Easter Lunches/ Treats

    So I am just going to go ahead and say what you are all thinking... "There's is something mentally wrong with that woman that she goes to that much trouble for every freaking holiday!"  I would agree with you, but my mind is still kind of fuzzy from staying up until 1:30 a.m. to finish everything for school.  We were talking about monkeys right?  No, that's right, we were all questioning my sanity.  Oh on night's like last night I question my own sanity.  The problem is that you should never begin a tradition with "one child" that you are not prepared to continue with "five children".  I began all of these crazy things when I just had one.  For one child nothing is too much of a big deal, I mean he was an only child and I had to compensate for the his lack of siblings by being super mom.  Well I more than made up for a lack of siblings (I pretty much spent my 30's pregnant), but now all of the kids expect the same level of lunacy.

    Yesterday afternoon I began baking my cupcakes.  I baked 80 cupcakes last night!  I had it down to an assembly line style.  One batch was cooling on the counter while the other baked.  When the timer said I had five minutes left for the batch in the oven, I would take the cooled cupcakes out and put them on the kitchen table.  I then refilled the cupcake pan afresh.  Oh good times, good times.  All the while I did this, Elly and I were making smelly playdough for the kids in her class.

    Elly has a little girl in her class who is allergic to peanuts and to eggs.  We are unable to bring in home made treats because of the risk to this child.  I thought that maybe Elly and I could make some smelly playdough (remember I shared the recipe for the Koolaid playdough last week).  I bought adorable little plastic Easter eggs at the store, and thought that we could fill them with the smelly playdough... Elly was having none of it.  

    "When are we making the cupcakes for my class?" Elly asked, her big blue eyes locking onto mine.

"Remember your friend Ella is allergic to peanuts and we can't bring cupcakes into your class.  I thought that we could make some playdough for your friends... you can help me.  Mommy bought these cute little eggs and I thought you and I could fill them up with playdough."  I am using my good Mommy voice.

"Playdough is stupid".  Elly tells me, her face all screwed up with disgust.

"You know Mommy, today someone brought in cupcakes to class, and Ella ate one." says the little adorable liar, her face looking sweet and innocent as she turns it up to me.

"Oh did they?  Maybe I should call Mrs. Bailey and ask her... what do you think?" I say feeling smug that I have caught my four year old in my web.

"No, you shouldn't call her, she's really sick." she says without skipping a beat.  I'm not sure if I should be impressed with her new found ability to bold face lie, or be afraid, very afraid... I'm still unsure about it.

    It is shortly after this conversation that my wonderful little helper picks up an uniced cupcake.

"Don't touch the cupcakes please." I say, with a bit of danger creeping into my voice.

It is at this point that my little darling takes a big bite out of the top of it.

"I have to eat this one... someone took a bite out of it."  It was at this point that I decided for the sake of my sanity and Elly's life that I would ice the cupcakes after the kids were in bed.

    After the kids were all tucked up in their beds, I made a batch of butter cream icing and tinted it green.  Very carefully I put a thin layer of icing on the top of each cupcake.  As I ran the icing over the top, the cupcake would pull off and cause cake crumbs to mix in with the icing.  It was dreamy.  I then loaded up the icing bag and began to make it look like a tiny little field of cupcake grass.  It was on my third cupcake that my arm began to ache, and my fingers began to spasm.  I wondered what I was thinking... why had this design seemed like a good idea in my big fat head... oh that's right I'm nuts!

    After I had iced 60 cupcakes, I decided to just do one more.  I had promised Elly one for her lunch.  I felt like I had one Popeye arm at the end.  As if to prove just how crazy that I really am, I decided to make the kids a special Easter lunch for their last day.

    I made their sandwiches and then used a really cute bunny cookie cutter to cut them.  Last week when Christopher and I went to Watertown I had found these really neat "Foodwriter" pens made by Wilton.  They come 5 in a package.  They were just too cool to pass up.  They came in very handy when it came to giving my sandwich bunnies a face.

    I made the big kids deviled eggs (because they don't have egg allergy kids in their classes).  I took the shells off and then soaked them in cold water that I had put food dye gel in.  I let them soak for about ten minutes.  I have to admit they turned out very pretty.  Now the question is did the kids eat them after all of that trouble... I guess I will find out tonight.

    So there you have it, the proof that I am nuts.  I am crazy, but I really do love those kids.