The Search for Miss Direction: Cookies Galore!

I have this thing about messes. I despise them:) I don't like when the kids are dirty, things are out of order,etc. It honestly kind of sets me on edge. But I am working on it! I'm working really hard to see that sometimes 99% of the fun of something is making the mess in the first place. And that just because something is a mess doesn't mean that I'm responsible for cleaning it up RIGHT THIS SECOND. Hear that OCD, I've got your number ;-) That being said, I decided yesterday was the perfect day for the kids to make some Halloween cut-out cookies.

Admittedly, in the past, the making, cutting out and decorating of cut-outs hasn't gone so well. I'd lose patience with the whole situation rather quickly and just end up taking over. I decided that yesterday I was truly going to let the kiddos do it on their own. There would be no 'fixing' of their frosting and decorating so it looked 'pretty' - I wanted them to do it themselves. And we all had a blast doing it!

I've gotten smarter as my time as a Mama has gone on, and it dawned on me to have paper towels on hand before we even started and put out mats under both of them that would catch stray sprinkles :) After we rolled out all the dough, cut them out and let them cool we sat down and decided what colors we were going to make. Noah and I had a quick lesson in combining primary colors to make secondary colors which was a great added bonus!

I have to say that I'm pretty proud of the results. We made a plate up and took them to Grant's office to share. And I continued my afternoon of fun in the kitchen by making some English muffins, banana bread and even broke out a recipe for home made dog treats. Don't worry Tipper, Bella will share and bring some for you on Tuesday :) You know I'm having too much fun in the kitchen when I pull out a dog treat recipe....

The day ended with a funny situation in which I am reminded how much I love being the Mama to my three year old. He's in the bath tub when he suddenly informs me that tomorrow (Thursday) is him stuffed Nemo's birthday. And that Nemo wants cake. Not pretend cake Mom, real cake. After getting over my initial fluster, I asked what kind of cake Nemo would like. Grant looked at me like I was nuts. Noah said watermelon cake. I gently explained that might be a little bit outside my skills, was there anything that Nemo liked more? Like maybe dirt pudding with worms since he was a fish. (I was proud of my ability to come up with that one off the cuff). No, Nemo likes carrot cake. With no carrots. OK, then... I then asked what Nemo liked to eat - chicken nuggets with ranch for dipping, mozzerella sticks and watermelon jello. With blue soda to drink. We then learned, through very little prodding, that Nemo's favorite color is white, he likes to play "Go Fish" and he would like a Nemo Pez dispenser for his birthday. Needless to say, I'm going to be throwing a birthday party for Nemo tonight. I figured if Noah took the effort to come up with so many elaborate details, the least I could do was step-up and encourage his imagination. So watch for plenty of pictures from Nemo's birthday party tomorrow!

Until then...