Who needs television when you have great family dinners?

We used to have 3 televisions in the house. Then, after too many beautiful days being missed by the kids watching cartoons we went down to one TV and left it in the downstairs family room. A couple times a week Reed and I find ourselves watching the news or a show on the Discovery Channel like Deadliest Catch but more often than not we find ourselves reading books in the living room or still sitting around the dining room table with the kids just spending time together after dinner.

One of the really fun parts of dinner has been is finding out about Finland from Janika. The kids adore her and have a lot of great questions. She is very patient with us and answers all of our them with a smile. Reed and I are from Swedish and German ancestry so learning about Finland is fascinating to both of us. In fact, our Swedish ancestors lived only 50 miles apart from each other. Perhaps we are more related than we realize.

Janika has captivated the kids and they are paying very close attention and learning a ton from her. Elizabeth asked what the capital of Finland was and Janika said, "Well, I live there." and the kids all yelled out together, "Helsinki!" Next, I asked Elizabeth what the capital of the United States was and she said, "Mom! The United States doesn't have a capital." I almost fell out of my chair. After a little bit of prodding she turned bright pink and said, "Oh! Geez! It's Washington, D.C.!" (Her teacher would be horrified to think Elizabeth did not know that. We're going to chalk it up to her 11 year old brain needing some sleep that night.)

Sarah is learning how to do all sorts of cute new hair styles from Janika. And we think that Sam has a little 5 year old crush on Janika. It is very sweet. He wouldn't touch his pasta tonight so Janika asked if he would eat if for her. He blushed and said, "Yes, I will" and he did.

Elizabeth has now decided that she would like to play tennis like Janika. She is in heaven because she has always wanted a big sister. She asked me why she was born first. That is a very good question with a very long answer so I said, "That's a great question, Elizabeth. Why do you think you were born first?" She said, "I don't know" then changed the subject. Whew!