Yes.

:iagree: This is totally something my daughter (who is going to be 6 in June) would do too! ;)

Thanks for the insight on how this is working out for you. I just ordered SOTW 1 with the AG for my rising 1st grader.

PLEASE don't simmer pumpkin puree. That seriously sounds like torture. I don't foresee us going vegan anytime soon, but we are doing okay on the vegetarian front. My daughter told my mom the other day "I'm a vegetarian now. I just eat chicken sometimes." :lol: My dh and I don't eat dairy, but the kids love yogurt and cheese and my dd insists on cow milk (which we get from a local dairy. She loves the glass container). Our fridge has every milk in the book right now --- rice, soy, almond, coconut, and cow. I haven't eliminated eggs (I'm baby stepping this whole process. We're using organic cage free in the interim), but here is a vegan egg substitute I've tried that I got at the health food store that worked well. For baking recipes, I sub in almond or rice milk instead of cow milk, and Earth Balance spread instead of butter. For breakfast here we eat cereal, bagels, oatmeal, pancakes, omelets, and scrambled eggs. Most mornings I eat oatmeal with some fruit on top. For lunch we eat either previous night leftovers, PB&J, hummus and pita with veggies and dip, or soup. We usually have some cut up fruit with it. For dinners I have been combing library books frantically for stuff that looks decent. We have had a few hits (e.g. my previous post on this thread) and a lot of misses. I made some chickpea crepes stuffed with rosemary veggies two nights ago that were quite frankly barely edible. My dh was kind and said "It tastes good if you put a lot of soy sauce on it." Needless to say, I won't be making that again. I think if we can just build up a repetoire of knock offs of stuff our families like, we might be in the money. :D I'll PM you if I find any other tasty recipes as I go along.

I used the old version of the Fuzzi Bunz hanging diaper pail for five years. Here's a link to their new one. My dh installed a kitchen sprayer on the side of our toilet. I would spray off any poop, shake out the insert into the bag, and then throw the diaper in. Then, when I was ready to laundry, I just turned the whole bag inside out into the washing machine and then threw the bag in with the diapers. It worked like a charm. I loved it. And no worries about having a wet plastic pail hanging around. I washed a load of diapers every other day though. I wouldn't let it go much longer or you would have some stink to contend with.

Eating Animals just turned our house veg too. I found a fantastic eggplant "meatball" recipe in the cookbook Totally Vegetarian. It was seriously so good that I didn't miss the meat at all. Another hit has been the meatless loaf recipe out of Linda McCartney's cookbook. We love shepherd's pie here and I successfully swapped lentils in the place of ground turkey and their were no complaints. I'm struggling to find recipes that aren't too hard that everyone will eat too. You're not alone.

My five year old just informed me she wants to be She-ra for Halloween (we checked out some old episodes on DVD from the library). I think it would be a fairly easy costume to make. You could just do like a short white dress with gold accents (you wouldn't want a 4 year old wearing that crazy costume anyway, right? ;)) with the crown and the sword---voila! And I'm sure you could find some stuff on eBay, but it's probably going to be pricey.

JCPenney. I just bought my daughter her flower girl dress there for my sister's wedding. The dresses there are appropriate, pretty high quality, and reasonably priced. After a coupon, we paid under $30 for a really expensive looking dress. Now's a good time to buy because all the Easter dresses are out.

:grouphug: Oh my goodness! Your poor friend. I'm so excited that the baby is okay, but how precarious is the situation with her health? I'm assuming she's still hospitalized?

:grouphug: I am so sorry...and now I feel stupid that I spent time locked in the bathroom crying yesterday because my daughter needs to see a pediatric dentist since she has two severely decayed teeth. Maybe I should be happy that she hasn't pulled them out. Eek! :tongue_smilie:

We do a lot of leftovers here too. If not leftovers, it's usually PB&J, grilled cheese, or hummus and pita with veggies and dip and a piece of fruit. There's usually yogurt mixed in there somewhere.

When my daughter was 2 she liked Gwen Stefani (the musician) who was going through a fashion phase of wearing black and white stripes. My daughter called her "Woo Hoo" (I think because her song "The Sweet Escape" has Akon in the background singing "woo hoo"). Anyway---this story is getting longer than I thought ;) --- she was with me in Victoria's Secret one day and suddenly she grabbed a pair of black white striped underwear and threw her arm up in the air and yelled, "Mommy, you need to buy these woo hoo panties!" I bought them. :D

The new Nancy Drew books aren't too bad. I'm in the same boat as you. My daughter LOVES Magic Treehouse and I'd like to find some other books that are similar. Unfortunately, she also really enjoys is the Fairy series by Daisy Meadows. There's nothing objectionable in them, but it's just the exact same plot with a different fairy every time. Can you believe this woman concocted a a book called "Mia the Bridesmaid Fairy"? :glare: I'm so relieved that she can now read those books to herself!

I know Angela blogged with photos for a while at http://www.satorismiles.com I'm planning on doing it this summer so I'll probably have some on my blog by June. ;)

We just converted to vegetarianism in our house. I suggest going to the library and checking out some vegetarian and vegan cookbooks with her to try out some recipes as a family. I found a keeper for vegetarian loaf (it's like meatloaf but without meat) in one of Linda McCartney's cookbooks. The best thing we've tried so far were meatballs (for spaghetti and meatballs) that were made with eggplant from the cookbook Totally Vegetarian. They even got the thumbs up from our 3 year old (and he's super picky!). Another cookbook that's good is The Occasional Vegetarian which has both vegetarian and meat dishes in it. Vegan Lunchbox is good for lunch menus. In the meantime to get more protein, encourage her to try eating hummus with pita and veggies as a snack. Nuts and nut butter also have protein so she could spread that on a rice cake or a bagel.