Kids in the Kitchen

Several years ago (before twins), my first two children enjoyed helping me cook, and I enjoyed teaching them. I took pictures of them and created a digital scrapbook with some of our favorite recipes at the time. I gave these to all the grandparents and great-grandparents for Christmas that year. We use this as a cookbook frequently in our home.

I had intended to create a new scrapbook each year, but life got busy, and we had more kids, and sometimes it was hard to cook at all. I had my son take this photo so I could look back on it one day and smile. It was so exasperating at the time to have two toddlers crying and clinging to me while I tried to cook dinner, but I knew it wouldn’t always be that way.

Once all four of the little people started asking to help in the kitchen with me, I was quickly overwhelmed. They all started doing different things, and I wasn’t ready! Oh, the messes! I was also stressed about not being able to keep an eye on each one for safety reasons. A wise friend told me she has her boys take turns helping her on different nights of the week. I need to work out a calendar for my children to take turns helping.

This evening, we had breakfast for dinner, and I decided to delegate some tasks to the kids. The twins went to the barn to get more eggs, and then they took turns whisking the eggs. Big brother wanted sausage, egg, and cheese burritos. The twins wanted pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs. (Big sister is staying the night with a friend.) Then the girls took turns mixing up the pancake batter and posing for some silly photos.

While the bacon cooked in the oven, I had the girls help cook the eggs in each pan. They swapped pans when the eggs were almost set. Silly girls! Big brother kept an eye on the bacon and removed it from the oven when it was done.

Once the girls had bacon and eggs, I started on the pancakes and let them start eating. It’s a little chaotic having two five year olds help with dinner, but their smiles make it worthwhile. Maybe I’ll start on volume two of our Kids in the Kitchen scrapbook series, but don’t look for it to be completed any time soon. At the rate I’m going, I won’t have enough photos for a cooking scrapbook for a few years! I need to get that cooking schedule for the kids figured out first.

Click here for a pancake recipe. We still use this basic recipe. Unfortunately, the girls prefer white flour and no flax seed in their pancakes, so we just use 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour in place of the whole wheat flour and ground flax seed.

For the breakfast burritos, we use one pound of pork sausage, crumbled and browned on medium heat. Then we lower the heat and add a dozen scrambled eggs. Once the eggs are set, we add about 1 1/2 cups of freshly shredded cheese and stir until it starts to melt. Don’t cook it too long, or the cheese will melt completely, and you won’t be able to tell it’s in there. My son hates that. Enjoy!

Country Life III

A couple of weeks ago, my husband discovered a bird’s nest with three tiny eggs in our garage.  The nest is inside a manual fertilizer spreader (dark green in photo) on the top shelf.  There is now only one egg in the nest, and there are two baby birds in the clear containers on the shelf below their nest.  

 The mama and daddy birds fly in and out of our garage throughout the day to feed and care for their babies.  Early this morning, the girls and I were outside in the driveway when I heard a noise coming from inside our garage.  It was a persistent clicking noise that sounded almost like an alarm.  I saw one of the adult birds looking towards our garage window and making that noise.  It was an alarm because there was a snake in our garage, crawling from the top of the window down the side between the blinds and the frame.  I told my husband about it, but it was just a garter snake, and there didn’t appear to be any way for it to reach the baby birds, so he left it until this evening.  The snake stayed hidden on the far side of the garage away from the door into our house, so it didn’t bother any of us today, but we would rather not have a snake in our garage.  After dinner, my husband moved the tool chest that the snake was hiding behind and used a long piece of rebar to prod the snake outside.  It took a few minutes, but he was able to get the snake outside, and it slithered away into the brush on the other side of our fence.  

Both baby birds are still alive and in the containers, but one doesn’t look well.  It’s wings have lost feathers and have holes in them.  I’m not sure that one will make it.  The other one only has a little down left on its head and will probably be able to fly away in the next few days.  

Scrambled Eggs, Organized Thoughts

I had planned to scramble some eggs this morning for my seven year old daughter because she has been complaining of headaches mid-morning at school.  I believe she is hungry or at least having withdrawal headaches because she is accustomed to eating snacks, but second graders are not allowed a snack time at school.  However, Big Sister decided she didn’t want eggs this morning and chose another source of protein to go along with her cereal and fruit, but the little girls still wanted eggs.  I asked Big Brother if he wanted any, and he said no.  We only had seven eggs, so I scrambled them all, planning on eating some myself.  

