Middle Eastern Night

This dinner actually ended up a disaster. I made Lebi Lebi soup from Tunisia, which is basically chickpeas, chicken broth and herbs, which was actually pretty tasty. We also had ratatouille from France, which I have made before, but I liked this recipe way better. Then we just had salad, because I needed to use up some lettuce. Then we made individual flourless chocolate cakes from Israel, that were scrumptuous. The meal started off okay, except for the fact that I'd had to sent Joseph to his room a couple of times right before we started Dinner, so in the prayer Betsy prayed that Joseph would stop yelling at mommy, and Joseph didn't like that so he punched Betsy when we said that, so I sent him to his room again, well he threw his usual fit and broke my broom stick from handle in his anger on the way to his room. So Dinner got off to a bit of a rough start. Austin said she didn't like any of the food, but would eat it anyway (she is so sweet), so she would take a bite and then take a drink of milk right away so she wouldn't have to taste it. She actually got herself three full glasses of milk which I didn't like, but it was too late by the time I realized what she was doing. Betsy liked all the food and was eating it slowly but surely, when Samuel decided he was done with his food and dumped his bowl of soup on the floor and his milk and plate too, splattering food up the walls and all over the floor, then seeing Joseph's empty place, he moved over to where his food was and proceeded to dump everything Joseph had all over the floor, then before anyone had time to stop him he did the same to Betsy, Austin and my food and drinks too. Everyone had full glasses of milk, so we had a lake under our table of milk, filled with salad, veggies, and soup. So I put all the kids over to the counter and gave them their chocolate cakes to eat while I started cleaning up the mess. When I was finished I looked over and found that Samuel had finished his cake, and was wiping his chocolate fingers all over the kitchen cupboards, floor, and refrigerator. So I grabbed him and cleaned him up, then started cleaning up the chocolate messes. Well the other kids had left their chocolate liners on the counter, so Samuel climbed up and got his hands all chocolatey again, and was wiping them all over again, so I picked him up again, cleaned him off, then took him into Austin's room, had Austin go in with him and play with him, so I could clean up, without having to worry about what he was doing. So I finally got everything cleaned up, and in hindsight I probably should have made samuel help clean up all his messes, but when the mess is that big it just seems easier to do it by myself. So although the food was tasty, I doubt I'll be making it again, until Samuel is out of his dumping everything on the floor phase.