Some interesting brownies

Yesterday, I took off work and went to Red's Christmas Party at school. I'd agreed to bring M&M's and Hershey's Cocoa powder. Of course, when I volunteered for M&M's, it didn't occur to me how many M&M's 1 cup for 18 students would be! $30 worth of M&M's!

The party starts at 2:30 so I get there around 2:25. The parking lot is packed. I'm the last parent to show up in Red's classroom. Oh well. But the reason we needed the M&M's and the Cocoa powder is because we were making brownies in a jar as their craft/gift.

Imagine, if you will, 2 adults, 3 ingredients and between 4 and 6 kids (at a time) measuring things. Let me just tell you how interesting some of those brownies will be. They were supposed to measure 1 & 1/2 cups of flour, we used a 3/4 cup measuring cup and they just put two of those in...assuming they were all the way full and level. Next ingredient: 5 tablespoons of Cocoa powder. Some of the kids didn't understand the concept of level it off. And other didn't understand the concept of fill it all the way. Third (and final) ingredient: 2 cups of sugar. Generally they had a probably with filling it all the way.

This all would've gone fine if we had just *one* more parent helping. We did have more parents there, they were just...doing other things? So I was attempting to help with the flour, and the coca and the sugar. Which is why some of the jars are not quite as full as they should've been. But who knows if they are short flour, sugar or cocoa powder?

Also, this is a very messy activity that will result in cocoa, sugar and flour all over the table and the parents helping and some of the kids. Particularly flour given it's ability to fluff up in the air.