Bunnies

So many bunnies....so many....

I was asked to cater a snack for the preschool party for my four year old last Thursday . Ok, that's not exactly true, what really happened is that I signed up to be the head of the party at the beginning of the year, then I forgot, then I was reminded by the teacher on Tuesday. Ooops. So I had to do some quick figuring and get something together that wouldn't suck. This is pressure time, I feel like I'm representing all stay at home dads, and any deficiency that I might have in putting this together could reflect badly on stay at home dads everywhere! All of them! In the whole world! Maybe that's too dramatic, anyway, I settled on grapes, orange slices, cheese cubes, and turkey sandwiches. I also made sugar cookies to frost for desert. Not exactly ground breaking stuff but a fairly well balanced meal and most kids can find something they like to eat. It sounds simple, but for some reason I can never do things the easy way.
First I buy all the stuff, then I have to get it ready. The cheese is easy, just chop big blocks into little blocks, then bag them. All I have to do is not cut myself. Nearly pulled that off. Quick bandaid and it's on to grapes. Those are the easy too, pluck them, check for stems, rinse and bag. No problemo. On to oranges. All I have to do is peel about 60 oranges. Crap. Not technically difficult but holy cow does that take a while. On to sandwiches, and where I get derailed. Sandwiches are fine, but wouldn't bunny sandwiches be better? Yes, yes they would. Using a cookie cutter I cut out the turkey. Easy. Now I need to cut out the cheese, but I don't want to make the sandwiches until right before the party, because I don't want them to get soggy. So I unwrap each piece of cheese, cut out the bunny, and then wrap it back up. Next I cut out the bread, and while I only had to cut out 48 pieces of turkey and cheese, I have to cut out 96 pieces of bread. Bread doesn't cut as well with a cookie cutter as you might imagine, not even fluffy white completely nutritionally deficient bread, just so you know.
I did get it all done (I even made sugar cookies in the shapes of bunnies and flowers during all of this) and brought it all into school. I spent the 20 minutes before the party assembling all of the sandwiches so they looked perfect. Then I passed out the food, and quite frankly, it was perfect. It was healthy and cute and everything that you could possibly want in a preschool party snack. I'm very happy with how it all turned out, but I'm glad I'm not signed up for the next party. At least I don't think I am.