Cookie Day!

Last Saturday (the 9th), we spent the morning making Easter cookies with Great Grandma (my Grandma Verna). Our Christmas cookie day hadn't worked out in December so we decided to take a rain check and come back for another holiday. I've mentioned before that this has been tradition since I was born and I think I've been the sole grandchild to make sure it continues even after my generation (my sibs and cousins) have grown up. I value tradition to give our kids roots and it's important to me to pass on these special rituals that I loved about my childhood.

Last year, Sophie came along and played on the floor while Will did the cutting and painting. But this year, she climbed right up on the stool beside grandma and got in on the action.

First taste of dough scraps... yum!!

Will's turn! He's a pro now.

Mya & Stella came to join us for their first time making cookies too!

How cute is this? :)

Our little dough thieves.

Look at that wad of dough in her hand! That's hardly a "scrap" anymore... she just grabbed a handful. Busted!

This is what the other side of the kitchen looked like while one child was on the stool.

Grandma and I.

When Stella and I pressed a cookie cutter into the dough, we'd really exaggerate the muscle strength that went into it by making some weight lifting style grunts. :)

So cute.

Even cuter! This was initiated by them.

Following our cookie making, Grandma made pizzas for lunch and had a huge variety of fruit for everyone to eat. My cousin Brooke and her son Brendan joined us for lunch too. It's so nice for Will to have some BOY playmates on occasion!

With only two available travel high chairs, Mya got to sit/stand in the chair beside her mommy. I know I've said before how much (and how cute) the twins are talking right now, but it was just so funny listening to Mya asking for a "straw-ba-lee" and sticking a whole, huge strawberry in her mouth with the juice running down her chin.

Oh my goodness. Mya & Stella shared one of their current fetishes with Sophie and now she's obsessed: buckling the clasps on the travel high chair. Or as Mya says: "ba-luckle-ing". So they sometimes worked together and sometimes fought over who got to "ba-luckle" whom. Then when someone was buckled, one or more girls announced that that person was "stuck". At home this week, Sophie's favorite entertainment has been to sit in Will's seat at the table (we don't buckle either of the kids anymore) and buckle herself and then tell me she's "stuck" until I unbuckle her. And then we repeat over and over and over. I'm trying to show her how to unbuckle herself, but so far, her little fingers aren't quite strong enough to pinch the clasp open.

Stella's telling me that Mya is stuck now.

They also buckled baby dolls too.

And, oh yes! The fruits of our labor. The morning got away from us just with the baking and all the kids needed to get home for nap, so grandma just gave us each a plate of cookies to take home and decorate on our own.

Sophie helped me do this while Will was still napping later that afternoon:

Will was fine with just eating the finished products and helping me bake chocolate chip cookies later instead of getting in on this decorating.

Thanks, grandma, for a fun morning of baking!