A big mess

I was getting ready to fix dinner. I went to put something in the freezer. When I opened the door, two cookie sheets full of frozen raspberries came careening out at me! All I could do dodge out of the way from the lethal weapon :) After the explosion of raspberries all over the floor, my heart sank at the sight! There lay almost a full case of raspberries all over my kitchen floor. I was so sad, but realized that I might be able to salvage some of the larger pieces and ones that didn't break on impact. So I quickly set to work.
On fact that I soon realized is that my children, Big Guy, Bubba, and Monkey were all staring at the raspberries with excitement in there eyes! Monkey squealed and picked up one and took a bite. Big Guy asked immediately "Can I have a berry?" Bubba was on a little push car and said "Can I drive through them?" (I'm glad that he asked before doing so :). I knew that it was useless to try to keep them out, so I told them "You can eat the little pieces." I grabbed Monkey to keep him from smashing the berries with his already covered berry hands and feet. I put him in his booster (which he protested about) and gave him a few small pieces.
I proceeded to clean up the berries and was able to wash them off and freeze many of them. In the meantime, the children did their part by eating the little pieces as quickly as their little berry stained hands could put them into their mouths. They knew that Mom would soon come with the broom and sweep their "treat" away.
Some may say "I can't believe that she let her children eat off of the floor." I considered that, but realized that I had cleaned the floor yesterday. I know it was still dirty, but I guess considered the alternatives and thought, "This will make a great memory." I could have banished them out of the kitchen while I cleaned up the mess, but I knew there would have been weeping and wailing and it would have been almost impossible to keep them out. I didn't want to deal with all of that, so I went with the flow and let them create a fun memory. After we were all done, Big Guy said "Mom, can we eat berries off of the floor another day?" To me, it was worth it.