Columbus Day

This is the only place we have ever lived where Columbus Day is an observed school holiday.  Our district does not observe Veterans Day, but we get Columbus Day--not something I particularly agree with considering Christopher Columbus' legacy is somewhat controversial, but oh well.

Anyway, we usually use Columbus Day as an opportunity to go to a pumpkin patch or apple orchard, but this year, the girls and I just needed a day off.  I feel like we have barely had time to catch our breath since school started.  We have had lots of nights later than I would have liked.  Many days the girls get home from school and then it is a rush to get homework done, eat dinner, and then go out the door for one activity or another.  They don't have as much down time as I would like them to have.  It is certainly a challenge as a parent to balance worthy and enriching activities.

So back to Columbus Day.  Nothing planned.  We slept in, hung around the house for a while, then decided to take a walking tour of three nearby parks.  The weather was great and we compared the features of each park as we completed our 3.5 mile roundtrip walk.  During our walk, we decided we should do something for dinner to acknowledge Columbus Day, but since we had not planned ahead we had to improvise.  This is when I suggested we have "weiner boats" for dinner.  Or more specifically the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. 

I don't know about you but growing up eating school lunch in Utah, both Dave and I know exactly what "weiner boats" are.  My girls, however, had no idea what a "weiner boat" was.  I was sort of torn about letting them eat weiner boats, I mean I felt like I was seriously compromising my culinary standards.  I kinda felt that it was big step to serve weiner boats after having avoided it for 12 years, but it was a special occasion. 

SO we had weiner boats for dinner.  Paige made the flags.  The girls thought it was so strange to eat mash potatoes and hot dogs together.  At first, Ashley was scraping the mashed potatoes off the hot dog and eating them separately, until Paige convinced her to try them together in one bite.  In the end, the girls didn't mind weiner boats.  Who knows if we will eat them again???