Splitting Wood and Key Lime Pie

So on Thursday afternoon - I got a call at work from Kim. She said that her family (sisters and parents) were headed to Jr's Last Laugh for a show and came across 1 extra ticket - they wanted her to go. She wanted to know if I could be home at 5:30 to watch the kids so that she could go out for the night. I was thrilled because Kim doesn't do that kind of stuff nearly often enough. So when I opened the door to the house - I got mobbed by the kids (yes just like out of the movies). They were jumping and hugging and tackling and the whole bit. Kim's funny last words were - "here are three kids and a crock pot of chili that you hate for dinner... have fun!" I love that woman. Anyway- the kids and I decided to do something special while mom was out, so we cleaned up the house and then went out to the store for some missing ingredients for homemade key lime pie (one of our family favorites). So there I was with three little munchkin helpers making graham cracker crust and mixing up the condensed milk and egg yolks, etc. We emerged with an awesome pie that everyone devoured in two days!

Fast forward to yesterday - that same crew was bundled up in multiple layers - headed down to grandpas with axes and shovels and chain saw in hand (well - I had the chain saw). We spend almost 4 hours cutting and splitting wood for our fireplace and several loads for grandpa as well. Plus an impromptu snowball fight in the middle! It's really fun to experience such a variety of stuff with your kids - I think it's part of the definition of parenting. If I wasn't secure though, I might be having gender questions after the events of the last three days!