The snacks at my kids' pool party (no not a recipe post)

So as I am getting ready for my older two sons birthday pool party, I started thinking about the snack items I was serving.  The boys decided on soft pretzels and cookie cake, with Capri Sun juice and water for beverages.

Its funny because before I had kids, I envisioned myself as the mom who would serve wholesome, nutritious healthy snacks to my kids and their friends.  And life for my older two did start out that way.  Neither of them had chocolate until after they turned one year.  I also kept them away from juice, candy, potato chips and other fried snacks.  They would only eat apple slices, banana, peaches, grapes and the occasional animal cracker.

But as they started going to grandma's house for babysitting, I did suspect she'd sneak a chocolate chip cookie or two to my protected sons.  I must have seemed like a "kill-joy" to my mother-in-law who loved to bake sweets and share them with everyone.

As the boys got older, I lightened up on my "no junk food rule" and would give in and bake them cookies, or treat them now and then to the pleasure of Cheetos.  Its extremely hard to keep your kids from all sorts of "goodies" when they're bombarded with images on TV or when they go to a friend's home.

Later when I had my other two children, I really lightened up on my no candy rules.  Someones throwing a tantrum in the store? Why a strawberry lolly-pop will cure that and back to shopping we go.  I even faltered on my no chocolate before the age of one rule.  Sometimes 4 or 5 chocolate baking chips can help you get dinner ready on time.

While I'm not a fan of keeping lots of candy and fruit snacks in the house, we do keep ice cream, cookies, pretzels and chips in the house.  And I do have a small stash of emergency lolly-pops on hand.  What I think is more important instead of keeping "junk" foods totally away from your kids, you should teach them to eat those in moderation, only in small amounts and only on certain occasions.

They get their healthy snacks in like sliced fruit and carrot sticks, or peanut butter on a graham cracker, but they also get to enjoy small amounts of potato chips or on an even rarer event Cheetos.

While I would love to say that at my kids' party I'm serving nothing but organic fruits and veggies with whole grain crackers, reality is that they are just kids and need to have some fun.  And I don't think their friends would be too impressed with fruit kabobs as much as an adult would be.

So today while my boys and their friends are munching away on cookie cakes and downing Capri Sun, I'm certain that my boys (and girl) will have a healthy respect for food.  Not a lot of hang-ups or eating disorders, or even worse a certain snobbish attitude about food.  There is nothing more annoying that a kid or an adult who is a food snob, and makes you feel bad for having a little fun.