Dinner? Circus? Dinner?

Last evening, making dinner felt like a circus! It became CRAZY!!!

The kids were restless for daddy to come home, because he had promised a trip to the park! So to get their minds off of waiting (which is so hard for a 3 and 2 year old to do) I asked if they wanted to help make dinner.
I filled a pot with water and set the steam tray on top and let each child pour in some veggies. Hannah went first and poured in some carrots. No problem there. Then Ben poured in some broccoli. As he started to pour, a piece of broccoli got on his finger and he freaked out!!! Remember this is my "clean" boy who does NOT like anything on his hands!!!. SO broccoli went flying everywhere! But that is okay, I did ask my 3 year old if he wanted to help and with that comes mess. So I cleaned up the mess and went to set the pot back onto the burner. I did not realize that when I pulled it off the burner to make it closer for the kids to reach, that the handle was still over the flame and as I grabbed it...well I burned my finger pretty bad. This is a normal occurrence in the kitchen even when the kids don't help!!!! LOL! After tending to my finger and re assuring Hannah that mama was okay, I moved onto getting the potatoes ready to bake. I took out some tater tots (by the way, the shape is cylinder!!!! and the kids and I had a little mini lesson right there in the kitchen!) and put them on the cookie sheet. Then I opened the potatoes bag and asked the kids to hand me the potatoes so I could wash and slice them for mom and dad to eat. They did so, and also started a little mini baseball (red potato) game in the kitchen.
After picking up the potatoes, I went back to slicing. Ben had lost interest by now and that just left me and my girl. So I set her up at the table and asked her to put the slices of potato on the cookie sheet.And she did. Not one at a time, but ONE BIG tower of potato slices. When I started to take it down she was upset and I had to take some time to explain that they could not cook that way!!! LOL. So into the oven the tater tots and potatoes went!! Then the stir fry noodles. I mixed up the sauce and put the noodles in the pan to start to cook, and I heard Ben say in a calm voice..."mom I need to go poo poo!!" So I said okay and started to turn and go to him, when his voice came back all high pitched and strained and he came running into the kitchen hopping and waving his hands saying "MOM I NEED TO GO POO POO"!!! He apparently waited to say something until "IT WAS TIME" so we RAN to the bathroom! We washed our hands and he came back with me to check on dinner. By now I had forgotten how long to do the noodles and when I went to check the package, the package was missing. This is when I realized a few things were missing. A spoon I was using, a fork, my drinking cup. But just as I started my search for these things, Hannah announced that she had to go "potty"!!! SO back to the bathroom we went and I prayed that nothing would burn before I could get back to it. After the bathroom and the washing of hands, I got back to the dinner that was on the verge of burning. I added the now steamed veggies to the noodles and let that start to simmer a little and checked the potatoes. I did not continue my search for the missing items, and just got some new ones and finished up dinner. I told the kids to get in their chairs and Hannah made sure I knew she wanted "dippy" with her tater tots! I served up their plates, and they were quiet and eating. I washed my hands and used a paper towel to dry them off and as I walked over to throw it away I found my missing items!!!! IN THE TRASH!!! My fork, spoon, cup AND the bag of red potatoes!!!! I asked Hannah why she put them in the trash and she said "help mama teen up"! I told her thank you.
What a crazy night, but everyone got dinner in the end, and nothing burned (except my finger!!!) LOL!