I'm the type of person that sometimes builds up things to be really big deals in my head. For example, this last week before school starts, I want to make sure that I'm giving the kids fun memories that will hang with them for a while. The fact of the matter is that both Ellie and Ethan are young and therefore likely won't remember a lot of particular things or events from this stage of life. What I do think they'll remember though is the three of us having fun together, even if all we're doing is working in the kitchen like we did Wednesday morning.
The beginning of our day was based around one thing though and it decidedly was not working in the kitchen. Instead, it was taking Ethan to the eye doctor for an eye exam before he starts school next week. I realized most people visit the eye doctor because they're struggling to see. For Ethan though, we were just trying to get a benchmark on his eyes prior to beginning school. Not a bad idea when you realize that Bethany, Ellie, and I all require some degree of corrective lenses.
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| Like the great big sister that she is, Ellie helped keep Ethan entertained by playing hand games with him while waiting for the eye doctor. |
One thing that I must say is that it's always fun to watch someone Ethan's size sit up in the big chair at the eye doctor while looking so tiny. For the record though, he was feeling pretty proud of himself to be sitting in it. Once his exam began, he pretty much knocked it out of the park. He did everything he was asked to do with zero complaints and followed directions to the letter. By the time his appointment was all said and done, we had confirmed that Ethan has 20-20 vision and needs no corrective lenses at this point in time. While that likely won't last, I'm certainly happy for him that that is the case for the time being.
After we finished up at the eye doctor, we had to make a quick stop at Aldi before we could go home. Why you may ask? Simple, we needed to pick up the ingredients to make some homemade ice cream just like I had promised the kids we would. After picking up some half and half, some whipping cream, and some eggs, we were on our way home.
Once we made it home, I invited the kids to join me in the kitchen to start the process. Putting a big pot on the stove to mix our ingredients in, I helped the kids measure out each thing individually so that they could add it to the pot before we mixed it all together. While Ellie and Ethan sometimes bicker during times like this, both kids did a great job working together and taking turns. Before we knew it, they had mixed all of the ingredients together over a hot stove and it was time to place our cream mixture in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to cool down.
Two hours later, it was time to start mixing the ice cream. I carefully poured the mixture into the freezer and then let Ellie and Ethan put the mixing tool and the cover into place. With that, Ethan hit the on button and the mixer started spinning. While the ice cream churned away, it was time for us to get our toppings ready. Getting out the food processor, Ellie and Ethan took turns unwrapping Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and dropping them into the processor where they were obviously chopped into tiny pieces.
Fast forward about twenty minutes and it was time to add our toppings to the ice cream. While I carefully scraped the pulverized pieces out of the food processor, Ellie and Ethan took turns dumping handfuls of Reese's Pieces candy into the churn. Finally, we had all of our toppings added and it was time to step away and let the mixer churn.
Here's where I share an important life lesson with you. Never take the recipe card for gospel when making homemade ice cream. Even if it says 45 minutes to churn, one should probably check it after 30 or so. As it so happens, I had left the churn going for too long and the ice cream actually overflowed out of it and created a melted, sticky mess all over our counter. I'd be lying if I said that it didn't take quite a while to clean up.
Later that night after a dinner lovingly prepared by Ellie (with a little help from me), it was time to taste our ice cream. Despite the messy conditions created by our churn escapades, the ice cream tasted fantastic. Not only did it taste great, but the kids were absolutely elated to have played such a big part in making it. It's just like I said; making ice cream was a relatively unexciting thing but it will likely help create a memory of us having fun together. That's not a bad thing at all if I do say so myself.
#DaddyWrite
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