Parental Abuse = Healthy Snacks?

I plan to be fairly brief with my post today. Over the last several days I've enjoyed stewing over my words, editing, adding photos and having a general all 'round good time with this.

But the unusual has occurred. And by unusual I meant fantastic. I am without children. Oh no, not just for the day. No, my friends, my children won't be back until NEXT SUNDAY!

In a crazy turn of events, my kids have gone to spend the week with their grandparents. Please understand that this is as much a treat for the kids as it is for me- at this very moment, word on the street is that they are embroiled (is that a word?) in water gun wars with their cousins in the front yard. Surely I'd have them doing some torturous task such as shucking corn for dinner.

So instead of carefully selecting my words today to make sure they convey my deepest sentiments, I'm going to crank out a thought I started having last night and then move on to my next initiative- clearing my house of every McDonald's toy, every plastic carnival prize, every arcade stuffed animal I can dig up. My theory is that the kids will be gone long enough that when they come back they'll forget that these items even existed. Wish me luck.

I'm also wondering if my theory holds true with food. I'm finding more and more that if I swap out the junk with a truly nutritious and flavorful snack, they're none the wiser. Before, when Emma claimed hunger, she would settle for nothing less than chocolate chip cookies (not to say that I obliged her, it's just that she had a very narrow definition of a snack). Nowadays, "I'm hungry" is often followed by "can I have some cantaloupe?" A request I seldom if ever refuse.

Kids are resilient little things. I know this for a fact. When we brought James home from the hospital he was literally wadded in a ball in his car seat. We had assembled the seat incorrectly, stress led to frustration which led to arguing, and we basically figured we lived close enough that we had to call it quits on figuring out the problem and just get the heck out of there before they deemed us unfit as parents. He survived. He's 7. He has no memory of this initial parental failure.

So I'm enjoying experimenting on my kids. Each week I sneak at least one "unusual" snack food in to the house, am careful to position it as some phenomenal delicacy (I do work in marketing, you know) and let the chips fall where they may. And much to my pleasant surprise, this is working! The latest snack treasure at our house? Dried figs. They can't get enough of them. Who knew?

So please, I'd love to hear what creative ways you've found to get your kids to eat healthy snacks or what your snacks du jour are- we're always looking to try new things!