Just another day in MY paradise...Brian's hell!

So last night we didn't have time to do all the dishes from dinner because we headed over to our neighbor's house for a beer. We figured we'd clean up when we got home. 3 hours later, we were tired and drunk and no dishes were getting done.

When Bri left for work this morning, I told him I'd get everything cleaned up...and I did- but not right away. Instead, while the kids were still eating breakfast, I started making lasagnas. One for a dinner with friends tomorrow and the other for a family from church. If you know me, I don't cook, Bri does. If you know me well, you know that I appear to be clean and organized but it's all a front, I'm pretty messy. And if know me really well, you know that I do not know how to clean as I go. Instead, i create these incredible messes to ignore for hours and maybe clean up later. Oh, by the way-Brian hates a messy kitchen!!!

Anyway, I made the lasagnas and instead of cleaning up, I decided to give the kids a bath. They needed one since we have a date night tonight and since we had nothing to do today, I wanted to make it extra fun. They were so excited. We left everything exactly where it was and went running to the bathroom!
We decided to take a GREEN bath today! Yup, in honor of Alaric's favorite color, as soon as they had their hair washed, we put lots of food coloring in the water to let them enjoy! They loved it so much! They were great today and after baths, they played for almost an hour while I got the whole kitchen cleaned up.

Then of course, we decided to start another project that ended up being way messier than last night's dinner AND lasagna put together. I wanted to make Scotteroos ( peanut butter rice crispies with chocolate heaven on top) for my pastor, our dinner with friends tomorrow and for the family at church we are making a meal for so I knew this would be big.

I love having the kids help me in the kitchen. I try to do it as often as I can. My kids learn so much while we work. Well, after they were all excited and already on their stepstools, i read the recipe and realized most of it is done stovetop and they wouldn't be able to participate.

So, I had them help with the measuring of the rice crispies. It started off great. Then, when I turned my back to start at the stove, the stirring and the pouring from one bowl to the next began and a few bits of cereal got on the floor.

"No Biggie!" I thought as I grabbed my camera, "Look how much fun they are having!"

Well, then things got crazy. I started to get focused on the stovetop and before I knew it, there was more cereal on the floor than in the bowl. Amara had already moved her chair out of the way and was hoping to be a super big girl with the stepstool from the bathroom and I just decided it was easier to move them to the floor to play while I worked.

Out of hand is an understatement. Mara got overwhelmed and kept slipping in the rice crispies and she just wanted to be held. Alaric on the other hand turned the area into a construction zone. Can you picture it? Me at the stovetop with Amara on my hip trying to melt butter, sugar, and p-butter and then pour into a bowl of crispies ( no floor cereal was used in the desserts, I promise) while Alaric uses his hands to push the cereal all over the kitchen. He even asked me to move because I was in his way!

I had to put Mara down and she took matters into her own hands....she grabbed a handwashed pot from earlier this morning that was drying, then took the new box of butter and proceeded to unwrap butters and put them into her own pan. And guess what? I let her do it. Look how stinkin happy she was! Everyone was. Alaric was in heaven on the floor- Amara was overjoyed to be able to unwrap butter, and I was happy as a clam right in the middle of it, baking and watching my angels play! If Bri had been home, he would have had to leave the house-he would not have been able to take it.

And in pure Katie fashion, I fed the kids lunch in the messiest kitchen ever-they never even noticed. Now, hours after I started, the kitchen is spotless again, the dishes put away from the counters, the floor mopped. heck, I even vacuumed the whole house and cleaned it too! See, I may not be able to clean as I go but I can get the job done and have two pans of ooey gooey lasagna and three pans of scotteroos, and two happy kids to show for it all!

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Video of the action! I realized as I watched it that Alaric kept calling the cereal his "corn" so I too refer to it as such instead of rice crispies! PS...Flavorite brand rice crispies are on sale at County Market this week for 99 cents. The best $1 I've spent in a long time if anyone else also wants to try this!