Score!

Today I hit the jackpot. I made a dinner that all three of my kids ate and actually enjoyed. It is basically chicken strips coated with Honey Bunches of Oats cereal, and I do have to say it was very yummy. The recipe calls for it with barbecue dipping sauce. My kids drown everything with Ranch dressing, and I had it with an Asian Sesame dressing which was delicious. The sweetness of the cereal really gave it kind of an Asian taste so I thought the dressing went well. Normally whenever Erin eats meat of any sort she chews it until it conglomerates into a dry paste on the roof of her mouth. She is then unable to swallow it because there is absolutely no liquid left and therefore winds up spitting it out. Tonight her comment to me on dinner was, "Wow, this tastes like an ice cream bar!" I guess you can't beat that!

On a side note, everyone is now healthy and well in our household. Saturday evening, after being sick free for a good 48 hours, we had our neighbors' kids over. We are doing a swap with them twice a month to give us parents some free time with free babysitting. The kids go to school together and play really well. Jerry and I even commented on how having six kids sometimes seems like less work than three. Early Monday morning, however, my friend called me up to say that all three of her kids had started throwing up within an hour of each other Sunday night. I'm sure it's possible they caught it somewhere other than our place, but I still felt pretty guilty!

Little did they know what would be hitting them in less than 24 hours!

Sunday had the potential to be a terrific day, but Ben was just a firecracker all day long. He was horrible for the 10 minutes he had to be in church before going to the front. Then he hit me on the way up to the front of church which was a slight embarrassment to say the least. His mood continued so I was unable to leave him in his church school classroom. Jerry took him home instead of staying for the church luncheon. Then he refused to go down for a nap, but finally succumbed at about 3 pm. Our friends, the Burgess', were coming over that afternoon for dinner and sledding and when Ben woke up at 4:30 he was still angry at life. He wanted to go sledding but pulled a tantrum when I tried to put on his snow pants. I finally just held him down and put on all his snow gear while he thrashed around and tried to kick me. I carried all 33 pounds of him across the street and up to the top of the hill still screaming at the top of his lungs, put him on a sled, and sent him down the hill. That was the end of his horrible mood. It was smiles after that.

Claire and Taylor getting ready to go down the hill

6 kids watching Cinderella