Eating our Rs

I may have improved a tiny bit with this letter, but not all that much. ;) Truly, I believe God has finally made it clear that I can let go of control and still survive. I do still want to have fun with the rest of the alphabet this summer, though.

During a trip to the Oregon Zoo this week, we all had raisins for snacking. They are easy to throw in the bag, everyone likes them, and as a bonus, they're made from red grapes.

We often have smoothies for breakfast around here, and the kids aren't always aware of what healthy items I include in the blender. Ignorance is bliss, as far as smoothie ingredients go. For instance, I almost always throw in plain Greek yogurt for protein, spinach for vitamins, Ningxia Red juice for immune system boosters, and a variety of frozen fruits. Thursday morning, I made a point of letting them know that there were raspberries in their smoothies, since that was our R food for the day. You would have thought I had told B there was rat poison in his cup. Despite assuring him that he'd had many smoothies with raspberries in the past, he would only succumb to one little drink (insert eye roll here).

I saved the week for him by making Rice Krispie Treats to finish out our R days. I love these sweet treats so much that I could easily devour an entire pan of ooey-gooey goodness in one sitting. Alas, I did share a few with the kids.

Earlier this summer, one of our Ankeny neighbors (Ginger, of the beloved neighbors... Fred and Ginger... no joke) made us a homemade rhubarb pie. None of our children had tried rhubarb before, but they all loved Ginger like a surrogate grandmother, and since it was in pie form, they all tried it. Our oldest proclaimed it to be good (especially with lots of Cool Whip), our middle child declared it to be "eh" and wouldn't have a second piece the next day, and the picky youngest took one bite and said, "yuck." There was not enough Cool Whip in the house to make it edible in his opinion. I decided that since they'd all been brave and tried that, I wouldn't make them try another R food this week.

They are already asking what we're having for S & T this week, but I haven't even thought about it yet!

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*