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Kiddie Kitchen Capers

What's the most stressful thing you did today?  For me, it was keeping twenty little hands safely away from a 300 degree griddle during their first grade cooking party while they cooked pancakes! 

When the kids achieve certain goals, their teacher lets them pick a party; they opted for a pancake-omelette party this time around.  And because Dylan gushed to his teacher that "my mommy is an Italian chef" - which is patently untrue, by the way - I was roped in to chaperone this party.

So, the unnerving part of the morning: keeping them from getting burnt.  The great part: watching them, in groups of four or five, create with a recipe.  Some tables wanted to use all of the ingredients (bananas, blueberries, strawberries, and chocolate chips); some tables wanted some cinnamon, others didn't.  Some topped theirs with only syrup, some used  syrup and whipped cream.  And at the end of the breakfast, they had to make a cookbook.

What a great, hands-on way to teach and reinforce measuring, fractions, and healthy eating.  Okay, the chocolate chips in pancakes probably weren't the healthiest, but I heard most of the kids order their omelettes with spinach.  Popeye would be proud.  I surely was.

The "engreadens" for Dylan's super "pangcakes" = "flower, blueberri, egg, wipcreme."  Love that kid. 

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