Madeline

We spent last week reading Madeline and pretending we were in France, which was good because we needed all that butter to keep us warm.

The girls loved making these Madeline hats out of paper plates and bowls. So, despite the frigid temps, they needed to dress up as French schoolgirls. They totally look the part, right?

We learned about different landmarks in Paris and tried building our own Eiffel tower with blocks. Since then the girls have been spotting The Eiffel Tower on products everywhere. We also did some fun math with learning about symmetry and the concept of a dozen.

We also got just a little bit obsessed with French cooking. Okay, so maybe that was mostly me, but still. Earlier in the week, Ella appeared at my bedroom door with my new set of Julia Child dvds and said, "Mom, can we?" Over the week, the girls watched most of the poultry section, the desserts, and the breads. And we read "Minette's Feast," a children's book about Julia that Brent bought for me for Christmas. So we decided to try and make some French goodies. We started with madeleines, of course. We didn't have a proper madeleine pan, so according to Julia, they are not proper madeleines. But they were still yummy.
 
 We served them with chocolat.
  
Then later that week, Brent discovered that it was National Pie day so we went back to our Julia Child dvds. The only problem with letting your kids watch cooking shows is that then when you are trying to make a pie (for the second time in your life), they have plenty of helpful commentary like, "Mom, did you fill your pie with beans. Julia's had the same beans for fifteen years. Are these new beans, Mom?" or "Julia has the best idea, Mom. She traces around a pizza pan, and cuts it out and folds it, and then puts in in the pan. Mom are you going to fold it?" or "Mom, your rolling pin is not like Julia's.  Hers is bigger and doesn't have handles. We need to get a rolling pin like Julia's." One night at dinner, they also asked me, "Where are the carrots and the to-mah-toes?"

But I did make a quiche and une tarte de pommes, and we ate French bread and French cheeses. And I realized something: while I'm always trying to teach the kids to make healthy food choices and tweaking recipes to be full of whole wheat flour and oats and fruit, occasionally it's good to also teach your kids what really good food tastes like too. I think Julia would approve.