Because EVERY ingredient is important....

I think I have pretty good kids. They are very talented, they are good students, they are obedient, they actually like going to church, (although Liam isn't great at actually sitting down during sacrament meeting) and compared to the kids I see on Super Nanny, I think I've got pretty good control.

But, let's be honest....sometimes my kids don't like each other. Sometimes they fight. Sometimes I can't sit #2 next to #3 because he will incessantly pick on her, stare at her, poke her, get agitated with her for chewing her food to many times....no, #2 and #3 are NOT a good mix. #3 likes to take things out on #4 because #4 is littler, BUT, #4 doesn't fall far behind because she is very bossy. #5 is a prankster and then there is #1 who thinks she is the parent about 75% of the time and likes to dole out the discipline whenever she sees fit. #6 just cries a lot because he's a baby. Sometimes our house is noisy...who am I kidding?! My house is ALWAYS noisy.

You could say our house can get a bit chaotic. Trying to hold family home evening "in spite of the bedlam that sometimes reigns in a houseful of little bedlamites" (Jeffrey R. Holland) is a difficult task. This week we tried to focus on building more unity in our family and reminding the kids how important we REALLY are to eachother. Each person is special and adds special gifts to our family. The J & A Bowles family wouldn't be the same without each and every one of us. However, I couldn't just TELL them this, that would never work, I needed to SHOW them.

So we made some rainbow cupcakes!


First we gathered together in the dining room and pointed out all the ingredients. Each ingredient is good by itself but unless they are mixed together they can't be called Rainbow Cupcakes. Right? No one ingredient is more important than the other...they all work together to make the cupcakes.

Then we attempted to take some blurry cell phone pictures:




Next, each person was given an ingredient to put in the mix. We also let the kids take turns mixing it all up in the bowl and then we took more blurry cell phone pics. (I think we need a camera....)







When the cake mix was good and ready it was time to separate the batter into 6 cups (representing each kid). Each of our children chose a color of food coloring to put in their cup and then had fun mixing it altogether to make the batter their desired color.



The next step was to add a little bit of batter to each cupcake liner, layering color upon color to achieve the rainbow effect.


It was finally time to place our cupcakes in the oven. We made sure to take this opportunity to talk about how each of us were a different piece of the Bowles Family rainbow. Our cupcakes were each going to be wonderful and unique because each of us added something to the mix.


At last it was time to EAT our beautiful rainbow cupcakes! Sadly, after all that waiting Liam fell asleep for the night. Still, they were so yummy, so colorful and the kids loved the idea that they made them together. The most important lesson was that EVERY ingredient is important, just like in our family.