There's No Use in Crying over Spilled Milk

So, I consider myself fairly patient, at least I think I rarely lash out at my kids or get mad over accidents. But this morning has stretched me nearly to my breaking point...
Today is Ken's birthday. And for him that means it is all about his favorite food. So we made him his favorite breakfast; Grandpa's T. Biscuits and Gravy and hot chocolate. After breakfast Ken went up to work in his office and I and the kids (Darin, Nathan, Rose, Abby, and Cassidy) went to work on his favorite dessert. German Chocolate Cake and Homemade German Chocolate Cake Ice Cream. Nathan and Abby chose to make the cakes, and Darin and Cassidy made the ice cream.

Things were going along fairly well, it was a little chaotic supervising 4 of them and trying to keep Rose from getting in the way and Ginger from crying. But the kids were having fun, and I've always loved teaching them how to cook.

Darin and Cassidy finished their ice cream and were in the process of pouring it into a gallon pitcher to cool in the refrigerator.

Nathan and Abby had melted the chocolate, mixed together the butter and sugar, separated the egg yolks and added them to the mixture, mixed together in a separate bowl the flour and dry ingredients, and were now to the point where they needed to alternate adding buttermilk with the flour. I had taught the kids how to read the instructions to find out the next step, however they don't always read carefully. Anyway, we didn't have buttermilk so I had Nathan and Abby run over to my moms to borrow lemon juice to make sour milk instead.

Then Ginger decided she had had enough and needed to take a nap. I left the kitchen for 20 minutes to put the kids down for a nap. I got little updates from them like Darin saying they put the ice cream mixture in the kitchen, and Nathan telling me he was back from Lola's.

Then I came out from my room to find a huge puddle of chocolate milk in front of the refrigerator. I opened the door and found that the gallon of chocolate ice cream mixture was laying on it's side and had leaked down and through two shelves, and two vegetable drawers, and out of the door. Darin had laid the pitcher on it's side. He told me that he had put the lid on so there shouldn't be any problem. However Nathan pointed out that the lid had 1/2 inch gap, plus it's not a sealing lid, it's just a regular pitcher. Amazingly, I kept my cool and very calmly told Darin and Cassidy that they would need to make another batch and clean it up. And tried not to say much, since the things I wanted to say would have hurt their feelings. So they got to work on that and I turned my attention to Nathan and Abby.

Nathan and Abby inform me how all they have left to do is put it in the pans. I find this hard to believe since I see the bowl of flour sitting off to the side. They had mixed everything together except the flour, the milk (that was supposed to be mixed alternately with the flour), the eggs white (that were supposed to be beaten to white hard peaks and then folded in gently). I ask Nathan if he had beaten the eggs, knowing that I've never taught him that. And he says, "Yeah" and shows me a bowl (that would only hold 1 cup if you are lucky) that he had beaten them in until they were white. He was very proud of how well he read the directions, and was like "Oh, well I guess we didn't add the flour, let's just do that now." So we did, but I felt myself getting pretty upset because I really love to make Ken's favorite foods for him and I just wanted to cry that it was all turning out messed up. Then I was upset that now I had made the kids feel really bad or something when they were trying so hard. So I escaped to Ken's office for 10 minutes, to tell him. Which of course he laughed and was proud that the kids wanted to help so much. It made me feel slightly better.

When I came down I found that Cassidy had re-made the base, and Darin had cleaned up alot of the mess. And so I finished helping them, and realized I must not have showed my disappoint very much when Darin looks at me, smiles, and says; "Hey Mom, do you think this is the biggest mess we've ever made on someone's birthday?" And I just say, "Yes! I think it is." And Laugh.

However, if Nathan and Abby's cake turns out being better tasting then mine usually is, I will definitely get mad over that! There way is so much easier then the 10 steps I normally do:-)