Recently the older kids have been helping to make dinner some of the time. I let them choose the meal, and then we prep it together. Then the three “lttle girls” decided that it was their turn to make dinner. Isabelle, Hallie, and Victoria are all pretty much develpmental peers, so it was like making dinner with three 3- and 4-year-olds. I’ll admit I was a little bit nervous about that plan. But it was such a big deal to the three of them, and we are working hard to move Isabelle and Hallie to more age appropriate activities, so we decided to give it a try.

Neither Isabelle nor Hallie knew what she wanted to make, so we sat down together with the cookbook. Isabelle decided pretty quickly that she wanted to make quiche. She used to be really hesitant to make any kind of a decision, so it’s exciting to see her make up her mind so quickly and confidently.  Then I flipped to the “Side Dish” section and asked Hallie to pick one to make. A year ago, Hallie had a hard time choosing between two options. This time, she flipped carefully through the entire section of the cookbook looking at each picture. Once she had seen all the choices, she turned back to the confetti corn recipe and told me clearly that she wanted to make that one. I can’t believe how far she has come!

We needed to make bacon for the quiche and the corn, so both girls “helped” me cook that.They were a bit more excited about tasting the bacon. 🙂 We even let Victoria taste some.Then it was time for Isabelle to make her quiche. I did the pie crusts and help her measure, but she did the rest of it pretty much by herself. When Greg asked her what she made for dinner, she was able to tell him all of the ingredients and steps. I was pretty impressed.Hallie needed a little more help than Isabelle, but was still a very active participant.From the very beginning, Victoria knew that she wanted to make chocolate pudding for dessert. I think her favorite part was licking the spoon at the end. I was pretty worn out by dinner time, but it was a lot of fun for all of us. I love that they are getting to be such big girls, and we will definitely do this again some time. Not too soon, but some time. 🙂