I've been trying something new lately, and so far it's working. I bought a bar caddy from a restaurant supply store. Usually, they are used in bars to hold the garnish that goes on/in the drink before it's served...you know, like the cherry, olive, celery, stuff like that. I cut up celery and strawberries, and put them in it along with baby carrots and grapes. I then told the kids that they are welcome to eat as much of the food in the caddy as they like, whenever they want. I also got a water filter thingy that has a little spicket thing on it, so that they can get water whenever they want. It has worked well so far. The kids are eating more healthy snacks and drinking lots of water. The downside is that they are also opening and closing the refrigerator a lot, using a LOT more cups, and spilling a LOT more water. Overall, though, I'm happy with the outcome. Now let's just hope it stays that way!

An experiment that has not gone so well, so far, is my decision to make a pinata instead of buying one for Taryn's birthday party this weekend. I made a castle shape out of poster board. Not bad. Then, today I was going to paper mache it with the kids. Yeah, it was messy and gooey, something I was not looking forward to, but that I thought they'd love. Apparently, not even Taryn, the messiest little girl in the world, wanted to mess with getting goo on her hands! I ended up doing the whole thing myself. So far, it looks alright, but it's not quite dry yet. Tomorrow I have to do the bottom, and once it's dry we can paint it. That seems to be the only part the kids want anything to do with. I guess we'll see how it turns out. I had to put the candy in before I finished putting it together, and I think it might be too heavy to actually hang up...so it might just end up being a center piece for the table!

I had pics of this stuff, but I can't get my computer to download them, so you don't get to see. I know you're very upset. Oh, here, here's a picture of the bar caddy. Now that should make everything better.