Cookie Day

On Wednesday I came up with the idea to make and decorate sugar cookies with Tralee as part of her birthday celebration. I knew it would make a huge mess, I knew the cookies would be far from perfect, and I knew it wouldn't be easy. But, I also knew Tralee would have fun, I realized this was her last birthday without a sibling, and I wanted her to be able to do what toddlers do best: Make a mess.

Tralee helped me sprinkle the flour so we could roll the dough (which was made from scratch, might I add).

She also helped roll the dough.

Then decided it would be more fun to eat the cookie dough.

After a while the container the dough was in looked more fun as a hat, and the cookie cutter was used as a telescope of sorts. Fine by me! Oh, and yes, that's the same shirt she was wearing the night before at Chuck-E-Cheese's. She fell asleep in her clothes the night before, and since I knew we were making a mess, I let her stay in that outfit instead of putting on new one. Eventually everything but the diaper came off.

I think she might have been sick of the dough after a while.

The cookies baked and cooled, and then it was time to decorate them. I made three colors of icing. I should have just made one, because it didn't take long for Tralee to mix them up so much that it became one goobery color anyways. The decorated cookies started looking like something Shrek might eat.

Here's Tralee lavishly decorating a cookie with pink sprinkles.

In between each cookie, Tralee sampled each of the icings (I think she was saying, "a little for the cookie, a little for me. A little for the cookie, some more for me."). I let her sample, as this was her special project, and I knew we would be sharing these cookies with no one.

I started to clear off the table after all of the cookies were decorated. I turned around and saw that Corky was sharing in the sugary fun. I did set one limit; no eating off the brush after Corky sampled from it. I guess that was the one rule we had.

Here, ladies and gents, is Tralee's finished product.

Tralee's very first plate of cookies made (almost) entirely by her! Aren't they beautiful? We shared them with no one, as they were filled with Tralee spit (some icing for the cookie, some icing for Tralee, some icing for the cookie, some more for Tralee), but they were also filled with LOVE! That's probably why we ate them so quickly.

After the decorating was done I realized Tralee had just as much icing slathered onto her, as the cookies did. So, a bath was swiftly administered. A new comfy outfit replaced the flour, sugar, and icing that had once clothed my child, and a nap was in order. While Tralee slept, and quite literally had sweet dreams, I tackled the sugar soaked kitchen. Cleaning up wasn't as difficult as I imagined it would be. Maybe it was my sugar induced state of mind, or maybe it was knowing I had made my daughter happy, but as every swipe of my sponge removed the icing that had spackled itself to the table, chairs, and floor I felt good inside. I knew Tralee had fun, I knew my plans for the day were accomplished, and I knew I would smile every time I glanced at the messy gooey plate of cookies I helped my daughter create. I also knew I would smile even more every time I bit into one of these cookies -- they were sweet in more ways than one.