Eating habits, sunshine and misery

Well finally it seems like we are making baby steps in the picky eating habits.  Evan is finally asking to try new foods.  This week he asked to have a taco and said he liked the meat a little, he had a few bites of the meat and ate the hard shell.  He then asked for an additional shell. He tried some lettuce but wasn't a fan of it and told me he would like the meat better without the sauce (taco seasoning).  Tonight he ate pork chops without saying a word.  Now if I could only increase the vegetables, get him to eat cheese, eggs  and a sandwich I would be thrilled. 

He finally is eating ice cream.  This is big because our goal with him is to have him put some weight on.  He is very slim 42lbs and nothing fits.  We finally had to change to zip up, adjustable waist pants and no matter how I adjust them they fall down for his lack of a butt!  Wish I had the same problem.  He has been letting me add butter to his waffles.  We still drink whole milk because he needs the calories.  He isn't a sweet eater and will eat some nutella every day on a wpop (Wegmans rice like cracker).  He rarely asks for candy or cookies.  Although we always have these in the house and I don't restrict them he could care less about them.  He isn't a big chip/snack eater either.  This kid is never hungry.  His favorite vice is lemonade and I buy a gallon of it each week.  All of our friends are very strict with sweets but its not an issue at our house. 

Tonight I attempted a lamb cake in my Grandmothers pan.  I figured it would flop and it didn't so I put a light frosting on it and put it in the freezer.  Hopefully it will be ok if I take it out Saturday and finish decorating it.  Evan loves the homemade frosting I make so he asked for two spoonful's of it. 

Sara has been my tricky eater lately.  She wants to graze all day and then not eat at meal times.  She eats apples, grapes, vegetables as snacks and then doesn't want them at dinner time.  On Friday she didn't snack at all after school and then had 2 grilled cheeses sandwiches and some spaghetti!  If only I could get that to be a habit. 

On Friday I went took the am off and went to the kids school to help with the Catholic Charities carnival.  The aide from last year approached me and told me how much she loves my kids and how they couldn't be more different from one another.  She said she remembered last year when Evan was putting on his boots, coats, and hat and he looked at her and said this is just miserable just absolutely miserable.  She said he always shocked her with his vocabularies and seriousness.  Although two minutes later he was back to a happy kid.  Sara is just a ray of sunshine and has everyone at the school wrapped around her finger.  She blows kisses to her dance teacher who also teaches 2nd grade.  Everyone knows her, I feel like I have a kindergarten politician when I walk in.  She is a happy child even when she is sick she smiles and tells me she loves me after throwing up.  She defiantly has her moments and can have lots of attitude but she is so dramatic and her facial expressions and eyes light up when she is excited. 

Swimmers

We enrolled in the Michael Phelps swim school at the beginning of March.  It is a 40 minute drive from our house but when I read that the pool was 90 degrees it was an easy sale.  Well to make it better Evan and Sara are alone with a teacher.  The class sizes are usually 4 students per teacher but no one else signed up for the time we did.  So Thursdays are tough I get out of school at 3:20 on a normal day and twice a month at 4:20 ( I will sneak out a bit early) so my mom has the kids fed and in their swimsuits ready to go.  The drive up is long and Sara is good if Evan keeps her occupied but once she gets bored I hear I am carsick. 

So the swim lessons are great they have progressed so quickly with only half hour lessons.  We will have 9 weeks of lessons. The kids have had 3 lessons so far and Evan was attempting to swim using strokes last week.  Sara was successfully floating on her back and stomach

.  They can both swim under water but haven't mastered swimming above water yet.  So at this rate I am confident we will have mastered it by the end of the lessons.  After all of the complaining about the car ride.  The kids smile and laugh the entire time in the pool.  We have learned to take our showers there and make a stop for ice cream on the way home.  Last week I said lets stop for lemon ice.  So I introduced the kids to Anderson's my favorite place for lemon ice.  They instantly fell in love with it and asked to go each week.  After both having lemon ice they asked for something to eat.  By then it was 6:30 so I bought them fries and chicken fingers to share.  They asked if we could come back every week.  Its tough to feed them before and leave by 4:15 and not return home until around 6:30 (we usually eat around 5:00-5:15).  So I think this will be our weekly treat.

I recently pulled up my shopper card information at Wegmans and it allows you to see how much you spend each month/year and it was shocking.  So I have really been trying to cut back on how much I purchase and trying to go to Aldi's, Save-a-lot when time permits. Hopefully I can try to be more diligent with this.  I have been trying to cut back the amount we eat out.  Sometimes when its just the kids and I we do it as part of a day out.  We usually have pizza every 1-2 weeks, the kids sometimes split a happy meal with extra fries, and sometimes I pick up chicken fingers at Wegmans.  Occasionally we go out as a family during the weekends.  Marc and I used to go out every weekend with other couples prior to having kids.  Now that happens 2-3 times a year!

This weekend we helped to host a gift gathering party for the school auction.  6 families hosted the party at the school gym.  We had appetizers, drinks, and desserts and invited 90 families.  The party was a complete flop there were only 30 people who came including those who hosted it.  The auction is held every two years and I think the parties were not well organized and many parents were invited to multiple parties.  So I created a bow basket as a donation with school uniform bows and holiday bows and I figure the costs of the party were my other donation.  We also will be attending the auction and that is not inexpensive.