Sugar Babies

I am not anti-sugar. After lunch, I'm happy to give my daughters a little candy or "fruit snacks" as a dessert. I let them have cookies every now and then. When I give them juice, it's not always 100% natural... mainly because the real stuff seems to upset their stomachs.
Still, I try to limit their sugar intake. Sue Sue has decided she wants Pop Tarts every single morning. Every two or three days I steer her toward something else... French toast, waffles with peanut butter, regular toast, anything but Pop Tarts. When the girls do have Pop Tarts, I try to level the playing field by also giving them some fruit... raspberries, blueberries, grapes... it's still sugar, but it's natural so that has to be better, right?
Unfortunately, the occasional sugar rush is inevitable. Take the other day, for example. We went to an early morning birthday party. In my opinion, all birthday parties should be held at 10 am so kids have a chance to run off the sugar! The birthday girl had a beautiful butterfly cake. I swear the pink and purple frosting was two inches thick. Most of the kids had a few bites and then ran back to the attractions of the children's museum where the party was held. My girls, however, were full of bliss... they ate every stinkin' piece of their cake. The casual observer would think they never get sugar. Anyway, the party favor was a huge butterfly cookie which coordinated with the cake. As soon as they finished their cake my girls asked to have the cookie. Not. A. Chance. We saved the cookies for the next day. They had a slight sugar crash after the cake and after the cookies, but it wasn't anything too dramatic.
The interesting thing is my daughters are getting to the point where they sometimes stay away from sugar. Sue Sue is now requesting options other than Pop Tarts without prodding. Sometimes after lunch they don't want candy. Some days they'll turn down popsicles. So while I doubt they'll ever turn down birthday cake, I'm hoping they're starting to learn it's OK to say no to sweets... no matter how tempting they may be.