On this particular morning I was already up early and decided to do a little extra surprise for breakfast.  Although, this doesn’t happen every morning in our house because some days it takes everything I have just to get through the necessary steps to get everyone out the door for work and school.    Each girl got two  blueberry pancakes,  two sausages cut into half, and fresh grapes and strawberries for their main breakfast.  They also got their normal milk, juice, and multivitamins.  The girls are always excited to see something different at the breakfast table.  Seriously, sometimes the silly and simple things like the Easy Breakfast Clowns are all it takes to brighten their day.  It never hurts when you get the day off to a good start!

Tip:  I like to make up a large batch of blueberry pancakes whenever we have them and freeze a bunch for future breakfasts.  It is easy to pull out a few frozen pancakes and have breakfast ready in a few minutes (plus there’s less of a mess).

We are pretty consistent with our week day breakfast menu.  For each day of the work and school week Monday to Friday we have the same main menu item from week to week the only thing that changes is the “extra item” we add each day such as an egg, sausage, fresh fruit, cottage cheese, bacon, smoothies, or other items that we have in the kitchen.  During the school week the girls always have their main breakfast, at least one side (usually fruit, sausage, egg, etc…), vitamins, milk (one has non-dairy milk due to allergies), and small glass of juice.  When I am ambitious, awake, and my creative juices are flowing I will add a little extra silliness to make breakfast more enjoyable for the kids.

Here is what our breakfast menu looks like this week (the items in parenthesis are examples of the extra items we will add and change from week to week):

• Monday – English Muffins (Egg)
• Tuesday – Toast (Cottage Cheese)
• Wednesday – Cereal (Smoothie)
• Thursday – Pancakes, Poptarts, or Oatmeal (Fresh Fruit)
• Friday – Bagel (Bacon)
• Saturday – Family Brunch (a lot of times we make Saturday breakfast together and it is whatever sounds good that morning or a new dish we want to try out.  It is not always planned in advance and could be an egg or breakfast casserole, omelets, hashbrowns, waffles, pancakes, etc… this is our big family meal of the day since Saturdays are often spent with extended family, friends, or doing other afternoon and evening activities)  Since we make more complicated breakfasts on Saturdays it is usually between 8 to 10 before we sit down to eat therefore they have become our Family Brunch.
• Sunday – Make Your Own Breakfast (everyone makes their own breakfast before church which is usually something easy like cereal, toast, poptarts, oatmeal, smoothie, etc….)

We first started doing a different main breakfast item everyday a few years ago because I have one child who if she eats the same thing too many times in a row she stops eating.  Adding a little variety from day to day was enough to keep her motivated to eat breakfast.  It wasn’t until several months later when the girls pointed it out that I realized that we do the same main item on the same day every week.  “Mom, Tuesday is Toast Day…..”  So now it has become our rotating breakfast menu which helps keep us on track because we know exactly what we need to prepare for the next breakfast.  Plus the girls are sometimes still waking up when they come to breakfast and the morning menu helps them figure out the day of the week as well as prepares them for the upcoming activities they have that day.

There are times I will mix it up (just for fun) or Jake will get up first and make breakfast!  The girls don’t hesitate to let him know if he makes a main food item on the wrong day….ha!  Our breakfasts are not fancy, but it gets us up and started for the day.  What do you make for your family breakfasts?