Why There Are Tiny Capsules of Spit in my Freezer.

We spent a few hours last Thursday at the Discovery Center in Springfield. It's a wonderful little place, and I highly recommend it for parents of elementary aged children. There are many, many displays, and the workers are actually interested and helpful.

The kids got to run on a gigantic hamster wheel (human wheel?) to generate electricity.

Isolate their own DNA from cheek cells (ie spit. eww.)

And dress up as both Japanese school-children, and Japanese emperors. (There were other countries represented as well, but Japan had the coolest costumes.)

Of course the most exciting thing was drinking out of the toilet. It's the little pleasures in life that bring the most joy.

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

Mim wanted to do "something creative in the kitchen" so I set her to making some hobo stew for lunch. She went through the cans in the cabinet and chose several that she thought would go well together. Zaya helped, but mostly by making faces and switching out the Basil Oregano Diced Tomatoes for Fire-Roasted.

He was also unimpressed with the appearance of creamed corn, going so far as to say that it "looks like barf". I can't completely disagree with that, but I did try to downplay the resemblance.

Here are the ingredients of the T-Kids Hobo Stew:

1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
1 can creamed corn
1 can chicken broth
1 can black beans
1 pint jar green beans
1/2 cup dried pasta
1 shake Italian seasoning
1 shake poultry seasoning
1 shake celery seed
3 shakes smoked paprika
1 shake basil
2 shakes salt
5 turns ground black pepper

It was a big hit. That's probably the most vegetables Zaya has eaten without coercion in a long time. Now I know what to do to add a little nutrients into their diets. No one mentioned barf even once, which I call success.