I {Heart} Muffin Tin Meals!

My nieces came over to our house recently, which was a treat, since normally we go over there. Z needs to practice sharing her stuff more, and she's better at sharing stuff with Tually and Pilu (well... really just Tually. She would probably prefer if Pilu were a baby blob again, and not competition for "her" toys) than with anyone else.
So I made them a muffin tin snack lunch.

Apples, American ducks and Colby Jack butterfly cheese, raspberries;

Nutella (and PB. Shhh!) duck and butterfly sandwiches, Nutella roll-ups, carrots

The "chocolate" sandwiches were a hit. Tually tried a Nutella tortilla roll-up but didn't like it. She's not really one for new foods. I was thrilled that she ate my "brown" bread. I love how Nutella tastes on the Mission flour tortillas... it's like eating a chocolate donut bar. Mmmmmm. So any excuse to make one and I take it. I mean, someone has to eat the end bits, right? Since they don't stay rolled as well. And, you know... there might be leftovers. Tasty, tasty leftovers. But I wanted to introduce my nieces to this new sandwich concept, just to broaden their horizons. I chose the Nutella to entice them into trying one. And, you know. Because it's crazy delicious. Not interested in Nutella on bread though, myself. I prefer PB with honey or jelly.
Tually is really into the white American cheese right now, and they arrived late due to making her dad stop and buy some on the way over. She chose the mini duck cutter and I chose the butterfly, since Z was too busy yelling at Pilu and grabbing toys away excited to see her cousins to be coherent at this point.
I didn't bother sloshing the apples in juice to prevent browning, since usually an apple won't survive long enough around these hyenas, but the raspberries and Nutella proved to be more exciting.

Z had me bring out some Ranch for the carrots, which I hadn't originally done, since I wasn't sure that Pilu wouldn't just dump it on the floor how well they'd do with it, since it was all on their little table in the living room, rather than at a sit-down table. Pilu was mostly done by the time I got the Ranch out, so it went well. Pilu still doesn't understand the concept of shaped cheese. She just grabs the whole stack and takes a bite. I keep telling the other girls to hoard the shapes and give Pilu the scraps, since she doesn't care about the shapes, and the older girls get all whiny and fight over them. Especially Tually. It's less of a novelty for Z, since she rejects more of my cheese shapes in a week than Tually has ever even seen!

I ended up eating the last of the apple slices and sandwich rolls. Tragic, I know. And some carrot sticks. Actually, I was shocked and amazed that anyone bothered to eat their veggies, what with two kinds of yummy fruit and the chocolate sammies. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my foodophile? She'll be eating dessert and still stop and go back and eat more of her veggies. *weep* I don't know if the other girls had any carrots, since I was busy reading a trashy romance novel cleaning stuff.

I packed up the leftover food for the girls to take home, since they take the ferry, and it's a nightmare trying to wrangle the two of them up to the snack counter if they're whining starving.

My sister said my living room looked like a preschool, which pleased me, since she's fairly picky about what toys she wants for her kids, and rolls her eyes at my Littlest Pet Shop and Happy Meal toys (but will take duplicate My Little Pony ones. And Strawberry Shortcake.) It looked more like an explosion to me, and I had boxes of stuff we're trying to go through and get rid of piled all over the couches, which Pilu enjoyed trying to climb.

At least Z's room was (mostly) clean. Just a stack of boxes of 18-month clothes, 24-month and 2T summer clothes, and baby blankets. And a closet that couldn't quite shut all the way.

But they're family. And family understands when your house is a candidate for an episode of Hoarders not always at its best. They're especially understanding when you've been going out and watching their kids for free every week so that they don't have to find a daycare. Capisce? 

And maybe, as an added bonus, they stay and help you organize your kitchen and manage to cram all your bento and MTM stuff into the 2 measly cupboards you've been alloted. (...And into Z's dishes cupboard, and a plastic rolling set of drawers hastily fished out of bedroom closet and emptied of silly things, like husband's socks... Oh, and also some seasonal stuff went into the hall closet.) But I'm still technically all contained in my two cupboards in the kitchen. Nothing was said about stuff not being allowed outside of the kitchen!