Valentine's Cereal

I make waffles, pancakes, milkshakes, muffins, oatmeal and homemade cinnamon buns every weekday morning. I mix it up each day...keeping it fresh and exciting. On the weekends...out comes the beloved box of cereal. The kids rush from their beds and race down stairs to the food storage room to pick which box they will get. Artificial ingredients and artificial colouring pulls them from their warm sleeping beds and my made-from-scratch with a little love added to each recipe brings out the "this again?". Okay, sometimes I hide nutritious ingredients in those tasty homemade items so that my kids will receive the odd vitamin, mineral some omega 3 here and there...but I do it with stealth-like skills hidden so deep not even a top secret double agent could discover it.

Today is a celebration - it's "Almost Valentine's Day"...why so early? It feels like Valentines because they will celebrate it at school. I will do a little red decor fun, bake some scrumptious red velvet homemade cupcakes with pink lemonade and of course it is a special holiday so out comes the cereal. What will they say when they come down the stairs for breakfast this morning? "Hey cool, we're having cereal...on a weekday!" I don't know what it is about high fructose corn syrup and food colouring that brings out the squeals in my apparently deprived children...go figure.

A Little Lesson:
Looking beyond my children's unappreciation for homemade cooking, this particular holiday is one that makes us all smile around here. Clara is over the moon. Emily gets really excited. Jordan has moved out of really excited, visited "that's only for little kids", and has moved into hey cool I got all my friends Dora valentines cards..they'll love it. I, on the other hand am counting the minutes until the fancy surprise date I'm takin my man on tomorrow night...