Aunts and Uncles

6 2liters of soda.

+

2 boxes of poptarts.

+

20 miniature bags of chips

+

12 chocolate chip cookies

have been consumed in my house in the last 24 hours.

And not by me or Kev.

It could only mean one thing.  My sister's kids are over.

For their annual New Year's celebration with their Aunt Kim and Uncle Kev.

We just had to do it a little early this year - due to my schedule at work.

It always amazes how much they can eat.  And the list above does not include dinner or lunch!

I promise that it is not my goal in life to feed kids a bunch of junk food.  In fact, these days I would LOVE to be able to have them experience something new, something different, something healthy.

But kids will be kids and it is my job as an Aunt to give them what they want. 

It is important for me to be the "favorite", after all.

I texted Ashlynn - as I have done for the past couple of years- to find out what food they would want.  Her response was "spaghetti or pizza". 

Which just happens to be the response that I get every year.

And even with the spaghetti and pizza, we are not talking anything fancy.  No green.  No fancy cheeses.  No interesting variations.

Just noodles + sauce OR cheese pizza with maybe a pepperoni or two.

So, I planned a pizza party. 

A "make your own pizza" party.

Because getting to choose your own toppings between a bowl of pepperoni and a bowl of cheese is crazy fun!

And I also made garlic breadsticks ( from the freezer) and "handcrafted" "fried" cheese.

It was handcrafted because I wrapped string cheese in eggroll wrappers.

And it was fried because I rubbed the wrappers in olive oil and then baked them.

Thank goodness for pepper jack string cheese... because otherwise they would have had NO TASTE!

They pretty much exploded in the oven.... probably because I didn't wrap them tight enough.??

Like I said... the ones with regular string cheese were the blandest things that ever touched my lips.  But the pepperjack ones were ok.

They didn't ruin the evening... but they probably won't be on my menu again.
And then the creative pizza making began....

They turned out pretty good.  And the kids thought it was cool to make their own pizza...so three cheers for the Aunt and Uncle!!

Dessert was ice cream sandwiches made with fresh chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream.  Yum!

Other than consuming large quantities of junk and drinking obsessive amounts of soda... the crew basically just sat around and played video games...

And posed for pictures...

I'd like to think that they get their 80's band poses from me...

It was one of the subjects that I studied in high school.

For lunch today I made them more pizza and commented multiple times on how they need vegetables in their life.

They were so much fun as always and great entertainment. 

I was telling my Mom today about their visit and commented that I don't know why they like to come out because all they do is play video games.  But she reminded me of how they will always have great memories of spending time with Kim and Kev no matter what we do to entertain them.

And she is right.  Because going to visit my aunts and uncles was one of the greatest experiences ever when I was growing up.  They literally could have given me a stick to play with and served sliced cheese and I would have had the BEST time.  Even though they did WAY WAY MORE than that.  It was just being with them and staying at their house that was so special and awesome.

And now I'm off to review 2011's resolutions and see what I accomplished and what I need to refocus on this year.

Nerd alert times 20!

Today is the LAST day of the year!!!