What Was I Thinking?

Every Friday afternoon is a cousin swap. My sister, Beth, sister-in-law, Jessica, and I all take turns dropping our kids off at 1 aunt's house for the afternoon and running away to solitude  doing errands, etc. There are 7 that are not in school, ages ranging from 11 to 2 1/2.


This past week was my turn and I was a bit ambitious. I decided we were going to frost cookies and make a craft. So the day before, I went to the store to buy all the items for the craft and I made up the cookie dough, since it needs to be refrigerated. 
Here's how the day went down.
AM: I set about to roll out and bake the cookies before everyone comes. In the process, I get a text from my friend, Kate, saying she's coming over. Yeah! I love Kate and her kids, so we were going to hang out and I also secretly hoped she would decorate my tree for me. Well, it turns out, that was her express purpose for coming over. But I didn't even have it lit yet! No problem for her. She loves doing that and did it all for me! Kate decorated my entire tree for me!! All I had to do was feed her little 'uns some cookies. It looks great. Thanks, Kate!

Lunchtimeish: 7 more kids pour in. I'm sure our neighbors wonder what sort of shennanigans are going on when all the kids are here. It's like we're a clown car; the kids just keep coming! I finish the cookies and make up some more frosting. Then 7 kids (remember, ages 11- 2 1/2?) seat themselves at the table with 7 colors of frosting, 6 or 7 different kinds of sprinkles and cookies stretching the whole length of the table! I was thinking I'd get some great cookie decorating shots. Boy, was I wrong! I barely got any in as I was running around, trying to help the 5, 3 and 2 1/2 year olds be successful. Athan and Luke dropped off pretty quickly. Chiara was very much into it. She needed lots of "lellow" and like shoving the "too hots" (red hots) into the unfrosted cookies. Obi frosted exactly 1 of each shape and then was done. He job after that was supervising. He'd count up the cookies and declare there were 30 left to frost. Later, he'd come back and announce there were still 17. Ariana loved it; there was pink and purple. Gavin kept at it until they were done, although he said that "carving" these cookies was hard.  Cora talked the entire time about how bad store bought cookie dough and frosting was and how good homemade cookies and frosting were. Somewhere in the middle of that I decided that I should also read them a book and I ran to grab Jan Brett's "The Mitten" and read it to them at the table. It was like a  little preschool.

Middle of the afternoon: The cookies are decorated. Amazingly, the sprinkles did not get out of hand. (Partially because after Gavin poured them on the frosted cookie, he would lick his fingers and then press the sprinkles into the frosting. Oh well.) The little ones took a nap, the older ones went out in the snow and Cora and I set up the craft. I saw this craft and just had to do it. Painting styrofoam balls with thick craft glue is not as easy as it looks, but the older kids managed. The end result turned out adorable!! 

Late afternoon: There are now 10 kids in the house. All in all that day there were 12. Needless to say, once they left, I was a little tired but we had fun. The clean-up took all night to do though it wasn't bad, just everywhere. 


Saturday morning: We wake up to a really warm house. Noticeably warm. Bill checks the thermostat and it say 76! Apparently, some little munchkins pressed some buttons while climbing the ladder that was used for decorating the tree. 


(next up: the recipe for the cookies we made)