Cooking parties still work with kids

We've been getting together with two other couples to do these awesome cooking parties for years now. Our last one, a Kabob Party, was just this weekend, and I had to laugh at how things have changed over the years. We still rotate houses each time, with the host choosing the menu and each couple buying the ingredients for one or two of the dishes, and we still spend a lot of time laughing, cooking, and eating, but... We used to have six adults and only one kiddo, and used to arrive around 3pm and cook until about 9 or 10 at night (the cooking was seriously delayed by all the talking). Now we've got seven kids between us (yep, outnumbered!), and we have to work around afternoon naps and chasing happy kids the whole time. So we've adapted things. The host still chooses the menu and the recipes, but now each couple prepares their assigned dishes ahead of time and brings them ready to be cooked. We choose plenty of things that the kids can help with during the party. And the parties start a smidge later and break up a little earlier (I chuckled when we were all on the road before 8:30pm this time). But the main things haven't changed a bit: we have incredible amounts of fun and cook (and eat) some really great food. For this weekend's Kabob Party, our host picked these awesome recipes, most of which were cooked on the grill: Cowboy Kabobs Chicken Satay Skewers with mango relish (this one was my fave) Pizza Pull Kabobs Cheese and Fruit Kabobs Grilled Vegetable Kabobs (yum!!) Dessert Kabobs (This one was brought unassembled, and then the kids got to make it for everyone.) Here are a few pics, taken with the purse cam. Ro and Ree like to help with everything in the kitchen. It can get a little tricky when mama is making things like mojitos, heh heh. So we changed gears and let them make virgin mojitos for all the kids. Ro was jumping so high it was crazy! I could barely hold the camera I was laughing so hard. Enjoying one of my custom mojitos. Mmmm, I've finally figured out how to make them. I'll share the recipe in another post. They all loved making the Dessert Kabobs. Quick, easy, and fun, fun, fun. Little Ree always makes this face when she's cooking. The girl is deadly serious about her cooking. Hm, Ro just might, perhaps, have gotten a teeny bit on her face: Am I clean, mama? Did I get any on me? Hee! Someday (maybe) I'll get my act together and take a group shot of everyone at our cooking parties. Wouldn't those be fun to look back on?