Halloween Cookie Decorating Party

It is really funny how fast things can get out of hand. When the girls came home from Texas on Sunday, I had Halloween sugar cookies waiting for them. This led Elaina to ask if we could bake and decorate cookies next weekend. Sounded like a plan, one that would be fun and fairly easy. While we were eating on the patio on Monday, my neighbor let me know that this was going to be their last weekend in Arizona before the Army shipped his family to Italy for three years, so it seemed right to invite them over for some cookies (and because their household goods are already packed up, their house is pretty much empty). As we were leaving for school, the girls spotted our other neighbor (whose son is in Elaina’s kindergarten class) and begged that they could come too. It still seemed to be manageable, so I did and they accepted. Elaina then told her best friend at school that she was having a cookie party, after which her friend begged to be invited. After I told Elaina that we could do that the Saturday after, her friend wrote a handwritten card to Elaina asking to please come to her cookie party. Like I was going to say no after that. So, I started planning for a Halloween cookie decorating party… for 17 (Note: One of the families cancelled the day before, so while it did not change the spread, the event itself was a lot more manageable).

“We lost a lot of good sprinkles today…”

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“Pass on what you have learned:” Taking Yoda’s Advice and Baking a Death Star Cake with my Daughters

So we are a unabashed Star Wars family. I play a Star Wars tabletop miniatures game. Elaina is a huge fan of Rey from the sequel trilogy and continues to ask me when she is getting a lightsaber (Me: “You got one at Disney World.” Her: “No, Dad, a real one.”). And Gabriella enjoys learning her colors, letters, and numbers from Star Wars children’s books, because, why not? Because of this and being a relatively good baker, it was no shocker that my friend’s wife contacted me about a making a Star Wars cake and surprising him with it during his party. But of course, I cannot do anything in our house without being interrupted by two wonderful little girls, so I just let them in on the baking fun. So here goes the Calkins Family’s attempt to bake our very own Death Star.

“I got a bad feeling about this.” (Note: The applicable Star Wars quotes will not end here)

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Making Mealtimes Fun

So my oldest daughter has always been on the petite side. She eats well, but is very active, and never seemed to put on any significant weight. At one point, her pediatrician actually accused her mother and I of not feeding her, which was downright insulting. Eventually she started gaining weight, and compared to my youngest, she is my “good eater.” Now it is Gabby that wants to take her time with dinner, sometimes eating very little. Since she is currently in the middle of her age’s weight percentile and that her sister eventually snapped out of it, I am not terribly concerned. I just wish that they were not grazers and instead ate whole meals with smaller healthy snacks in between (as opposed to the other way around). Again, thankfully, those snacks usually consist of cottage cheese, grapes, strawberries, carrots with hummus, and deli meat, as opposed to just cereal and gummies. Either way, I try my best to make mealtimes fun in the hopes that they will leave the dinner table with both a smile and a full stomach.

Appetizers on the First Trip to the Park

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Cooking and Meal Planning

It may seem like I am quite the prolific writer for a blog that is only two days old, but after being a single Dad for more than 16 months, there is still a lot that my family has gone through that I have yet to post about. I figured the next topic to tackle would be something that single Dads (and single Moms, for that matter) can have some trouble with: Cooking and Meal Planning. Not only can it be a tall order for any parent to find a delicious and nutritious meal that their preschoolers will actually eat, but it adds to the difficultly level when you have to find the time before or after work to prepare and cook this amazing meal.

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