Cookie making, A Success!

 We had a blast the other day making cookies.  I was determined to make this baking experience a joyful one for our entire family.  The kids absolutely love any type of baking, rolling, frosting, crafting, and sprinkling so making frosted sprinkle cookies was right up their alley.  Bria and Bennett helped me mix and stir.

Chadd was called upon to roll out our dough while I got dinner ready.

Once the dough was rolled out, we gave the kids cookie cutters to make their shapes.

Bria loved waiting until the was no available dough to cut a full cookie so that she could roll the little dough ball over and over again.

We made a lot of colored frosting!

Avery joined in to help create and bake.

Bria is pouring out some of the sprinkles to be sure not to over sprinkle her cookies.

The end product: Bria's

Avery's

Bennett's.

Gingerbread House

I love making Gingerbread houses.  I realized this year however, that I love making them so much that I cannot be patient enough with my kids to allow them to even have an ounce of fun while making one.  I hate that!  I didn't realize that I was so completely anal that a project which was supposed to be fun for the kids turned into an all out scream fest in which the kids just stared at me unsure of how to proceed.  What.A.Grinch!

I vow to buy little houses for the kids next year so that they can each make their own.  There will be no yelling or anxiety at all.  All was not horrible though and I truly believe that Avery and Bria had fun despite my tantrum. 

We started making the house on Friday night only to realize that once we put the roof panels on we had to wait 3 hours for it to "cure."  The kids were really good about it though and I told them we would do it Saturday morning.  Much to our delight/horror we woke up to a blizzard and all activities were canceled so it was the perfect time to make our gingerbread house.

Within two minutes, Bennett had been yelled at and sent to sit on the couch with daddy.  How can I put this mildly: he is a wrecker.  The kid is creative in ways I could never have imagined.  Again...realizing that I need to relax and let it go next time which I will but man was it frustrating.

The girls each took turns making things.  Avery did the door.  Bria did the windows.  I did the roof(and it ticked me off so royally that I almost threw the darn thing away).  The girls did do a good job and they decorated the whole house with candies.  Bennett was allowed back over while I tried to frost the roof.  I had to use so much corn starch to get it to not be sticky to my fingers that it looked like it was dusted with a fresh layer of powder.  The girls thought it was quite funny.  Thankfully Bennett didn't touch a thing, he was content to just keep eating candy. 

All in all, it turned out pretty decent.  You live and you learn.  At least the girls had fun :)  

My little model

On Wednesday, my neighbor Jen asked if Bria could come into her studio and model a tutu set that she has on hand.  Of course we said yes.  I was a little bit nervous at first because our recent family photo session did not go very well because Bria was just not having it.  She was a little cranky pants and it was very difficult to get a great family shot because of her unwillingness to participate.  However, the moment we walked into the studio and she saw the beautiful background that Jen had put up and the bright red tutu her eyes lit up and I knew we were good to go. 

She posed and smiled and wiggled her bottom.  She curtseyed and giggled and held onto the dainty bow.  She acted as if she was a little pro.  I thought it was so adorable to watch her be a little diva for a day!

Thank you Jen from http://www.elizabethgracephotography.com/ for thinking of Bria to do some modeling for you.