{picnic}

I think we discovered how to get toddlers to clean their plates -- put the food on the floor and have no restrictions!  We had a picnic playdate yesterday and because of the weather (see previous post) we had to bring our picnic inside.  That didn't bother the girls one bit!  Millie and Merrill couldn't even wait to dig in until our friends arrived -- food on the floor was just too tempting.  You would have thought they had 1) never seen a fruit, vegetable or legume before and 2) had not eaten for a month :).  Between the three girls, they took out a pint of cherry tomatoes, a pint of blueberries, almost a whole carton of strawberries, a carton of raspberries, one and a half butternut squash, nearly a bag of frozen green beans, almost a can of chickpeas, and almost a can of black beans -- not to mention the food April and Malia brought!  Needless to say, I did not have to cook dinner for the girls Friday night :). 

even Scott got to take a break from work and get in on the fun.  Merrill really enjoyed the process of serving herself food from the various plates and bowls more than anything else :)

oh yeah, and then we baked cookies!

going back for the second round where they polished most everything off -- Millie declared it her dinner (even though it was only 3:30... ) I was okay with that!