More Baking - Grad & Wedding Cookies

It's graduation season! These are cookies I did for a party order last month - my favorite batch of UE cookies yet.



The following week, I had an order for another six dozen cookies, with monograms. I usually freehand cookies, but wanted these to look more consistent, so I piped the letters on wax paper over a printout.



Then caaaarefulllly peeled each very fragile letter off the wax paper. (It goes without saying: make extras.)



The kids were SO interested in these! I said, "Don't touch them! Don't look at them! Don't even think about them, pretend they don't exist!", which of course they just found hysterical and then taunted me with "Mah-om, I'm think-ing about those letters!" 



These are some of the finished products!



I'm loving the new icing colors. I've had NO bleeding, but am still having problems with spotting.



... spotting here, too. (Frowny face)



And these lovely cookies were for our good friends' wedding the same week. Americolor Super White made these look extra fabulous.



212 cookies in one week! Happily, all three kids had a summer camp in the morning that week, I needed all the time I could get!

Ice Cream Safari - Week 3

Today we went to a shop that Jeff and I had visited years ago, shortly after we first moved here, in a different location. It was a memorable occasion because ... the ice cream was awful. We were both a few licks in to our cones when we looked at each other and said, "Mine's not very good - is yours?" and both ended up pitching them. I guarantee, that has NEVER happened before or since.

So, I was happy to give it a second try today. We must have gotten a bad batch on that day years ago, because happily, the ice cream today was quite yummy!



Dora chose cotton candy, Clark and Theo branched out with chocolate chip. I loved the funky decor.



Clark got a kick out of the toilet seat on the bathroom door.



The restrooms were all decorated in jewels with a poem on the back of the door that cleverly rhymed "sprinkle" with "tinkle" and made us all laugh.



And more exciting news ... we won two baskets at our church picnic yesterday. Clark really wanted the sports bag, so he was very excited. Turns out, the tote bag was handmade! Gorgeous! (And I am LOVING the Vestal color theme.) Dora and Theo were both trying for the Halloween basket, so they were happy, too. They always complain that we don't have any scary Halloween decorations - my taste is definitely more cutesy - so they are thrilled that we now have a witch, skeleton and a pair of creepy spiders to put out in October.

Baking Monday - Red, White and Blue

First up - white chocolate strawberries for a 3rd-of-July pool party. The idea came from Family Fun, here's a link to the how-to from Our Best Bites. I didn't have enough blue sugar sprinkles for all the berries, so I mixed it up with some blue jimmies, too. For future reference - the crowd liked the sugar sprinkles better!



I had an order for graduation cookies the same weekend and happily, the school colors were red, white, and blue, so I made extra cookies and icing for the holiday weekend.



4th-of-July cookies for pool party #2 - it is nice to have so many friends with pools! (We always bring treats when we get invitations, by the way!) Lots of experimentation with this batch. Dora's favorite was the tye-dye looking star, I liked the polka dots and flags.



There was enough of everything left over to have a decorating session at home. I gave each kid two cookies to decorate, and by the time I headed back to the table with the frosting, one of Clark's cookies was already half gone.





Theo and Dora really took their time with these.



Dora tried to recreate the tye dye one, but was getting frustrated over the way they were turning out. I reminded her that it's just a cookie ... it will still be delicious!



Happy moment captured in between freak out fits because Dora wanted the picture alone with the cookies - she was up in her room about 10 seconds after we snapped this - sigh. I think that's why I treasure our family photos ... they help me remember the harmonious times and overlook the moments that are slightly less so.

Ice Cream Safari - Week 2

It's amazing to me that there are ice cream shops in the area that we have not been to yet! Today's stop had only four flavors of (really good) soft ice cream, but a big assortment of sprinkles, toppings, and dips.



Dora chose lemon lime twist with cotton candy sprinkles. It was gorgeous! I loved the colors! Unfortunately, she wasn't as excited about the ice cream - the fruit flavoring was very subtle - and they didn't have sugar cones, which are her favorite.



Theo got his usual favorite, twist with rainbow sprinkles. But we should have gone baby size, because it was too much for him to finish!



Clark was snoozing when we arrived, but woke up in time for a choc-van twist with (favorite color alert!) BLUE sprinkles, very exciting.



And the kids really got a kick out of this sign!

Ice Cream Safari 2011

We are very excited to have another Ice Cream Safari this year! We started out this week at a shop that I've driven by thousands of times in the six years we've been here, but never stopped in. It always looks closed - it's a huge shop and a huge parking lot, but we rarely see cars parked in front. They specialize in homemade custard and it was delicious! A bit more expensive than the shops we usually frequent, but it was a good treat.



Dora LOVED it. She was having such a hard time deciding on a flavor, because so many looked good to her. She begged to come back another time so she can try more. Two thumbs up!

Are you planning your own Ice Cream Safari this year? Here you go!

Get your passports here.
Covers updated for 2011 here.

Pen & Ink

We've been having a very Harry summer in our house - Potter, that is. Theo's been playing the Lego game for awhile and I checked out The Chamber of Secrets audio book from the library to jump start interest in the series. Both kids loved it - Dora couldn't wait to share the discs, so she started reading the books ... and zipped through all seven in FOUR weeks. She's always been a remarkably fast reader, and I continually worry about her comprehension, but she does seem to absorb everything, as she often refers to minute details and characters that I barely remember. Theo is about a third of the way through book four. Both kids are going to a Harry Potter camp in August and are way excited.

On a picnic this weekend, Dora and Theo collected geese feathers (quills!) and wanted to try their hand at writing with ink. Happily, I still had some stashed away from art school days along with a couple of pens and showed the kids how to use them.



They came up with some awesome creations!



This is Theo's self-portrait. He's missing three teeth right now, can you tell? (Which reminds me that his recent one is still sitting upstairs. Bad Tooth Fairy!!)



Dora drew some characters from the books. I love the texture and look of these drawings, I never would have thought of doing pen and ink with the kids, but am happy we did. Dora grasped right away how easy it is to do fine detail and we talked about how many book illustrators use this medium and thought of some examples.



I am in love with her drawing of Snape!

Baking Monday - Cinnamon Sugar Butter Cookies

Yes, it's Tuesday, but yesterday was a holiday. A couple of weeks ago, I hosted my first ever Tupperware party, and it was loads of fun. The consultant gave me a choice of a few things she could demonstrate making during the party, and I chose salsa (it was yummy). So, I opted to go for a whole southwest theme for the party, including margaritas (also yummy), tropical fruit salad and mini taco appetizers.



I was searching for a cookie that would go well with the mix and decided on these cookies from Mrs. Fields. Very snickerdoodle-like, they were buttery and delicious. They spread quite a bit during baking so make sure to space them far apart on the baking sheet.

And I just happened to have this perfect little plate for the occasion ... Theo's second birthday party had a cowboy theme, and our neighbors brought dessert on this plate for us to keep, and this is the first time it's been used since then. I have no idea why I hung onto it for so long - probably for just such an occasion!

Sorry for the lapse in posts the last couple of weeks, we're finally in summer vacation mode, which means late bedtime, late sleep-ins, and very little time to myself. I spent last week's spare moments baking and cleaning for our yard sale (YAY), so I'll have lots of treats to post over the next few days.