Yesterday I made Spencer a lunchable for lunch. He loves lunchables and although they are cheap, I'm not a fan of their unnatural-ness. So I went to the Macey's deli counter and got a pound of ham and a pound of turkey--each cut into 2 thick slices--half a pound a slice. Then I used my cute mini-cutters to cut out 3 cute shapes of each meat to put in his lunchbox. Then I sliced up some real Tillamook cheddar cheese and put in a baggie of yummy, wheat crackers. For fun I even slipped in a mini-chocolate bar from the Halloween pass-out bag. Since I was making one for Spencer I decided to make one for Tessa as well. Between the 2 of them I used about 1/4 pound of each meat. All the leftover little pieces in between the shapes of meat I cut up and put in another container for Clara to eat. Along with a lot of cheese as anything made from cow milk is on her most favorite food list.
Thursday was such a nice day and I already had Tessa and Clara's lunches made, so I filled up their water bottles and brought the lunches with me to pick Tessa up from school. Straight from school I drove out to a park and we had a little picnic and played on the playground for about an hour or so. It was a fun afternoon.
Spencer has a little friend from kindergarten (he's at a different elementary school for 1st grade than he was in last year) who he's gotten along with better than anybody else so we've continued to get together for playdates every couple weeks or so. Turns out both boys are a bit apprehensive about riding a bike. We got Spencer a Cars tricycle when he was little but he was tall enough to reach the ground and never bothered to learn to pedal, he'd just walk it around. Then we moved him up to a scooter. I had decided to go straight with the 2-wheeled one rather than the 3-wheeled as I felt he was big enough to figure it out. The first year he REFUSED to ride it without me holding onto the handle bars. We do live on a bit of a hill and our driveway is on a little incline as well. But even at Classic Skating he made me hold on. The next year he got a little better where he'd push off and go on his own on flat ground or our slight incline driveway headed to the lawn as security. This is the year we also got him a bike with training wheels. Which he REFUSED to do anything other than sit on. I'm not a pushy person so I would keep suggesting and bribing which didn't do much. Brodie's pushier but not around as often. This year he is amazing and fearless on his scooter. He got a skateboard this year but is a bit hesitant about that. And I've got him on the bike a few times this summer but he makes me hold onto the handlebars. Even with training wheels! Of course now with 3 kids I haven't taken him anywhere flat with his bike and he is scared of the feeling of slipping backwards. Anyway, finding out his friend was also having a hard time on the bike we decided to have playdate together at Lone Peak Park to get the boys to encourage each other on their bikes.
Tessa brought her 3 wheeled scooter and her tricycle (that SHE pedals great), both of which she is very competent on. I brought Clara's push-car. I brought Spencer's bike and scooter but told him he couldn't have his scooter until he showed me how well he could ride his bike. He actually did quite well on flat ground. But he doesn't like to pedal. Now I wish I had made him pedal his tricycle. If I would push his bike at first he'd keep pedaling, but he didn't like to start from a dead stop. His friend was fine pedaling, but his dad had removed his training wheels and he was working on the balance fears. I'm thinking I'll make the effort to get Spencer on flat ground a few more times and then remove his training wheels next spring.
In addition to bike riding the kids had fun at the 2 playgrounds. And we made them ride in between the two playgrounds. We also had them ride down the small grass hill, which they enjoyed. After a couple hours I realized I hadn't even thought about sunscreen. Oops. When we got home they rode scooters on the driveway for a while, enjoying the weather that was actually making me sweat. So I figured we might as well have popsicles. Seriously, popsicles in October! I thought it was so funny that I took a picture of the kids eating popsicles by the pumpkins on our porch.
My kids love lunchables too, but I feel the same way about the unnatural-ness of them. I only let my kids eat hot lunch twice a week because it's so expensive, so they have to take a cold lunch and a lunchable is one of their favorites. Sometimes I just cut the meat into squares, but they really like it when I break out the "fancy" cutters.
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