Making dinner with twins... not recommended.

The afternoon, especially between 4 and 5 pm are my least favorite times of the day. By that time I'm worn out and the boys are too. They're more cranky, fussy, and beginning to get hungry. Trying to make dinner at the same time is nearly impossible and takes about 3 times as long as it would if I was alone. Today I even had Steve around and they were really putting on a show- clingy, throwing tantrums, crying, teasing & grabbing at each other.

Tonight for dinner was attempting a first time recipe-Giant Empanadas. While Steve finished up the weeding in the front yard I took the already testy boys inside to start dinner. After settling them down by watching a Singing Time video with them on my lap I got everything out and ready to cook. Before I even had the stove on I was having to resort to what is usually a 'no-no'. First was letting them play in the pantry. We installed a latch up high so I have control of when they do and don't go in it. Because when they do I can guarantee you they reorganize the can rotator and pull stuff off of shelves.

Aaron began putting all the cans in the rotator on the empty shelves on the wall.

When either I'd had enough of that, or they were bored and ready to move on to something else, I then put Aaron in the high chair. He was insisting on me holding him which doesn't work well when ingredients need to be chopped. When I accidentally left the measuring drawer open he pulled himself over and got himself busy reorganizing that. He LOVES playing with measuring cups and spoons so he was having a blast.

Andrew is usually a little more mellow and willing to sit in front of the TV, entertain himself, and not cause all my hairs to turn gray within minutes. Notice I said "usually". Tonight was not one of those nights. He wanted to be doing what Aaron was doing. Before I had a chance to get him in a high chair and find a drawer I was willing to let him play in he got himself into mischief. He pulled down the dishwasher, pulled out the rack, and began to set the table- isn't he amazing?! And I've never even taught him how to set the table before! One thing I would have mentioned is we use CLEAN dishes, not dirty ones.

And then he was kind enough to put some of those dishes in the dishwasher. Others only made it to the floor. They are always busy watching what the other one is doing and if they should jump in. Tonight was no exception- Aaron's taking a look at what Andrew's busy with and decided he's having more fun. (I hate when the text turns blue and underlines. I'm no techy and can't figure out how to fix it... help! Got it to turn black. Whew.)

During all this I managed to finish part of the recipe but made a huge mistake when I put the hot hamburger sauce on the pie pastry. It melted the pastry and ruined it. Luckily we live very close to a grocery store so Steve offered to go while I attempted to feed the boys a different dinner- since this one obviously wouldn't be ready when I'd hoped. They reFUSED to eat ( I knew they were both very tired) so up we went to take a bath while Steve got the empanadas ready to bake. After they were in bed we were finally able to sit down and eat around 7 pm. And it actually turned out to be a keeper.

Was this an unusual dinner prep day? Not really. Actually experiences like this are becoming the norm. That's why lately I've been making a lot of crock pot recipes because I can prepare it in the morning when the boys are happy and less needy. And I can enjoy the aromas all day. Cooking dinner at 4:30ish can be a very tiring and not-so-fun experience.