Joys of Being a Geek Dad #3167(a).1 -- Warhammer Thank You Letters

I run D&D Encounters at my Friendly Local Game Store in Burbank, CA once a week in the evening. Because my wife Jody works during the time I am running the game, I bring my daughters History and Mystery to the game store with me (that's them in the banner above). They play with some of "dad's little guys," color, watch movies, and come over to the table to ask questions while we play. At the end of most of these evenings the girls get a comic book "for good behavior."

This past week I was playing with my regular group and my daughters decided to write thank you letters to the game store. Here is what they did -- oh...and keep in mind that they are 4 years old.

The drawing above is by my daughter History. She's written the word Warhammer -- missing two Ms -- and drawn the game playing table where players can play Warhammer. I was pretty impressed by her inclusion of terrain on the table.

Next up is my daughter Mystery who tried to write Thank You -- that's the Thathe Uouu which is her own attempt -- she then asked me how to spell it. I told her and she wrote Thank You To Gome Stre which is her way of writing game store. All I can say is Yay phonetics!  Both History and Mystery are getting very good at figuring out the consonants in words. The vowels are sometimes tricky, but they seem to be catching those too.  

Last, but certainly not least, is this beauty were Mystery has repeatedly written Warhammer on a sheet of paper. I'm tempted to have this made into a T-shirt.

A Halloween Toast!

Because it's so difficult to get young children to eat toast and cheese, it being such an unnatural and un-kid-friendly snack...

Okay, I just like Halloween, and holidays, and any time I can holiday up a staple like toast, I'm gonna do it.  This food "craft" if you will, is fast, super easy, and turns out pretty well with any level of creative skill.  You'll need bread, a toaster oven, and orange cheese that can melt (the orange cheese that turns to industrial plastic liner when heated -- and you know what I mean, because we've all had it, and some of us like it -- will not do).

Arrange your bread.  Before applying cheese, round it by trimming the corners with a small knife.  Then cut eyes and a nose with the same knife.  For the mouth, the easiest thing to do is cut the large shape of the mouth, then cut and add teeth after (remember, this is going to melt together, so it will look like one big pumpkin jack-o-lantern face as long as the edges overlap or meet).  Arrange your cheesy "face" on the bread and pop it in the toaster oven.

The result is yummy, cheesy fun.  It's a great way to add a little kid-fun and holiday cheer to your average soup or munchy snack.  Pictured here is a whole wheat bread and mild cheddar cheese.  A dark rye or pumpernickel will offer more contrast and really make that pumpkin grin stand out!  Our preschoolers are always smiles to find faces staring back at them from their plates.  I'm not sure if that's funny or frightening, but since either is welcome at Halloween, bon appetite!