July 05, 2012

A lesson in sugar

It's a good thing my blog doesn't rely
on my stellar photography skills ;)
I'm so glad I didn't end up bringing any cake pops home "for the kids" last night, because by 7:00, I was feeling really binge-y. If I had the cake pops here, I would have eaten them--all of them. Thankfully Jerry was here last night, because he kept me from sabotaging myself by giving me a massage.

At around 10:00 pm, the kids were still wide awake (Eli fell asleep in the afternoon, and napped for an hour... which meant he wouldn't go right to sleep at bedtime). We decided to take them outside and let them do sparklers. I've always been scared of those things, because I can remember my little brother Nathan having to go to the emergency room when we were kids from a spark going into his eye.

Not to mention how short the stick that you hold is! It's easy to get burned. So I was super excited when I saw this idea on Pinterest--poke a hole in the bottom of a Solo cup, and stick the sparkler through. It will protect the kids' hands. My kids had a blast, and blew through two boxes of sparklers in no time at all.

This morning, I woke up to more thunderstorms. I actually love thunderstorms, so it was kind of nice. Last night in bed, while it was storming (and later when people we setting off fireworks), Jerry and I talked about how cool it would be to have a glass ceiling so we could watch the storms and fireworks. Then I realized it would probably feel super hot like a greenhouse, so we nixed that idea ;)

I went to get a few groceries today, and I saw something at the store that I was tempted to buy:
I kind of think the Bud Select 55 and MGD 64 taste like carbonated water, so I can't imagine this will taste much different... but I may give it a try next time I go to the store. Have any of you tried it? My favorite low calorie beer is Beck's Light (64 calories), but it's very expensive and kind of hard to find, so I rarely buy it.

My kids each bought a can of Arnold Palmer, and when we got home, Eli asked me if it was healthy. I told him no, and he asked why. I took that as an opportunity to SHOW him the amount of sugar in his drink. I saw that there were 39 grams of sugar in the whole can, so that meant there were about 10 teaspoons of sugar (4 grams of sugar =1 tsp).

I started measuring out sugar by the teaspoonful into a glass, and asked Noah and Eli to tell me when to stop (when they thought I got to the right amount). Noah told me to stop after three teaspoons. Eli guessed eight. When I showed them the amount, I was hoping they'd be shocked and decide "Oh yes, it IS bad for you!" but they both said simultaneously, "Can we eat the sugar?"

LOL, total sugar lesson fail.

I guess I can't expect that to work on them if it won't even work on ME ;) Show me the amount of sugar in cookies or ice cream, and it doesn't make me want it any less!

17 comments:

  1. LOL! Out of the mouths of babes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I saw that same pin and loved that idea, heck I still freak out about hurting my hand with those sparklers. (:

    ReplyDelete
  3. The boys' comment totally made me laugh out loud. Good try, mom! ;)

    Glad I'm not the only one who freaks out about sparklers! Great idea, though!

    ReplyDelete
  4. A glass ceiling would be awesome. You could construct it so it has a retractable roof. That way, you could close it during the day and then open it up at night when you want to watch the stars, fireworks, and storms. You could even put screens in. It would be like camping. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ha Ha, I love the reaction after you showed them. At least they cared to know though right?? :)

    Glad you guys had a wonderful Independence Day! That sparkler idea is genius.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ha! Kids are so funny ;)

    I haven't done sparklers in years... I had a piece of one fall on my foot probably 8-10 years ago (and I wasn't a kid). Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJuly 06, 2012

    Fantasico idea for the sparklers. Now you need to put some safety goggles over their eyes. Sparklers and tossing M80's - dangerous kidfiascos waiting to happen.

    No massage would distract me from a cake pop.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Damn, I guess I won't be buying Arnold Palmers anymore! lol

    ReplyDelete
  9. I lOVE that plastic cup idea! People come up with the best ideas! Last year in Oregon we started having billboards showing how much sugar was in a 20 oz soda. They don't stop me.. but they do make me feel guilty! Haha!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ha! Thank you for the laugh so early in the morning. Kids are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your sugar lesson with the boys made me smile. Kids are great aren't they?? Just as happens after every holiday when I make food I shouldn't be eating so much of, I am snacking on the left-overs. I didn't do great on the Fourth while people where here, but I really tried to be careful. Then yesterday I just kept eating the leftovers. I made a big batch of Chex mix, but several other people also brought some, so to be "polite," I put my bowl of it aside and let people eat the other Chex mix instead. So now I've got a big bowl of it sitting on my kitchen counter and it just calls to me constantly. I wish I could talk hubby into taking it to work and letting his co-workers nosh on it, but he doesn't like doing that kind of thing. So there it sits. And sits. And calls my name. I have to go back to work Monday, I could let MY co-workers nosh on it, but I don't know that I like them all that much.

    The Biscoff cheesecake is about gone. I had another piece (my 2nd) last night. I was going to take half a piece, but NO. I took a pretty good sized piece. I realized when I was making it that I had already pretty much eaten an entire jar of the Biscoff spread. Of course it took probably 2 months. But that's a lot of excess calories, just one big finger-lick at a time. I used the rest of the jar plus a whole 'nother jar of it in the cheesecake. I didn't stop to figure out how many calories it turned out to be--with the Biscoff cookie crumb crust and more of the crumbs sprinkled on top! YIKES. I did use low fat and non fat whipped topping (I doubled the recipe, and put it in an 8x8 pan, so had to use two containers of the topping. I also used low fat (not NON fat) cream cheese. I tried to make it healthier, but it's too delicious to be good for me. Oh well, I won't make it again until next Fourth of July.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. P.S. The kids at our Fourth party also used the solo cup trick with the sparklers. I used to hate sparklers when I was a kid, cause those sparks would nip my fingers. Isn't Pinterest great?

      Delete
  12. Oh, Katie! This is TOO GOOD. The Solo cup w/ the sparklers is nothing short of BRILLIANT. Well done! That sugar experiment was such a great idea, but I couldn't help but giggle at the boys' response. Classic. Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great sparkler idea! Now my kids and my husband can safely play with sparklers!!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Honest Tea makes a decent arnold palmer with somewhat less sugar, ONLY 24 grams, haha :). i do like their teas and fruit-ades when i want a treat, since they're sweet, but not crazy sweet

    ReplyDelete
  15. HAHAHAHA! That is too funny that they asked to eat the sugar. Gotta love kids!

    In all seriousness though it was a really cool thing you did to show them the amount of sugar in the drink. The whole time I was thinking "geez, why do I eat half the crap I eat when I'm an adult and I know how bad it is for me". I guess that if I could answer that I'd be rich! :)

    ReplyDelete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive