Baking

Another new thing I am trying is Once a Month Cooking. Actually right now it's once every two weeks cooking but I'm following the cookbook's instructions and I don't think I have enough room in my freezer for 30 meals. It takes me about 1 day and two nights to get all the meals ready since I have four kids to distract me and I'm a little slow in the kitchen. So, now that my evenings are more free, I involve my kids more in getting desserts ready or side dishes.  Hannah especially loves to sit on the counter while I move around in the kitchen.

Hailey is also trying to read by herself 100 books for school. So I get tons of books from the library to give a variety. One book was "Can I please have a Cookie?" It's about Alfie the alligator who wants a cookie that he mom is making. Since he doesn't use nice words, his mom simples says "Think of another way to get a cookie!" Alfie in his desire for a cookie made his own out of paper. His mom commented on how good they looked and then asked nicely if she could have one. Finally Alfie understood what he had to do to get a really cookie. The kids loved this book. Then they asked if they could have a cookie themselves. Well, we didn't have any so one afternoon we made them. 

All three kids helped me make the dough and shape the cookies.

 Then they got to choose two bags of frosting to decorate their cookies with. Robert poured all of his frosting on ONE cookie and then ate it up. He was very messy by the end of it.

 Hannah was more interested in eating the cookies then anything else, so I let her have two small ones and sent her on her way.

Hailey and I finished decorating the rest of the cookies. She had very good self control and had enough frosting to decorate all of her cookies and only ate one.

I'm glad I can do fun projects like this with the kids though it takes a lot of energy (especially since Hannah was cranky through a lot of it). It will be more enjoyable when they are older and can do more on their own.