Kids in the Kitchen

Overheard today...

Moe: You like it Meenie?
Meenie: Yup.
Moe: Me like it too.

I thought the above conversation was cute. It was in reference to the sugar coated beaters they were licking. We had just finished making the cream-cheese frosting to top Husband's Carrot Cake Birthday Cake and they were enjoying the fruits of our labor.

This week we have baked the carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate banana bread.

The girls have helped every step of the way. Einey's been cracking the eggs, they've all been pouring the ingredients into the bowl, Meenie's been in charge of the margarine and then they each get 10 stirs with the wooden spoon before passing it on to the next in line until it is all mixed.

When we did the cookies -I cheated and used a package, the rest were from scratch- Meenie surprised me by telling me we needed one butter and one egg. She "read" the back of the package all by herself.

Einey helped out by using the directory in the cookbook to find the right pages and then helping me to read the ingredients and finding them.

Moe helped by, well eating the flour. At least she didn't run around, blowing it throughout the house this time.

When we made the banana-chocolate bread, I was going to use chocolate chips. Instead I thought of the ton of Easter Candy we had sitting in the secret hiding space. I gave each child a plastic bag, some candy and a rolling pin. They enjoyed smashing and rolling their candy into little bits. We had M&M's, bunnies, Hershey Kisses and Chocolate Eggs. And once they were smashed, we added them to the bread. The result? One of the best banana breads we've ever made!

Unfortunately, to date, this school vacation has been endless days of rain. I believe it will clear up in time for their first soccer games this weekend (which come after just one day of practice). Next week is fore casted to be sunny and in the 60's. It's about time!