Cookies!

The second annual Chicago Mama cookie-decorating party was this afternoon. Because we know so many little kids and have such a small house, I had to keep the number of invitees down. A few people could not make it, so we ended up with 11 little munchkins (including The Girl, The Boy, and The Tot) to decorate homemade sugar cookies with brightly colored royal icing and sprinkles, non-pareils, and more.  

Here's the calm before the storm:

I gave each child a holiday-themed tin, marked with his/her name, and pre-filled with 1/2 dozen sugar cookies. Note for next year: 1 dozen! Each child got to decorate his/her cookies and/or eat them. 

As everyone arrived, they split off into groups to play. The girls and The Girl got all dolled up from our dress-up bin, wearing fancy dresses + a pair of wings each. Some of them, like The Girl, kept this get-up on while they decorated cookies:

 

 

Afterwards, the boys went upstairs to play Lego and the girls and the tots stayed downstairs to watch 1969's Frosty the Snowman: 



For my part, I got to drink spiked coffee and chit-chat with the moms about school, books, Boden, and other topics of interest.

Cookies!

This afternoon, The Boy, The Girl, The Tot, The Dad and I hosted a crowd of little kids and their mothers (and a few fathers) for our first (annual?) cookie-decorating party. It was great fun!

The Kids and I spent the morning rolling, cutting, and baking Alton Brown's sugar cookies in holiday shapes (The Tot was disappointed that I would not let him eat the cookies as they came out of the oven). And when our guests arrived, I set out bowls of royal icing (colored with India Tree natural food tints), Wilton sugars and nonpareils, chocolate hips, waxed paper, knives and all the blank-slate cookies. The kids made cookies, ate cookies, and ran around the house together while the moms chatted. We were going to watch The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, but everyone was having such fun in free play without it that we skipped it. I think a good time was had by all (except maybe The Tot, who needed a nap, and Cara, who didn't know my crowd of city-mom friends).

The Girl and The Tot fell asleep on me after most of our guests left, and The Boy was in bed, again, before 7 p.m. tonight!