March 16th & 17th

The kiss picture was actually from the day before St Patrick's Day. So are these family photos. We did take our March Family Challenge Photo on the cats' birthday, but if you saw the real picture - not one made small enough to post here on the blog - you'd see that it is actually a bit soft. The focus fell on the huggy cats in the foreground, leaving the people a bit out of focus. So, we did a retake quickly on 3.16.

These next 2 shots are actually from Thursday, March 17th. It was Carl's day at school and Gretchen and I went to the Children's Museum for the Pre-school Cooking class. We try to go every week. The museum girl reads the kids a story and then they do a fun cooking snack project. It is usually about 10 little girls there. Gretchen tries to answer every question Mary Ellen asks and then add more commentary. Like today, when they were asked "What day is today?" everyone yelled "St Patrick's Day!" and then Gretchen added, "And it's garbage day, too!" The other mothers laugh, but I hope they don't think she is pushy. Good thing she is so flippin' cute.

So, today, she read a St Pat's story and then the kids made Parfaits. They get to do all the measuring and pouring themselves. The table suffers it's share of messes, but Mary Ellen and her other staff members are so sweet and patient. Most of the kids are younger than Gretchen. They all love the whole process. So, the kids got to scoop out pudding mix, pour that is, pour in milk, stir it... they made vanilla (which they colored green) and chocolate in small individual cups. Then, she gave them all a third cup and the kids layered the puddings along with granola, marshmallows and chocolate cookie crumbs... and topped it with Cool Whip. It was delicious.

On other weeks, we have made a trail type mix, Bone Soup (Halloween version of Stone Soup) and smoothies. We skipped Green Eggs and Ham story week because it was going to be egg salad and she wasn't into that. No problem. Me neither!

Carl hasn't gotten to do any cooking classes because he's always in school on Thursdays - besides - he won't eat sweet things and most of the little snacks involve sweet stuff. On Wednesdays I could bring him up for Science time, but he isn't always interested in the organized things there. I am going to try and get him up there for the next couple because they are musical instrument type things. Gretchen can't wait for the S'mores cooking, too!

So, here are the wee ones on St Patty's Day...