Honey, we shrunk dinner.

Today we decided to kill two birds with one stone with family fun.  I was so excited to offer the girls the chance to select what they wanted to cook for dinner and make the whole meal themselves.  Now, as I’m writing it I realize I must have been high thinking that would sound interesting.  However, in my defense, my girls do love to make dinner with us; just not when they know that’s all there is for family fun, apparently.  So, I upped the ante . . . I told them they could make the exact same dinner for their American Girl dolls and “shrink” dinner.

Here’s what I learned when you shrink your dinner and give the baby unsupervised access to jello and chocolate cake mix (oh, and why every mother really should take a salon haircut class):

1)      It is possible to make your miniature dinner look pretty close to the real thing, but it will take   four times as long to make dinner.  The girls selected pizza, watermelon and chocolate cake.  Sounds simple enough.  Well, for the full size versions, yes, it would take 20 minutes; the miniature versions, however, took 2 hours and required miniature pepperoni, jello, mini chocolate chips, lime rinds (that you have to scoop out yourself – if you ever want to discover just how many minor cuts you have on yourself, try this exercise), oreos and lots of chocolate frosting!  Oh, and the girls even added “glasses of milk”.  Superego (the oldest) came up with this one where she wrapped marshmallows in tin foil.  Now THAT is creative.

2)      Do not leave the baby unattended with a big bowl of chocolate cake mix.  Oh, and be sure that when you turn on the mixer, the baby isn’t too close to the bowl – poor girl got sprayed with chocolate cake mix powder.  Ooooops.  But, later I should have been suspicious when I kept seeing her dart in and out and not look me in the eye.  Then, I looked at the dress she had on – yup, that’s chocolate cake mix – oh, and I think a few of those “glasses of milk” made it into her mouth too.

3)      Do not give the children unsupervised access to “jello” watermelon slices.  My husband and I were cleaning the kitchen, and the kids were laughing hysterically.  We ignored them because they are usually laughing hysterically.  It wasn’t until 10 minutes later and we looked closer that we realized they had engaged in a jello food fight.  But, they and their American girl dolls did eat their dinner, so I guess we can’t complain too much.

Recommendations for today:

Make miniature dinner at least once.  We got our ideas from American Girl’s “tiny treats” book, and the girls had a great time coming up with their menu – and eating it too.

Allow your husband to buy a remote control helicopter.  He will entertain himself and your children for hours.  Daddy treated himself to a little bit of family fun at Costco today and ever spare second he had he was flying that thing.  J

Enroll in beauty school so as to know how to make your child’s hair look halfway decent when she decides to take the scissors to her hair after she has tired of working on her Barbie’s hair.

Doll Haircut



Id's haircut