The Hierarchy of Cups

Possibly my least favourite childcare task is managing whose turn it is to have the best thing this time.
This could be made worse by the fact that I have three girls, the elder two who are in some kind of fight to the death contest for the pinkest, frilliest, girliest objects in the world.
I really try to buy multiples of things to avoid fights but it never works out. It's like the odd sock rule. Nothing ever pairs up as it comes out of the dishwasher.

This principle is at it's worst when it comes to cups. If you want to get my girls a drink you need to remember the rules at all times.

1. Character cups trump plain colored cups.

2. Girlie characters (princesses, ponies etc.) trump boyish characters (toy story, cars etc) UNLESS we have just watched Toy Story, then those cups will beat the girlie ones - for THAT DAY ONLY.

3. There is a hierarchy of girlie characters. Disney princesses beat Dora who beats My Little Ponies who beat generic girlie icons.

4. Plain colored cups also have a hierarchy, which is in descending order:
- pink
- purple
- red
- orange
- blue
- yellow
- green

5. Bunnykins cups are only permitted when all other cups are in the dishwasher.
5a.There are 4 bunnykins cups. 3 match, one is different. It has the highest value.

6. Categories can NEVER be mixed. For example, it's forbidden to give out a character cup and a plain colored cup

7. The girl who had the highest ranking cup last time, gets the lower ranking cup this time.

Got all that? Right. Once everyone has a drink, then you can start with snacks.

Never Going to be Sponsored by Donna Hay

Part of me feels bad to write this post because I have a Donna Hay cookbook and there are some really good recipes in it, but something bugs me about the way the Donna Hay brand is marketed.

For example, if her food is so Fast, Fresh and Simple as her TV show claims, then why is she telling me to measure my puff pastry with a ruler.  And in the very same recipe where she claims she has an aversion to washing up and is cheating by lining a baking tray with paper, she prepares roast vegetables separately, in individual bowls for each type. (I can only guess that her aversion to washing up is actually dealt with by the army of out of focus staff working away in the background of her test kitchen)

In her Cookbook, “No Time to Cook”, there are recipes for Double Cooked sticky ribs, (if you don’t have time to cook once, why would you be cooking twice?) and a lot of chat in the introduction about being a working parent and needing quick solutions – but the recipes only serve two adults. Maybe it assumes the kids eat with the Nanny before you get home?

And most of all, her new range of cake mixes are the shocking price (yes, I am a tightass) of $8+.  That’s a hefty price to pay for fast, fresh and simple, and you still need to add the butter and the eggs.

It's not really Donna's fault. It's just a symbol of how I get irritated by things that say they are "family friendly" and "quick and easy" because that sounds good, but that's not what you are getting at all.

I’d like to see Donna call a spade a spade and title her next book “Expensive and time consuming recipes – worth it because the presentation will impress your friends”.  You know, the product she’s actually selling.

Thoughts??