the adventures of baking with a 5 year old!
highlight of my night last night…baking with a 5 year old! my MIL nannies 3 little boys and one of them, jacob has been hanging out at the house while his older brothers are at camp and he totally melts my heart. we were talking about the s’more magic bars and he said “hey! i like s’mores!” which i interpreted as “hey! i want to spend an hour with you in the kitchen and say cute things while you take cute pictures of my super cute face” so that’s what happened.
if you still haven’t made the s’more magic bars, please stop what you are doing right now (i am sure your boss will understand) and please go to your nearest grocery store and buy a bunch of marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate stat. it also helps to have an enthusiastic friend to smash up all those graham crackers into a million little pieces so maybe find one of those too (probably one that you know). the football ring really comes in handy too!
after smashing up all the graham crackers (and adding butter and sugar) we spread it evenly along the bottom for the crust. jacob was veeeery good at pointing out every little spot that i missed or appeared uneven. i appreciated this because sometimes i’m a little OCD about things like this so it was right up my alley.
funny story: we had him go down the list and read the ingredients (um, can you say super smart 5 year old) and when he read “sugar”-he said we probably shouldn’t put the dog in the dessert. this picture occurred shortly after. sugar the dog is crazy (but we are kind of becoming BFFs).
here’s what i learned about 5 year olds-they apparently aren’t just allowed to eat dessert for dinner (like i most certainly did) so we had to pause for a grilled cheese break (along with eating every carrot and grape on the plate so you could eat the s’mores bars). i happened to capture the sweetest picture ever that basically made my womb stir slightly (thank goodness for my brain acknowledging i don’t actually want kids right now).
we continued on the baking path and here is what our hair looks like up close (you are welcome for showering right before because otherwise you would have seen 2 dreadlocks of hair and not the pretty kind).
jacob and i are also similar because we enjoy watching our creation come to life like mad, sugary scientists (yes we talked like crazy scientists for a good 7 minutes cracking ourselves up-including lots of muuuwahahas).
he was very pleased with himself after it came out of the oven that we had a series of high fives. i always need a baking buddy now! he also exclaimed “i ate it the fastest so i liked it the best!”
shortly thereafter he had to get ready for bed and when we said he had to go brush his teeth, he made the very valid point of “no thank you, i want to keep this taste in my mouth forever!!!” (see, i told you you need to make this dessert nooooow)! how do parents resist the adorableness of such statements?! good thing my MIL is strong and told him he still had to brush his teeth. ravery made me brush mine too.
wife lesson: kids are so adorable and i am excited to have one in 5-10 years 😉
questions:
1) do you have any children and if so, how many and how old were you when you had them?
2) what made you decide you wanted to have children (or not have children) and if you haven’t had any, do you think you will just suddenly have a feeling one way or another?
3) what did you have for dinner last night because i honestly ate s’mores magic bars.
Robert Owens
July 11, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Having children was an extension of the love my wife and I have for each other. It was God’s will to bestow upon us these gems. The gifts children bring are numerous. For instance, I have far more patience than I ever did before. 😉
I was older than the two of you are. There are merits to having children whenever you have them; don’t stress over the decision.
Last evening I had pulled pork. I smoked the shoulder for nine and a half hours over apple and hickory. S’mores would have gone well with the pork.
chelsea
July 12, 2013 at 11:39 am
ha-i’m excited to hopefully gain more patience hopefully beeeefore having children robert 🙂 whoa. i am so very very jealous of the dinner you had! pulled pork is amazing-particularly if it was smoked for 9.5 hours-hot dang! thanks for your comment robert!
Vivien
July 11, 2013 at 11:05 pm
1) None.
2) I have no clue, I’ve always wanted at least one child. A childhood friend of mine was deadset against getting married and deadset against having kids. Recently she told me it seems like out of the blue she started imagining what it’d be like cooking dinner for a husband and kids. My reactions was, “I KNEW IT!” And now I’m thinking wouldn’t it be funny if she’s the one that ends up getting married and having kids and I’m the one that does not. I figure if it happens it happens if it doesn’t it doesn’t.
3) I have forgotten. Honest.
chelsea
July 12, 2013 at 11:43 am
haha funny story about your friend vivien! crazy some minds change with time and also the effect biology has on us to make sure we keep the human race allllllive!!! i also really like your attitude of it happens, it happens. i need to be more relaxed about things. i can also tell you had a really delicious dinner the night before 😉 i hope you have a great weekend!
Kay Watson
July 12, 2013 at 8:31 pm
I am the mother of 6 now adult children. Our first was born when I was 24 and our last was born 17 years later when I was 41. The youngest was born at the end of my second year in graduate school.. Every one of my children added depth and dimension to my life. It never even occurred to me not to add children to complete our family. I love public speaking and my family, which now includes 16 Grand grandchildren, provides endless possibilities for speeches.
Last night I ate dinner at a friend’s house in celebration of her birthday. Steak, corn on the cob, fruit salad, potato salad, homemade rolls and ice cream cake with hot fudge sauce made for a meal to remember. Tonight it will be a chocolate protein shake.
chelsea
July 17, 2013 at 9:23 pm
wow kay-6 children that’s amazing! i love what you said about adding depth and dimension to your life-that’s a neat way to look at it. cannot believe you have 16 grand children-that’s excellent! sounds also like you had a great dinner with your friends the night before!