It was Christmas Cookie Day!
Leah said, "Now I know why people don’t want to eat them. It’s like eating a work of art." She was pretty proud of her cookies.
We had our first socially-distant family gathering to celebrate Beth and Caroline's birthdays today. Jen made her first Smith Island Cake. It only took living in Maryland for 17 years for her to bake the official state dessert. It got thumbs up all around!
Leah attended a baking camp in June and came home asking to practice. Since Jen is an expert baker, she and Leah made some cupcakes then sent them virtually to Aunt Caroline as a birthday gift.
Leah also baked some banana bread muffins, which are a staple in our house!
Leah brought home her creations from baking camp each day. After a few days, there were lots of uneaten leftovers, so I made myself a sampler platter.
We have a Krispy Kreme near us! Krispy Kreme doughnuts are not found much around us (unlike Dunkin’ Donuts, which are everywhere). But we’ve got one now. It opened in Catonsville (a neighboring town) the same day that G’Mom and Grampa were flying home. So, Jen dropped them off at the airport super early (like 6), then got in line to get some opening day doughnuts for us. The girls approved.
For their first doughnuts from our new Krispy Kreme, Molly went for a chocolate iced cream filled, while Leah chose the strawberry iced with sprinkles.
Per tradition, the girls went to Grams’s house to bake Christmas cookies. Sadly this year Aunt Caroline was not around to help since she no longer lives nearby. We miss you Aunt Caroline.
Baking cookies with Aunt EA meant they also got to hang out a bit with Charlie. Leah thought that was great, though Charlie seems a bit bored by it all.
Charlie is excellent at staring. Molly’s smile doesn’t stand a chance at getting him to blink.
With G’Mom and Grampa in town, they let us head out for a fancy dinner at Woodberry Kitchen. This picture is in honor of E.A. and Scott, my sister and brother-in-law, as they love to post this pose again and again.
Dinner was fun. Lots of creative, farm-to-table yummy food.
Hooray for our first fancy dinner out in a while.
On Monday, I hosted my second Drop In & Decorate party. The idea is simple: decorate sugar cookies, then donate them to a local non-profit agency.
My sous-chefs helped me prep our sugar cookies. I had 5 other moms baking for me and in total we had 18 dozen cookies to decorate!
The moms and kids were invited to drop in during the day and decorate for as long as they liked.
Molly enjoyed using a rainbow of colors on all her cookies.
Leah and I worked together to decorate.
Adding sprinkles was a must. And even now that I have swept the floors three times, those sprinkles keep showing up!
It was fun to watch and see what each of the kids created.
Even the moms got into the decorating spirit.
Lots of giggles and laughter came from this table!
The kids were allowed to eat one cookie after they finished decorating. Apparently, the full plate of sprinkles were part of the deal too.
Here's a sample of the decorated cookies.
In the end, thirty moms and kids decorated approximately 200 cookies to donate to Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.
Thank you to all of my cookie volunteers for making our party such a huge success!
A told B, and B told C
“I'll meet you at the house
for Leah's party!”
“Whee!” said D to E F G
“Are you coming to see
the coconut tree?”
Chicka chicka boom boom!
Will there be enough room?
We'll find out when you RSVP!
When Leah consistently started choosing Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for a bedtime story, I knew it would be the perfect theme for her 2nd birthday. The party started with making Boom Boom shakers. It takes a lot of concentration to fill a shaker with beads.
The kids then sat for a reading of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and used their shakers to go boom boom!
To the surprise of many, I did not make the cake this time. Chad convinced me to focus on the rest of the party prep and have it made by Oh What a Cake. It was great decision and a great cake.
The basic story of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is about the alphabet climbing to the top of the coconut tree. So, naturally we had to have one present.
Thanks for inspiring silly ways to play with balloons, Uncle J!
Leah was so excited for the birthday song that she even sang it to herself!
To fully appreciate the taste of the cake, Leah thought it necessary to close her eyes. Though, when you do that you must open your mouth as wide as you can to make sure it gets in.
Who needs a fork? Icing, finger, tongue.
Then it was present time and the kids were definitely present.
Leah's very into baby dolls right now. This one came with a bottle, which was a big hit.
She also enjoyed reading a fun, new book.
And as a party favor, guests left with colorful alphabet cookies.
Skit skat skoodle doot.
Flip flop flee.
Thanks for coming
To Leah’s party!
These chocolate peanut butter cupcakes were for our Bible study. There is a debate in our house as to whether the peanut butter cream cheese icing plus the surprise peanut butter inside was ENOUGH peanut butter! And as a side note, chilled peanut butter cream cheese icing tastes extra yummy!
Leah's friend, Rachel, turned 2. So, I made her a Lucy jumper for her birthday. She can wear it now, and layer it with a shirt when the weather becomes cooler.
I just can't resist making these whale jon jons for baby boys. This one is for Camp, our friends Gabe and Helen's little boy.
We have a lover of all things pink in our house, so when National Pink Day came around on June 23rd, I knew we had to celebrate! I hosted a Pinkalicious Party in honor of the day.
I decided to make our reading of Pinkalicious a bit more fun. I had the girls stand-up or sit-down every time I said the word pink or cupcake. Do you know how many times those are said in this book?! Oh.my.goodness. A lot! They eventually gave up and just sat and listened.
We had some pinktastic treats: strawberry cupcakes and strawberry pink lemonade. I used these free printables for the cupcake toppers.
And of course there was a pinkerific craft! The girls painted with glue to create Pinkalicious magnets.
The girls came dressed for the occasion and had a fun time celebrating all things pink!
And Leah enjoyed getting in on the cupcake action too.