As I was serving the little girls, Big Brother decided he wanted some eggs after all, and I felt it would be selfish of me not to share, so I gave him most of what was left.  Once the little ones had been fed and cleaned up and the big kids were off to school, I ate what little eggs were left in the now room temperature pan as I looked upon my son’s plate of mostly uneaten scrambled eggs.  I wondered why I had sacrificed for him and why mothers in general sacrifice so much of their wants and needs for their children’s desires.  Our children don’t seem to appreciate or even realize how much we sacrifice for them.  

This made me think of how much God has sacrificed for us–His one and only Son–and how, just like children, we often fail to appreciate or realize the cost of His sacrifice.  I can’t imagine giving my son’s life to save someone else’s life, but God did just that and provided a way for everyone to be saved if they will only accept His gift and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord.   

Wasted scrambled eggs pale in comparison with His sacrifice.  

Our 5th annual Easter party

Beginning when Big Brother was in pre-k and Big Sister was just a toddler and a little sister (above), we have hosted an Easter egg hunt and party every year, rain or shine. I tried to get out of it last year since we were in a rent house and had six-week-old twins, but the kids insisted we continue our tradition, so I modified the party and had two smaller parties during each of the babies’ naps. For at least two of the parties, it has been too wet to have the egg hunt outside, so we have hunted inside the house (below). It was a little chaotic but still fun.

This year, I wanted to control the chaos as much as possible, so I decided to offer several stations for the kids to have constructive and fun activities to do while we waited for everyone to arrive and while we hid the eggs. I created a checklist so they could mark which stations they had completed. I asked parents to help with some of the activities, but most of them were self-directed.

Big Sister and some friends from school are playing an Easter-themed Bingo game, using a 20-sided die to roll for numbers. (There are actually 24 numbers on each board, but I forgot to print and cut out numbers to draw, so we improvised with the die, and they got plenty of Bingos.). I placed a small Easter bowl full of wrapped Smarties on the table with the die and Bingo cards. Each child could open a package of Smarties, use the candy pieces to cover their numbers, and then eat their candy.

I saw an idea on Pinterest for plastic monster eggs and found some solid white, one-piece, plastic eggs at Walmart this year. I just provided pipe cleaners (pre-cut into various lengths), googly eyes, pom poms, Sharpies, feathers, etc. for the kids to use to design their own monster egg. I asked a couple of moms to help with the hot glue guns.

The kids enjoyed creating their monster eggs, and we had plenty of supplies leftover for my kids and their cousins to create more monsters a couple days later when we got together on Easter.

Big Brother and some of his friends are playing an egg hunt board game that I found on Pinterest. It was cute and good for the older kids. My mother-in-law was so sweet to cut out the pieces and put it together.

The simplest station was an Easter activity sheet that the kids could color, complete a crossword, etc. I just provided the sheets and a container of pencils and crayons.

I was too busy to get photos of every station. The others were an Easter bunny mask and estimation jars (baby food jars filled with either cheddar bunnies, gummy worms, jelly beans, or bunny grahams). Before the party, the kids helped me decorate balloons like Easter eggs, which we hung over the kitchen table (see the second monster egg photo above). I also made Peeps on a stick and egg-shaped Rice Krispy treats.

I just washed three plastic eggs and then buttered the inside of each piece. I stuffed rice krispy treats in each half and snapped shut for several seconds and then placed them on a plate until set. The kids loved these and ate every one.

All of these activities and treats were fun, but the main reason we have this party is to share the real reason we celebrate Easter–Jesus’ death and resurrection. We hid dozens of eggs, but one dozen contained specific items to tell the Easter story. This year we used the “resurrection eggs” my son made in pre-k. I told the kids before they started hunting that there were lots of prizes in the eggs, and there were plenty of numbers inside eggs to choose prizes from a table as well, but there were twelve eggs with numbers on the outside of the eggs that were for something special. We gathered on our front porch as the kids finished up, and we went through the whole Easter story together. It was so fun to listen to the younger children share what the items represented. Their eagerness and joy were refreshing.

My wonderful mother-in-law, holding Little Sister, helped me so much in preparing for this party while my husband was out of town. I couldn’t have done it all without her.

My terrific mom, holding Sissy, brought extra treats to fill eggs I had leftover, brought more jumbo eggs to put some of my treats in, and also provided some of the white eggs for the monster eggs. She and my stepfather drove over two hours to come help with the party and watch the twins’ first egg hunt.