Home is where the heart is……or should it be the ‘kitchen is where the heart is’? It’s definitely true in our case and I think for most people this is more accurate. Why do we all find ourselves congregating in the kitchen at a party? No matter how big or small the kitchen is, you will usually find the majority of people standing, crushed into the corner of your kitchen every time.
We love to have parties for family and friends. We may not be the best cooks in the world or the best hosts, but it doesn’t matter. We love gathering together, having a laugh and creating havoc in our kitchen. It does take us ages to clear up after, as I’m sure it does for everyone, however, using our Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablets eases this pain. Most things get chucked in the dishwasher, even the children can help with this too, just add a Fairy tablet and everything comes out again all sparkly clean, I love it!
Apart from parties, another (more important) reason for the kitchen being the heart of our home, has to be our family meals together. One of the most important times for us is dinner time. Yes, my kids love food and eat almost anything (I know this is very rare), but it’s not just about the food. For us, family meals in our kitchen all seated around the table together is very important. It gives us a chance to share our day, reflect on things together and talk about whatever is relevant, be it school, work or play. I think we have probably covered every emotion round our kitchen table from laughter, smiles and happiness to tears, tantrums and frustrations. It’s all part of the significance of sharing a family meal.
The children have decided they are desperate to help out at dinner, so we have given each child a mealtime to help at and woe betide anyone who changes that rule!! They love their little responsibility of setting the table and helping serve. I think this is wonderful, but they do all take it very seriously!
Aside from partying and eating in our kitchen, we also love to bake and cook together. We have made all sorts of creations, from chocolate cakes, cake pops and marzipan sweets to full on novelty birthday cakes, roast dinners and pizzas. It is not about how well our family creations turn out, it’s about the fun we had making them. I just love this video of my girls washing up after we made cakes together singing the ‘I can cook’ song. It sums up the fun we have.
We also love doing art and crafts, which of course happens in the kitchen, it’s the easiest place to clean up! We have created so many things in our kitchen, from volcano experiments, painting with spaghetti and making indoor snowmen to making concoctions, clean goop and beautiful works of art (as well as not so beautiful works of art) just to mention a few.
When I write this, I look back at all the things we have done in our kitchen and I am amazed at it all, my memories of it are priceless. Yes, our kitchen mealtimes together sums up the most important time we have as a family. However, the other things we get up to in our kitchen together creating, playing, laughing and yes debating and arguing (that’s all part of family life too) has a huge significance to us, I absolutely love it!
“This post is an entry for the ‘My kitchen story’ Linky challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum“