Giving Thanks and Baking

 Thanksgiving at our house was mostly business-as-usual. K and AJ went to school, Timo went to work, and we ate leftover pizza for dinner. I did, however, want to make some effort to make it a special day for the kids. So, we made gingerbread cookies while listening to Christmas music.

K and H helped make the dough, but AJ wanted to play. 

H ready to go. Actually, he had started to scoop the flour out of the bowl, so we had to start over.



K measuring the ginger



I love all the shades of brown in the spices



Mixing the wet ingredients



H taking a turn stirring.



Adding the dry ingredients to the wet ones.



K kneading the dough



H found a fork in the drawer and was sneaking samples of the dough



We made the dough before dinner, then we rolled it out and cut it into the various shapes afterwards. Since we divided the dough into three parts, each kid had his/her own ball of dough to work with. K and AJ ended up splitting H's ball since he lost interest.

All ready for the cookie-cutters



H and his ball of dough



"What's this on the bottom?"



H enjoying the cookie-cutters



K cutting out her cookies



AJ decided to take a bite out of his dough before we rolled it out.



Rolling out his dough



Cutting the cookies



Tasting the final product



I love baking and Christmas-time and my kids. Put all three together, and I have a lot to be thankful for.

Continued Celebrations



Saturday, we finally celebrated K's birthday with cake as a family. The kids requested that this event be  accompanied by noise-makers, which H, especially, seemed to get a kick out of. 

No, H, that's the wrong end.



There you go!



AJ blowing his noise-maker



Cutie Pie H enjoying himself.




The birthday girl




Look at those puffed cheeks!

 The birthday cake was actually chocolate snowflake cupcakes drizzled with ganache.


Happy Birthday to you!



Blowing out the candle

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart! I love you.

K's 6th Birthday

Today, we celebrated my wonderful daughter's 6th birthday. She begged to open a gift before she left for school, so we allowed her to open one gift and one card. I admit I was a little tickled that both the card and gift she chose were from us.



Opening the first present of the day



Genuine joy

 The next portion of her day which involved celebration was cake with her class at school. I brought the cake (and the boys) to her classroom after lunch, and we celebrated together. Her classmates sang to her, and she cut the cake. K wanted the 6, and she gave AJ the 4. The other kids took turns telling her which number they wanted. It was fun to see them enjoying the cake so much, and my birthday girl was thrilled as well.


K and her teacher with the cake



Cutting the cake



The pieces looked like they would be insanely large, but she cut them down to a proper size.

 

The next part of the celebration involved our neighbors coming over for fika. They brought a late gift for AJ and a present for K, of course. I had made chocolate cupcakes with ganache on top, but I wanted to jazz them up a bit. Short on time, I used leftover icing and made some quick flowers on top. I didn't have the time I would have liked to do a really good job, but K was happy with the outcome. (And who am I to argue with the birthday girl?)



The cupcakes for fika



The final piece of the day revolved around the much-anticipated opening of presents.


All three kids were extremely interested in what was in that package.



K with some doll clothes she received.



K with her beautiful butterfly card.

 I would say that K had a wonderful day. We still did not do the family cake, but, after two pieces of cake, K (and her Mommy) was caked-out. Tomorrow, we will probably light the candle on some leftover cake, and she can blow it out then.

K's School Cake



Today I baked K's birthday cake for school tomorrow. She wanted a cell phone cake decorated with her favorite colors: pink and purple. H was a willing helper this morning, turning on the beaters and spreading chocolate cake batter all over the kitchen. While I cleaned that up, he found the butter I had out to soften for the buttercream icing and decided to sample it. I love that kid. He keeps me on my toes. :)



Top view of her cake



Front view

 I know it's not perfect, but it was a fun cake to make.

First Grade Songfest

Sunday, K and her class sang in church. This was the first time she has sung in church as a "big" kid, and she exhibited her usual talent. I watched proudly as she sang out loud and strong while participating in the motions.  Have I mentioned how much I love school programs? I am such a mom. :o)


K and some of her classmates



K and her class singing.

Frosted Leaves

Before it snowed, I noticed how beautiful the frost-encrusted leaves were. These are my feeble attempts at capturing their beauty.