In an attempt to keep our family a little bit healthier, we're going to try going meat-free on Mondays (check out http://www.meatlessmonday.com/). Not only will our arteries thank us, but so will our wallet! Plus, there's the added bonus of Meatless Mondays forcing me to start weekly meal planning again. :-)
I forgot about staying meat-free at lunchtime, and the kids each had a slice of turkey baloney with their lunch of pasta, yogurt, veggies, and fruit. Oops. But I remembered for dinnertime! We had zipper cream peas, white rice (I know, I know, but I hate brown rice!), and spinach sauteed with garlic and mushrooms. YUM.
Doesn't this look delicious? Oliver doesn't like cooked spinach, so he ate a handful of raw leaves instead. :-) 
The kids cleaned their plates, with the exception of a few grains of rice. :-) 
Are you planning on going meat-free on Mondays? 
I saw this Agent P sandwich at Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook blog, and knew I had to make it for Oliver! I'd planned to make it for his first day of preschool (and also make a cute Hello Kitty sandwich for Buttercup), but then I realized that their sandwich boxes would be resting vertically, not horizontally, on the shelf all morning and all of the pieces would fall off unless I secured them with duct tape. ;-)
So, I made them both Agent P sandwiches for dinner one afternoon with Buttercup helping me. (I gave her the choice of making a Hello Kitty sandwich for herself, but of course she wanted hers to match her big brother's!) The faces were recognizable, but my sandwiches didn't come out nearly as well as Susan's, ha ha!
I guess I didn't do too badly with Oliver's (on the right), but Buttercup's really doesn't look much like Agent P. She still liked it though! 
This week Oliver and I did another easy and fun science experiment! This one teaches about capillary action and the way plants "drink" water. I think probably all of us have either done or seen the end result of this experiment at one point in our lives. :-)
You'll need a tall glass or vase, water, food coloring, and either a celery stalk with leaves attached or a carnation.
Fill the glass or vase with water, then add a few drops of food coloring.
Oliver colored the "before" picture in the book: 
Then he put the celery stalk in the vase of colored water and we set it aside for the night. I asked him what his prediction was for this experiment, and he said, "The celery will soak up all of the water and EXPLODE, with osmosis!" Ha ha ha! That's not exactly what ended up happening this time, but it's cute that he was really was paying attention to the gummy bear experiment last week. :-) 
The next morning, we saw the end result -- celery leaves tinged with blue, showing how the water molecules were carried upward. Pretty neat! 
Oliver has really been interested in science experiments for a while, so I picked up a book of 2nd grade science experiments from the dollar bin at Target. What I like about the book is that the experiments are all really easy and use things that you have around the house, and there's a detailed explanation of each experiment (because I don't remember all of that stuff!). We did the first experiment this week. It was a lot of fun, and Oliver loved it!
The experiment teaches about osmosis, using a gummy bear and a small cup of water. First, we measured the gummy bear, and Oliver traced it.
Then we put the gummy bear in a small container and added water to soak overnight. I asked Oliver what his prediction was, and he said that he thought it would get "bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER, until it EXPLODES!" Lol.
He was right, it did get bigger! It grew about 1/2 an inch in width and 1 inch in length. And it was really slimy and neither of the kids wanted to touch it, but they liked watching it jiggle (like Jell-O) in the container.
Looking forward to the next one!
Today is Oliver and Buttercup's first day of preschool! This is Oliver's second year, and Buttercup's first. Buttercup was very, very, very, very, very, very, very excited this morning! She could hardly wait and asked me every 5 minutes if it was time to leave yet, ha ha. Oliver was much less excited, but still looking forward to seeing his friends again. :-)
I surprised Buttercup with her new lunchbag this morning (it matches her pink mouse backpack), and she was so happy when she saw it. At first I thought she wouldn't like it, but words cannot describe how thrilled she was to have a big girl lunchbag. :-)
Here are some pictures of my cuties before we left. I hope they have a great day!!
