Update on Activity Cards

For those curious enough to comment on the activity cards here is my update:
We have used them for almost a week, so these are still initial results.
So far, they have eliminated the standing around.
Eirena has become interested in using them too, which no doubt helps them being viewed as fun, not torturous. :)
We haven't really had an outright refusal to do one of them yet, although we came close a couple days ago. I think if that happened I would insist on the activity being done for at least 5 minutes before a new card could be chosen (kind of like the 3 bite rule for trying new food, not that we really do that around here).
They have gotten him (and Eirena) doing things he hasn't done in a long time.

Funny anecdote:
When we got Adisu we noticed he had rhythm. He heard a neighbor's stereo blasting a beat and got all groovy when he thought no one was looking. But he hadn't done much dancing for a long while. Fast forward to Saturday and he chose the "dancing card". We put on some musical and he did the weirdest "dance" that looked like a black kid imitating a white kid dancing by wiping his feet on a door mat. It was dreadful. So we tried to find some clips of dancing for him to get a better idea of what he should be doing. And we tried to explain and demonstrate. Unfortunately neither Dr. Daddy and I are dancers. And Adisu is a very literal sort of person. So when we said, "tap your foot, spin around, jump", that is exactly what he did. All. The. Time.
Well then on Monday Eirena chose the dancing card. So I put on some other music. He was doing his odd thing again. (The only reason I really cared was that I knew he used actually be able to dance naturally.) So I got online (the wonders of the internet again!) and found clips of Ethiopian dancers. I showed those to him. Apparently something clicked because now he looks much more natural. Its like he's feeling the beat again!

Recipe

The other day Dr. Daddy and I were at Costco and decided to get some bagels for breakfast as a change. Of course, then we realized we wanted cream cheese to go with the bagels. Not wanting to make another stop, we just got a Costco-sized amount of cream cheese. Now here's a question for you... how many packets of bagels would you have to buy to use up 3 lbs of cream cheese?
I don't know the answer. All I know is that it makes much more sense to use cream cheese to make.... CHEESECAKE!
And now I want to take a moment to give thanks to the internet without which I would not have this lovely new recipe:
Sun dried tomato and havarti cheesecake
They say it is meant to be an appetizer. We ate it (with salads and crackers) for dinner. It was yummy and very easy to make. Success!

Kiddie Amusement

We took the kids to a kiddie amusement park. We gave them 5 tickets each and told them to choose what they wanted to do. All the rides except the train were just one ticket. In case you felt like you needed to see updated pics of the kids, here you go. . . (they haven't changed too much since Saturday- except maybe Eskil who is eating us out of every fruit and vegetable around).

Eirena chose to ride the train- with Dr. Daddy

they both chose the Ferris wheel

and the airplane "swings"

Then Adisu chose to ride the boats

Eskil took it all in

Adisu then chose the carousel
while Eirena wanted to go on the airplane again.
Do you think she had fun on there?

Adisu used his last ticket to ride the cars, I think he wanted to try every ride.

It didn't seem like much from an adult perspective, but the kids really liked it, reminding us yet again of how fun the simple things can be.