Wholesome Activities

I must have been inspired when writing about Wholesome Mom, because I decided to bake cookies with the girls today. Mommy Confession Alert! - usually when I bake cookies, it consists of buying pre-made cookie dough, breaking the dough apart on the idiot-proof lines, placing the dough on a pan, and throwing them into the oven (sad, I know). But today, I went to the store in the morning, and bought all the ingredients for Chocolate Chip Cookies and Sugar Cookies.



After laying Claire down for her nap, Jocie, Ella and I got to work. We decided to do most of the work without the littlest sister. When I'm working in the kitchen she always wants to be on my hip, so she can see what is going on . . . that would not have worked today. Today we were on a cookie mission!

The girls and I suited up with our make-shift aprons (dish towels tied around our waists) and got our war paint (flour) on. It was go time.

Jocie was in charge of measuring and mixing the dry ingredients while Ella and I tackled the butter, oil, and eggs. I remembered from my 7th grade Home Ec. teacher that you have to mix them separately, and then slowly add in the dry ingredients . . . which is the only thing I remember from that class. Mrs. Whats-Her-Name would be proud.

We decided to bake the sugar cookies first. I found a recipe in the old Argyle Centennial Cook Book. There were several recipes for Sugar Cookies, but we went with one entitled, "World's Best Sugar Cookies" . It sounded like a winner to us!

We had a good little system going. Jocie would roll the dough into balls, then Ella would squish them down a little bit with a glass that had sugar on the bottom of it.

Jocie really got into it . . .

I felt like Martha Stuart using these farm-fresh, organic, cage-free eggs.

But then when I used the white all-purpose flour and store bought butter, the feeling melted away.

But Martha never gets to work with these cuties, so TAKE THAT MARTHA!

Claire woke up just in time to taste test the first batch of sugar cookies . . . she gave us her smile of approval.

She may have mommy's legs (poor thing), but she got her daddy's lashes!! :)

Our work wasn't over. Now it was time for the Chocolate Chip Cookies. Our family favorite.

This dough was a little harder to work with . . . but Joc didn't mind.

The girls wrapped up the job by spreading pink frosting on the sugar cookies with little sprinkles on the top. We are going to freeze some of these little master-pieces for next week's big party.

Ella will be so proud to serve them!