Today when I came out to grab Elisha for his turn after putting the girls to nap, this is what I saw:

There’s even jam up his nose in that last picture! (I think cameras are a good to for delaying reflexive anger.)

So I cleaned him up and worked in the kitchen for a while during nap. Never did find the lid to that jar though. Makes me glad I don’t live in a region where that could be hugely unsanitary.

Natasha was the first to wake up, so we had a great mother-daughter time making “Hide and Seek Muffins” from this book. Natasha loves it– it’s designed for preschoolers (with picture directions) with food that’s not “traditional” preschool fare.

(If anybody’s interested, it would make a great Christmas present… and it looks like there’s a sequel too.)

The book is designed to make the adult the child’s helper, instead of the other way around.

Natasha got to stir the dry ingredients, measure and pour the milk.

She broke all the eggs:

and stirred the batter (I helped by holding the bowl still and showing her how to hunt for the flour “hiding” by the bowl’s walls), and then she filled the muffin papers– all by herself.

Part way through the filling the other kids woke up, so everyone enjoyed the fruits of Natasha’s labor.

We had muffins with our dinner.

They’re called hide and seek muffins because of the last step. Melody was awake by then, so I was guiding two kids instead of taking pictures.

They rolled the raspberries they picked yesterday in sugar, then poked them into the middle of each muffin.

The berries hid when the muffins cooked, and were found again when eaten.

Fun idea, good muffins, and the interaction was priceless!