Posts Tagged ‘food’
We were in Nashville over the weekend. And by we, I mean my mom, the girls and me. Brent stayed behind to study his little heart out for his tests this week and next. We were in Nashville because I attended the Blissdom Conference (I mentioned that last week) where I was inspired by amazing speakers and other bloggers.
After the conference ended on Saturday, I grabbed a sleeping Sammi, a hungry Elli and my poor bleary-eyed mom and headed over to the Rainforest Cafe. I was probably the most excited to eat there of the group. You see, we watch Curious George. He’s my favorite of all the cartoons. At the end of the show it shows the ads from the sponsors. Rainforest Cafe is one of Curious George’s sponsors here in Tennessee. I’ve seen those commercials for months now and had no idea where there was a Rainforest Cafe and so hadn’t really pursued it. But when I booked our hotel room at the lovely Gaylord Opryland Hotel, the gal told me about the Rainforest Cafe and how close it was to the hotel. The anticipation set in.
We called ahead and made a reservation (our time was 7:43 precisely, though they were forgiving when we were a few minutes late.) When we arrived, we were blown away by how well decorated the restaurant/store front was. We were transported into the rain forest. While we waited for my mom, who parked the car for us, Sammi saw a large snake wrapped around a huge tree branch and asked, with a note of worry in her voice, if that snake was going to get out of the tree. I explained that it was a toy snake that could move like how her train moved.
That conversation ended up being a theme throughout the restaurant. There were mechanical animals everywhere! Our table was fairly close to the elephants and on the other end of the restaurant there were gorillas. Elli was a bit frightened the first time we saw the elephants move, but I explained they were just toys and not real animals and that seemed to calm her down. Evey time they moved, I’d just say “toys” and it would help her remember. By the end of dinner, they were really comfortable with everything and wanted to explore. We walked around and touched the elephants and gorillas and climbed up on every chair we could to look at the fish tanks. Sami loves seeing “Dory” from Finding Nemo.
The food was delicious, but a bit pricey. It seemed like a lot of people there were celebrating birthdays. I’d probably only be able to justify the cost again if it were a birthday. They do have the killer volcano dessert that I’ll save room for next time. It’s ice cream inside walls of chocolate with a sparkler on top. Fun! Our server was fantastic and even brought the girls balloons. Those balloons even made it home to show off to Daddy.
But my favorite part was when we left the restaurant. At the bar, the bar stools are the bottom half of animals, complete with tails. We had to jump up on a few and take pictures. I adore giraffes and Sammi has always like tigers. We’re still discovering Elli’s favorite animal.
What’s your little ones’ favorite animals?
I love this time of year! It’s so fun to decorate for Christmas: putting up the tree with lights and ornaments, setting out nativity scenes, strategically placing snowmen and Santas throughout the house. We are having a blast! So far, our tree is lit but without ornaments. It may stay this way… I have several nativity sets that I love, but trying to keep little figurines away from little hands has proved difficult!
One activity that I enjoy but we haven’t done regularly is the make gingerbread houses. I posted back in October some Monster Houses that we made from Make and Takes eBook and mentioned a recipe I found that I liked for turning frosting into the glue that holds the house and its decorations together. Since I was thinking about it again, I thought I’d share my version of the recipe.
Frosting for Gingerbread Houses
In a bowl, beat until stiff peaks form
-3 egg whites
-2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
Add 1 pound powdered sugar a little at a time until all is mixed in smoothly
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla
You may need to add more powdered sugar so that the frosting is stiff. It should be able to hold gingerbread houses together fairly easily. Plus it’s amazing for sticking heavy pieces of candy to the sides of your house.
Happy decorating!
Don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a VTech Ride and Learn Giraffe Bike.
The standard education parents get about how much their children should eat goes something like this: “They will eat until they’re full.” So, based on that I kept giving my oldest food as long as she kept eating. After her third or fourth helping I started to wonder if she’d ever get full! She has also consistently been in the 99th percentile for weight (and, fortunately the 95-98th percentile for height) so I’ve had to re-evaluate the standard education because my daughter is not standard. She’s a bottomless pit!
All day long she asks, “Can I have a snack?” I seriously regret ever using the word snack in the first place. Although I’m sure something else would have taken its place. So I am constantly trying to create ways to lengthen snack time and choose snacks that are filling but lower in calories. Here are some solutions that have worked for us and are quite fun, too!
To lengthen snack time I look for ways to prolong the eating. This gives her tummy a chance to tell her brain she’s full. I keep anything that has small sections, like an egg carton. I cut it down so it only has 4 or 6 sections. Then I put a couple of each snack into a compartment. For example, I put 2-3 grapes in one, 2 pretzels in another, her chewable vitamins in a third, 3-4 dried blueberries in the fourth. She gets really excited watching me put the snack tray together. Then we sit down at the table and visit as she eats. I ask her questions and help her remember to swallow before talking. We talk about what she’ll choose next, what she likes most, what color the snacks are, how many are in each, how many different snacks, etc.
Sammi’s all-time favorite, though, is Easter egg hunting. The Easter eggs from last year have been a regular toy around our house. I fill each egg with just 2 of a snack. Then I hide the eggs around the room, give Sammi a basket and let her find them. If I really want to drag it out, I only let her eat one egg then we hide them all again. We continue hiding/finding until either she’s bored or the eggs are all empty. While this is a ton more work and I don’t always feel like it, it has been a great way to slow down her eating and get her moving in the meantime.
Here’s to fun, healthy snack times everywhere!
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