Geek of the Week - Themed Meals

Geek of the Week

Huzzah!  After a month long hiatus whilst I attempted A Story a Day in May, Geek of the Week has returned!  We really, really love food here in DaVurLand.  Most of my children have fairly developed palates, though one of them does have an unfortunate tendency to raise his eyebrows questioningly as he declares, “that is too crazy for me.  I am not eating that.”  (P.S. Yes, he is.  Somehow he feels the need to have the fight that he knows by now he will never, ever win.  Truly, unless I’m serving haggis or mountain oysters or the time I roasted a whole pig’s head, you are eating what’s on your plate.  But I digress).  Every now and then, we do something wild and crazy and fun and centered around food.  I have considered feeding them after midnight to see what would happen, but chickened out.  I do have the most hilarious series of pictures after green eggs and ham.  The last one shows my son actually crawling over the back of his chair to escape the alienesque mess.  He did not like them, Sam I Am.  We have had, however, four amazing successes. 

The first was a Hobbit brunch.  This meal was served quite late as is befitting of a brunch, and, befitting of a Hobbit meal, the servings were ample to say the least.  Everything was served on large platters, and items included home made sausages, hard boiled eggs, lemon curd, marmalade, cheese, and fruits.  Before we ate, we acted out Samois’ “Troll Poem,” which the children enjoyed because it involved lots of fun sounds and something getting kicked in the backside. We took turns being Hobbits and Dwarves as a way to teach manners.  It was fabulous.

We have also felt a little eleven o’clockish.  At ten ‘til eleven, we had biscuits with honey and read poems by A.A. Milne.  My favorite is “The Tale of Alexander Beetle.”  Afterwords, we went down to our creek and played “Poohsticks.”  This was especially precious, as my not quite two year old is very blonde, and very fat with this adorable potbelly and very little neck.  He is jolly and stomps around as he walks and if you ask him his name will say, “I da Pooh Beah.”  It made for a great day.

Next, we went to Narnia to have breakfast in the house of Tumnus the Faun.  This is best done on a cold wintry day around a fireplace.  I made tea and hot cocoa, bread with jam, and cakes and, of course, sardines.  The sardines were a bit of a problem, eliciting howls of indignation, but gave us the opportunity to give a treat to our cats who, like all cats since the fall of Ginger, are not Talking Animals. One of them I’m pretty sure is in fact the devil and perhaps some time I will regale you with tales of the love/hate relationship between this vile beast and myself.  At any rate, we snuggled in blankets and I played my flute and it was absolutely lovely. 

No themed meal would be complete without a mad tea party.  I have thrown two.  They were both met with. .. dubious levels of success.  You see, during the mad tea party that we had at home, I would yell, “CLEAN CUP MOVE DOWN!” and we would get up and run around the table.  Unfortunately, I neglected to remember three simple things.  First, my oldest son is autistic and changes bother him sometimes.  Like, oh, say, someone sitting in his seat to eat.  Secondly, my blonde preschooler is the clumsiest child ever born to man.  To the point where I had his legs, ears, and eyesight checked.  There is nothing wrong, he is just clumsy, and now I pack arnica, antibacterial ointment and bandaids wherever we go.  Also, my daughter is in canes and leg braces full time.  She gets around amazingly well, but rushing around a table in a relatively small space was just more than we could safely handle.  So, we didn’t do that one again.  Maybe someday.  There’s madness and there’s masochism after all.  The second time was for our Ladies’ Tea at church.  When asked to host a table, a Mad Tea Party seemed to me to be the obvious choice.  That just goes to show that obvious is a relative term.  I walked in with bud vases each filled with a white silk rose that had been dipped in red paint.  I had napkin rings made of playing cards.  In the middle was the torso of a mannequin that I had dressed as the Mad Hatter himself and was acting as our Host.  This sat in a room absolutely surrounded by doilies and fresh flowers and antique china.  Everyone was very kind and complimentary, but I felt like a dolt.  Felt a bit. . .well. .. mad. 

I think that we, as a society, have forgotten how to play with our kids.  I try very hard to engage with my children often, to play, to roll around of the floor and swordfight and all of that.  But, of course, I do it Geek style.