Cookie Baking Night 12/16/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night AND our annual Niece and Nephew Christmas party. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo (unfortunately, Ethan was home ill this evening. We missed him).

Our tradition at the Niece and Nephew Christmas party is that we decorate a gingerbread house "cookie"

Uncle Greg looks forward to this as much as the kids do (seriously). 

My theory is that you can see everyone's personality in the way they decorate their cookies. This year was no exception (and it's fun to see this theory develop as the kids grow and mature). 

"thoughtful"

"detailed"

"designed"

"all guns a blazin"

Uncle Greg is the kind of artist who looks at a canvas and says "What do you want to be?" I think he nailed this one. 

To the frustration of the baker, this year the cookies turned out very crackly. The kids said to themselves "nothing a lot of frosting can't cure" but Greg saw it and said to himself "there's an old man in there". 

Aunt Katrina looked at that cookie and said, "I'm flipping it over and using the back of the cookie". My style is "simplicity". If you look back through the many Niece and Nephew Christmas party posts, you'll see that all my cookies are a slight variation on the same theme. 

The other favorite part of party evening is the "dice game". We play for small prizes. 

Enzo with his loot.

Also in attendance this evening were Rusty and Peanuts (the family cockatiels). Greg got a pretty good close up of Rusty. 

Another Cookie Baking Night and another Niece and Nephew Christmas Party has come and gone and, as usual, a fun time was had by all (even Rusty and Peanuts). 

Cookie Baking Night 12/02/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo. Tonight was Rylar's birthday choice (he turns 8 years old tomorrow). For supper, he chose cheese pizza, strawberries and oranges. For his cookie he chose molasses cookies (he said is favorite part is rolling them in the sugar).

One day he's 3 and the next day he's 8. These Cookie Baking Night years go fast. We're grateful to be a part of their lives in this way. 

Cookie Baking Night 11/11/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Rylar, and Enzo.

Tonight, we made apple crisp.

We finished the evening with a lively game of Pictureka (a Cookie Baking Night favorite, for sure). As usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Cookie Baking Night 10/14/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.
We made one of our favorites: Pumpkin Patch Brownies.

The brownies were pre-baked for us by Aunt Katrina. We made the frosting. 

And frosted the brownies

Add the pumpkins

And added the vines (that's our favorite part)

Another year making pumpkin patch brownies at Cookie Baking Night and, as usual, a fun time was had by all. 

Cookie Baking Night 09/09/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.
Tonight was Allison's Birthday choice (she turned 9 on August 20). For supper, she chose spaghetti (with no meat), french bread, strawberries, and blueberries (and chocolate milk). For her cookie, she chose "dirt cups".

First, we crush up some chocolate sandwich cookies.

Then, we scoop pudding into cups and layer it with the cookie crumbs.

And don' forget the gummy worms.

It was raining tonight, but we didn't want to miss what would probably be our last walk of the season to the local gas station for an ice cream treat. So, we got out the umbrellas and away we went. 

It stopped training on our way back. Hmm. I wonder whose carrying all those umbrellas?

In Cookie Baking Night News:

Clara (Katrina's Mom) went home to be with the Lord on August 23 (two weeks ago). She has lived here for the past 4 years. This was our first Cookie Baking Night without her. The kids were all very sweet and kind. I heard comments like "I miss Clara", "It's not the same without Clara", and "I'm glad we have her picture here because it feels like she's here with us in a way." This was a sad night for me, so their comments eased the pain a bit. They also had a lot of questions about Clara's last days on earth, and we answered them all to help them process it better. 

Clara loved Cookie Baking Nights. She loved them long before she moved in with us. She was the biggest blog fan and would comment on every post. When she moved in with us, she participated as much as she could on nights when she felt up to it. She loved just being near the kids. She also participated in a lot of the behind-the-scenes prep such as cutting out sugar cookies that we decorated later or unwrapping candy (a few days ahead of time) that we would use in one of our projects on Cookie Baking Night. 

She was (and is) loved and she will be missed.

Cookie Baking Night 08/12/19

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan, Carissa, Allison, Rylar, and Enzo.

Tonight was Enzo's birthday choice (he turns 6 years old in a few days). For supper, he chose pizza and strawberries and raspberries. For the cookie, he chose M&M cookies.

At Cookie Baking Nights, Larry and Clara always join us for supper, and then they head off to bed and we head to the kitchen to start making cookies. 

How many M&Ms go on each cookie? Well, that depends on who's making it. As you can see here, our philosophy on "how many M&M's" has a wide spectrum.

We continued our "walk through the books of the Bible" tonight with the book of 1 Kings. 

It's getting darker sooner now, so we try to get in as many walks to the local gas station as we can during the summer months. It's one of our favorite things to do. 

We ended the evening with lively game of Headbanz. It was a hoot. 

As usual, a fun time was had by all.