Making Cookies and a Nice Surprise in the Mail

Today ER had a little friend over for a morning play date. I was feeling ambitious and decided to make cookies with the girls. I am not really a baker so my secret ingredient was starting with a sugar cookie mix, and to be honest I can't remember the last time I made roll out cookies. Oh yeah, that's right it was freshman year in college and I'm thirty-one now, so quite awhile ago! I have been thinking now that I am a mommy and ER is old enough to participate, it's important to start making our own traditions. After all, I can remember pressing down sugar cookies with the bottom of a glass to form their shapes, sprinkling on red colored sugar, and laying them out to cool on brown paper shopping bags my mom would cut up.

So here we go...the girls really enjoyed mixing and mixing in the butter, egg, and flour. After that it went downhill. ER had a really hard time waiting her turn and she got so excited she began taking all the cookie cutters out and putting them randomly in the rolled out dough. But she didn't push the cutters down far enough so we were left with all sorts of random indentations all over the place. There was flour everywhere and the dough began to crumble, probably from over handling. I was thinking, I used to do this with twenty kindergartners, granted they were five years old not two but I should be able to handle this!

We did manage to get cookies cut, thank goodness her little friend is the youngest of three. I think she has a lot of experience with sharing and turn taking. She was so patient! ER definitely needs a sibling or two! I put the cookies in the oven, but somehow managed to burn the bottoms pretty good. I only put them in for the shortest time period, but they got black anyway. I debated throwing them away, but both girls were asking about decorating.

After getting out the frosting, yes it's was from a can, adding food coloring and prying open the containers of sprinkles I thought okay now I can sit back and watch them having fun. Wrong! My little darling, turned the opening on the sprinkle container to the biggest one and in less than five seconds had dumped two containers all over one cookie. I was sitting right next to her, and it still managed to happen. I startled her by calling her name when this happened and that caused her to bump her plate and knock what seemed like millions of little green balls everywhere. At this point I called my husband and told him he needed to come home for lunch so I could maintain my sanity! Lucky for me he works five minutes away from home.

At this moment the doorbell rings. What now I think. It's the UPS man, with a big box with my name on it! I carry it back into the kitchen, with two little girls covered in frosting and sprinkle bits jumping up and down around my feet calling out, "Present, present, present," at the top of their lungs. I put it on my counter, look at the mess and decide I'm opening it now! And what was inside? Well a darling little pizza gift basket by Stonewall Kitchen from my best friend Alicia in AZ. It has garlic herb bread mix for the crust, roasted garlic basil sauce, roasted garlic oil and roasted garlic onion jam for toppings, four six-inch pizza pans, and a towel all in a cute basket. I already know what I am going to do with the basket, it's the perfect new home for some of my mini-scrapbooks. I can put a few in out on an end table and have them close by for flipping through and enjoying. What perfect timing to get a surprise! I can't wait to make the pizzas, do you think Emily will like helping me:)