Such a precious time with the girls...until...

Tomorrow is Colin's Kindergarten Graduation, so this afternoon, I made some cookies for the reception that follows the ceremony. The girls quickly found me & wanted to help. Knowing that their "help" usually ends up causing me twice the work (& 3x the frustration), yet wanting to encourage their kindness, I came up with a pretty good (or so I thought) solution. I gave them each their own bowl, some measuring instruments & a little flour. They were doing such a good job & looking rather cute doing it...
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...until I left the room for (no kidding) two minutes. When I returned, that "little flour" I had given them somehow had exploded onto every imaginable surface around them. They had also found the green sprinkles I was going to use to decorated the cookies. They poured that all over, evitentially licking it up off of the counter. Then they made a mixture of flour & the remaining sprinkles & poured it into a pitcher of juice. When I came in, they were stirring the red juice & flour mixture with their hands. This mama was not happy! In fact, I was so frustrated, I couldn't even see the humor in it enough to take a picture of it. :)

You know, there's a part of me that wants to be the kind of mom that I see on commercials. You know, the kind that is somehow all dressed in white, living in a house that is all decorated in white. The dog runs into the living room with muddy paws, the kids come tromping through the newly mopped kitchen floors in their filthy soccer uniforms & the baby is spilling its red juice all over the floor. She smiles, gives Mr. Clean or the Brawny guy (or whoever) a "knowing look", then proceeds to clean up the entire mess with one paper towel, while completely keeping her cool & a smile on her face...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?

I'd also like to be Rachael Ray, cooking her 30 Minute Meals. But I can't remember her ever having two, 2 1/2 year olds pulling at her legs, needing to go to the potty, a 6 year old that wants your help making his latest LEGO creation & an 8 year old that needs help doing a diorama of the Klondike Gold Rush for class...That would be the kind of show I'd be interested in. :)

It's now 10:30 at night. Everyone is in bed, the kitchen is cleaned up & I can smile about what happened this afternoon. I even wish I would have taken a picture of that mess. I once heard a quote that that went something like...if you're going to eventually laugh about it, you might as well do it now. Boy is that hard to do in the heat of the "battle".

Anyway, I hope my kids remember the times I did allow them to help & remember me as the kind of mom that didn't expect their "help" to be perfect...I just wish I had Mr. Clean, The Brawny lumberjack & a whole TV crew to help clean up those messes! Wouldn't that be nice. :)