Party Time

Saturday I hosted a Christmas party. My seven year old niece and my 11 year old twin cousins joined me for a day of holiday fun. We made cupcakes, baked cookies, decorated Christmas Ornaments, and we made a few other treats. I was really excited about this since I don't have any little ones of my own to share the fun with and the fact that my husband does not find this fun at all. As with anything, I had a plan and thought that I had it all figured out. No drama and no surprises.

Well, as usual, that is not exactly how it went. There were no major accidents, but I did learn somethings. Mostly, how different children can be, even twins.

The twins arrived first and I noticed as they edged from the steps to the door that someone had brought a big pile of mud with them. This was an unwelcome guest! My aunt also noticed the mud and told the girls to take off their shoes. One of the twins replied, "my shoes are clean, it is not me." She never even looked at the shoes. Yes, she was the culprit. She was sitting on my couch and leaned over to reach my computer when I saw the mud covering her shoes. The shoes that were now on my couch.

As you can imagine, I was a little on edge. I kept staring at the shoes just waiting for that one wrong move. Thankfully, there were no traces of mud on my slipcover. My niece then arrived and we moved into the kitchen. The girls put on the aprons that I had bought for them at IKEA (super cute!) and we began to make cupcakes.

I walked the girls through the steps and helped them measure everything out. They did so well and were so nice to each other. All three of them are very well behaved and considerate. As we were finishing up the cupcakes, one of the twins asked if she could start on the cookies. I opened the cook book to the right page and put some of the necessities out for her.

Baking Lesson #1: Follow the directions. All the directions including the order of ingredients.

All of the ingredients were measured correctly and promptly put into the mixing bowl. There was no mixing in between. That had to be the grainiest cookie mix ever. The consistency was so off that I wouldn't even consider it dough. The goo was scooped out and onto cookie sheets. These were the only flat cookies that I have ever baked. They spread out, but not up.

Baking Lesson #2: Butter Crisco is not a substitute for regular Crisco.

As I pulled out the ingredients for the icing, I noticed that the pre-measured Crisco cup was actually butter flavored. After opening it, I also noticed that the consistency of it was beginning to change. That was the grossest icing ever. Even the kids didn't want any.

Baking Lesson (and life lesson) #3: Never give kids a meat tenderizer.

We were making peppermint brickle which required broken peppermints. I put the mints in a ziploc bag and pulled out the rolling pin. (Just as the recipe said.) You are supposed to use the rolling pin to smash the mints. I don't know if the girls just weren't forceful enough or if this just doesn't work. After thinking about it for a moment, I decided to pull out the meat tenderizer and let them use it like a hammer. The good news is that it worked and we had smashed mints. The bad news is my kitchen table has some awesome texture to it now. I never even thought about that.

Baking Lesson #4: Don't just explain, DEMONSTRATE!

Once the cupcakes had cooled and the icing was mixed I put a plate out in front of each of the girls. Their cupcakes were placed on the plate with a spreader for the icing. I also put a few cans of different sprinkles on the table. The idea was for the girls to ice the cupcake and place it back on the plate and shake the sprinkles over the plate. Two of the girls did just that. One of the twins however, did not. The muddy twin chose to hold her cupcake away from the table and sprinkled right onto the floor. I then pointed out what the plate was for and she continued to shake over the floor.

All in all, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed sharing the day with the girls. I learned a lot! As crazy as it was, I think we will try again. I even promised the girls that they could come back during Christmas break.