Holiday Ice Cream

This sounds really gross to me, but they are loving it.
We had some pumpkin ice cream for october time, and now have some peppermint candy cane ice cream for christmas, and Sophie wanted one scoop of pumpkin and one scoop of peppermint. And to top it all off? Sprinkles of course.

Three nights ago I came up with a dinner plan. We never ate dinner together b/c I was still in toddler/infant mode where you try and get them situated and calm in front of food so that you can then eat. Of course, with little babies, you never get to eat while you are feeding them. But I really wanted us to be able to sit down and have dinner together.

Here is the plan.
They now eat on new Corelle dishes we got from freecycle. They are very excited to have "grown up" dishes. I gave away all the plastic plates.
We light taper candles at the table.
We dim the lights.
We put on Ella Fitzgerald music. (Thanks to Ali for this suggestion)
I get all our dinners ready together (mine is nuked and I have fresh salad) and theirs is usually chicken nuggets.
I put some veggies on their plate. (Thanks to Caz for this)
We sit down and say grace and eat together.

We made up a game called the Good Manners game. Each person gets a turn exhibiting either good or bad manners and the others have to guess if the behavior is good or bad manners. Seeing Vivian chew her food with her little lips pursed together as she eats with her mouth closed is priceless! And she is so PROUD of herself!

Tonight's lesson was that if we have to reach across someone's plate, we say , "Please excuse my reach." and "No elbows on the table." Also featured was , "May I be excused please?"
Last night's lesson was "Please pass the salt."

Now they ask if we can light the candles at breakfast!

And after dinner, they each get to blow out one candle. They are becoming pro's at "clearing their plates" meaning taking them to the sink when they are done.