Saturday, July 17, 2010

Vacation Drama

Take four kids (2, 3, 4 and 5 years old) two sets of parents, one set of grandparents and stick 'em all in a house for the weekend during a heat wave and what do you get?  Drama.

I guess I can't complain.  I know many families have much worse dynamics with their relatives and overall we are pretty civil and reasonable with each other.  The problem comes with the "gotta get out of the house" folks vs the "I'm on vacation and want to take it easy" folks.  You may have guessed that Hubby and I are on Team IOVAWTTIE while the others are on Team GGOOTH no matter if it's 100 degrees in the shade and simply stepping outside for 5 minutes results in heat exhaustion or not.  The two senior citizens have insisted on going out for several daily walks (by themselves, thank goodness) and come back in fanning themselves with their hats and marveling about how unbearably hot it is outside. 

We are staying in a nice suburban house - they have a lovely sizeable, shaded backyard with a great wooden swing set, covered back porch and plenty of water toys/activities.  What's wrong with the kids playing out back, the adults sitting on the shaded porch and calling it an afternoon?  Why do we have to pack everyone up and leave the premises in order for it to count as a fun activity "for the kids"?  It's not for the kids, it's for the adults.

I just about lost it trying to negotiate with Team GGOOTH and figuring out the logistics of how to fit in a visit to the pool, a visit to the Science Center and celebrating the 2 year old's birthday in between naps and feeding times for the kids.  I'm steadfast in not giving up my children's nap times in favor of doing a bunch of activities to keep the adults happy.  Nope, not worth it.  You will always end up paying for it later and it's just not fair to the nap skipping kid either.

After much discussion I stayed home with the napping 3 year old while the 2 year old went out with Team GGOOTH (of which his parents are members).  We will be meeting up for dinner once he wakes up and I'm enjoying the quiet until then.  Rest assured that dinner will be full of the antics of an over-tired 2 year old; I will relish my role as just the aunt and can stand back and let his parents juggle him in between bites of their cold dinners.

Indoor S'mores

We are on a 4-day mini get-away this weekend.  I brought supplies to make S'mores with the kids - did you know that Campfire makes a "giant roaster" marshmallow that is the size of a lemon?  They are insanely enormous. 

Personally, I'm ho-hum about s'mores; I think it's a fun idea but it seems that my marshmallow is always over or underdone, the chocolate doesn't melt enough and then there is the fuss of actually having to build an open fire to roast the marshmallows.  Last night it was stifling hot so my SIL introduced me to a new version of s'more making. Read on at your own risk - they are addictive and now you can have them ANYTIME you want.

Take 1 graham cracker square (half a rectangle), put it on a plate and top with a marshmallow. Microwave for 20 seconds. Remove and place 1/2 of a Hershey bar on top of the marshmallow and then top with the other graham cracker square.  That's it!  Now brace yourself.

It's ooey, gooey decadence. I actually like the flavor of the marshmallow better - don't miss the smokey flavor at all. The chocolate is completely melted and the graham cracker is crisp. Oh my, this is really much too convenient for me. Dangerously convenient.