S is for S'mores

Oh! She had been waiting all month for this! At the end of the previous month, the children's museum has calendars available for the upcoming month and all the fun things they schedule daily. So, even more than a month! Gretchen knew that on March 30th, the book-cook class was going to make s'mores. I answered this question no less than 7 million times: Why are they called s'mores again?

I brought the camera just because she has been waiting so long for her very first s'more. And, she now knew, she was going to want... s'more!!!

Apparently, a lot of other kids were also waiting for this particular class, too. I have never seen it so full. I counted 19 at the table "cooking". Don't worry, Gretchen planted herself up front for the story. She didn't shout out too much this week, though. The book was pretty involved. It was a camping alphabet book called S is for S'mores. Mary Ellen started out reading it, but each page was a little wordy for the audience, so by about L, she started just saying what the item was and moving on. She does lots of things like that that impress me. She must have a good background in early childhood. Gretchen washed her hands before the story, so she avoided the crowd after. Good move on our part. She got to sit next to the same little curly haired girl we sit with each week. She's a tiny little girl, but she talks so well. It's cute to hear full, clear sentences come out of her. She comes with her grandmother. I've never asked how old she is. Maybe she's even more petite than I thought and the language isn't as impressive as I am thinking. She's above in the pink sweater and below in the chocolate scooping picture.

Rather than give them each chocolate that wouldn't melt, the cooking project part was that everyone was going to mix up their own chocolate frosting to spread on their graham cracker. Turns out, there was no school that day and that is why there were more kids there than usual. So, with so many kids, Mary Ellen didn't let them all dish out everything by themselves. They got powdered sugar in a cup with a tongue depressor to stir it with. Give a 2 (or 3 or 4 or 5) year old a tongue depressor and a cup of confectioner's sugar... and you will end up with a messy table. Instinct tells them to dig in and use that flat wooden stick as a spoon... and there is little chance of it making it to their mouth. It will fall on the table for sure.

Then Mary Ellen came around and let them scoop out some chocolate powder to stir in with the remaining sugar. Stir. Taste. Spill. Repeat.She then added butter, milk and vanilla... in three separate trips. By now, the kids were stirring and tasting very well. If you have any frosting left, spread it on your graham cracker. During this time, Mary Ellen was warming marshmallows in the microwave and gave each child a warm marshmallow and a top for their sandwich.Smoosh! Enjoy!!!

Wash it down with some milk!! This was the first cooking class recipe that she has eaten the entire thing! We usually bring it home (and I throw it out later).

The spell check doesn't like the word "s'more". It wants to change it to smote, snore, more or sore.

Next week.... Chick Chick Boom Boom coconut tree snacks!!