which all the kids loved. Even Frankie sat through the whole performance. We also went to the MN Zoo and the Science Museum.

A few days before we left, Sam asked if we could have "that stuff" we had in Germany again. After a bit of explaining, I figured out that he was referring to shawarma that we bought from a street vendor. We decided to take the kids to the Mediterranean Café, a Greek restaurant that we used to go to when we lived up there. Knowing they sometimes have belly dancers, we decided to go at lunch, thinking the wouldn't have belly dancers on a weekday at noon. Not that we have anything against belly dancers, we just didn't know if we wanted to intentionally bring our young children to watch a woman gyrating around a stage.

Turns out we were wrong about them not having belly dancers at lunch. Not only did they have one, she came over and invited the kids to come up for a belly dancing lesson, which was very entertaining. Charlie was a little unsure so he didn't go up, and Frankie just stared and stared. Sam and Elena had a lot of fun, though.

"Fish!!" (or as Frankie says it, "Shish! Shish!") Frankie loves fish and is constantly asking to go over to his cousins' house next door where they have a mounted fish he can see or to re-watch an episode of Mr. Rogers where he goes snorkeling again and again. So he was pretty excited at the giant aquarium. I think he would have stayed there all day if we let him.

with one of the cast members of the play

Conversations in the car

Charlie: Debbie, sing along with this song.

Debbie: I can't.

Me: She probably doesn't know it because it's a song from the 80's.

Sam: They had songs in the 80's???!!!

6 girls playing in Elena's room with 4 kittens.

4 boys playing "Roblox" in Sam's room. I don't know what that is but it involved a lot of jumping, yelling and testosterone-inspired-noises.

1 boy crying, screaming and arguing for 1/2 and hour because I wouldn't let him drink a can of Mountain Dew he somehow got his hands on at the neighbor's or somewhere.

And 1 toddler downstairs with me who is only happy if he is making me mad - he's at that developmental stage where he misbehaves on purpose and watches for my reaction.....He has spent the entire morning going back and forth between yanking on the cats fur/hair/tail as hard as he can (she's too kind to bite him although I wish she would), climbing on the dining room table to take a swing at our 130 year old chandelier, trying to spread yogurt and other foods on my laptop keyboard, unfolding the laundry I'm trying to fold, then laughing in my face when I tell him to stop any of the above, and crying miserably when I make him stop.

This has not been the most productive day.

It's Here!

The winters here may be long and cold, but boy do we enjoy our summers! And here's the proof.