Raising Maine

OT: Cut-out cookie fun

For several years during the Christmas season (before children) I made cut-out cookies and really enjoyed it. When the girls came along, life became too crazy to keep that tradition going.

But then I had a brainstorm when the girls were toddlers -- make cut-out cookies for Halloween and Valentine's Day when life was a little less chaotic and the social calendar wasn't so crazy. Now these two holidays rarely pass without the girls and I making a few batches of cut-outs to decorate. It's been a great family tradition for us.

And since I'm still not up to climbing mountains yet and haven't done a whole lot outdoors lately (I'm still working on getting back in shape after my surgery) I thought I'd share my 'learnings' about making cut-out cookies for those parents who want to make them for the holiday season.

Make the dough ahead of time. It can take an hour or more just to make so I prefer to do this with the girls a day or two ahead of time. Plus, rolling out *cold* dough really is easier and makes a better cookie.

Frozen cookies are easier to decorate for little hands, especially if you decide decorating (not rolling and cutting) is the way to go with your toddler/preschooler. Plus, unfrosted cookies last a month or more in the freezer if packaged well (in a freezer ziplock baggie and carefully stacked so they don't break). Just be sure cookies are completely cooled before packaging up for the freezer.

See the cookie and frosting recipe I use - and like - below.

I've never been very good at decorating cookies but the girls enjoy mixing and matching various sprinkle and frosting options.

"Look mom, I'm a pumpkin head!" She's 11 and I'm amused she still thinks that's funny.

Sugar Cookies
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour

Mix butter and shortening together then add sugar and baking powder. Blend until well-combined. Then add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add one cup of flour at a time. Make dough into oval shape, cover in plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for at least 3 hours (I usually keep in overnight).

Roll out dough on a floured surface (kids tend to put too much flour, a tablespoon is usually enough) and be careful the rolled-out dough is not too thin (1/4" works well for us).

Bake cookies on an un-greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees (cooler than most recipes but I've found this temp works better) for about 5-6 minutes (depending on cookie thickness).

Cookies are done when the edges start to lightly brown (which doesn't always look done but it likely is so experiment with one pan at a time at first).

Let the cookies sit in the pan for about 2 minutes after removing from the oven. This will help ensure the cookies don't break before moving them to the cooling racks. I have 6 cookie sheets to keep the cookie cutting and baking moving along for the kids.

Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla (we like orange too) extract
1 Tablespoon milk

Mix everything together until well combined. Separate into small bowls and then add food coloring.

Tracing leaves in chalk

G. doesn't think she draws well but what she really means is that she has trouble illustrating to makes her drawings appear the way that she thinks they should.

She is however a creative kid in working out how she wants to make things look 'right.'

Take for instance chalk drawing on Grandpa's driveway.

She collected different shaped leaves and outlined them with chalk then colored them and was pleased with herself and the results.

I thought it was a good idea and wanted to share it in case any other parents were faced with a frustrated driveway artist.

Tie-dyeing t-shirts

We tie-dyed t-shirts outside yesterday after our trip to the race track. It's one of those summertime crafts that my kids love because it's both messy and colorful. And they particularly enjoy making matching t-shirts to wear with their cousins and friends.

My cousin had picked up the dye and t-shirts but I turned out to be the slacker and had forgotten to buy elastics. We improvised by using clothespins and were all pleasantly surprised how well they worked out.

We used a full package of powdered Rit dye and mixed it with very hot water in buckets outside.

My experience with Rit dye in the past is that the color washes out if you use the amount of water it calls for on the box. And asking the kids to hold the fabric in the dye for more than 20 seconds while standing over the bucket with their shirts is too much for them.

I used about a gallon of water with the full packet of dye.

Once the kids chose the area of the t-shirt to dip in the dye they counted to 20 before they removed it.

The downside to using clothespins (which they put on before they dipped it in the dye) was that it was a bit tricky to squeeze out the excess dye so I helped the kids do that part.

L. was being silly when I asked her if I could take a picture while she was making her t-shirt.

After the kids were done with the dye, they washed their shirts (with the clothespins still fastened) in a bucket of cold salt water (one gallon of water w/ 1 cup of table salt).

We ended up with a colorful mix of shirts for the cousins to wear together.

Great weekend to fly a kite

It's been pretty windy the past couple of days so the kids and their cousins dragged out the kites for some kite flying in the yard.

But it took some help from Fino to get a couple of the kites detangled and flight-ready.

I doubt there's a parent out there that doesn't know what a drag this job is.

After all that work Fino decided he needed a turn as well.

And as I was downloading these pictures I couldn't get this song out of my head so I thought I'd share it in the spirit of a windy weekend in Maine.

Let's go fly a Kite

The girls have always really liked that song and were especially pleased when their dance teacher chose it for a recital number this past year. It turned out to be one of their favorite routines of all time.

No time to breathe

I've had one of those weeks, the kind that are so crazy busy I wonder what the heck I was thinking when I agreed to all the things on my family's calendar. My time management skills - and those of the girls - were put to a serious test this past week. It all started last Saturday....

SATURDAY
I had to work until 12:30 and Fino had to be at work at noon that day. So the plan was that the kids were going to hang out at Fino's work until I could get there to pick them up. But before going to work he and the girls were stopping by the Engineering Expo because they all really wanted to go (Fino had as much fun as the kids did there). So although the morning was going to be hectic, it was do-able and pretty typical for us.

But no, that was only the first part of the day, there was more.

We had scheduled Ski Club on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. because we couldn't make our regular meeting time on Sunday (I'll get to the reasons why in a minute). So after picking up the girls from Fino's work we had to get home to put on our ski gear, load up the car and meet up with the Ski Club.

But we could only ski for 90 minutes on the trail because then we had to get back home so the girls could change into their dance clothes for their Snow White rehearsal at 5 p.m.

Well, we've had crazy days like this before but I didn't get enough sleep the night before (I have to be at the office at 5 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays) and I got really frazzled at home picking up our ski gear.

And when I get frazzled, I do stupid things. So what did I do this time? I backed the van into a snow bank in my driveway.

And no, I couldn't push myself out of the snow even with some help from the kids. So I called Grandpa and he helped us out and we made it to Ski Club about 10 minutes late (yes, it could have been worse but since I had changed the day and time of the meeting I was really worried everyone would leave thinking they misunderstood my schedule change).

I find exercising helps me to re-focus and by the end of Ski Club, I was feeling a little less stressed. I drove the kids home so they could get changed into dance clothes and then dropped them off at rehearsal.

I called Fino afterwards with a plea to pick them up at 8 p.m. when the rehearsal was over. I just needed to go to bed and get some sleep; Sunday was shaping up to be just as crazy.

Crystal necklaces

We have more rocks and "crystals" than we know what to do with in the kids' playroom. The bag of crystals (it's quartz) they collected while mining for gems at Mt. Apatite a couple of weeks ago has been sitting there - untouched - since that day.

So this weekend, with our outdoor activities still thwarted by rain, I decided it was time to find some craft project we could make with all the crystals.

I had some craft wire and tulle from the girls' old dance costumes that we used to turn the rocks into necklaces.

The tulle was great for covering up our less-than neat twists of the craft wire at the ends.

And then G. made a "princess" headband that she was quite smitten with.

We still have a whole lot of larger rocks left in our bag and L. decided to use them to make some new fairy houses in the backyard this week.

I'm glad we found some creative uses for the quartz we found at Mt. Apatite. Now if we could just figure out what to do with the all the buckets and bags of sea shells and other rocks they've collected over the years, they might have some space to actually play in that playroom.

If you have any craft ideas with rocks and sea shells, we'd love to hear about it.