Cookin' & Bakin' (no, not the failed blog)

I love to let my kids help me bake. Unfortunately, they now think they need to "help" every time I'm in the kitchen. Usually with dinner I'm racing to get it done by a certain time, so it's a little frustrating to let them do everything they want to. Not to mention with cooking, as opposed to baking, there are usually sharp knives, hot stoves, and not-so-tasty sampling involved (like when they both BEGGED me for some cream of mushroom soup the other day--they were not impressed)! Either way, it's usually fun to have them there to help and hopefully pick up some tips so they don't go into marriage/adulthood like I did--not knowing a meat tenderizer from a garlic press!

This is when we made Christmas sugar cookies. Like I've said before, I love when Alex tries to teach Ella how to say new words. Alex asked me what the gingerbread man cookie cutter was. After I told him, he turned to Ella and said, "Ella, this is a binger man. Can you say that? Binger?...Man?...Binger man?" Ella, of course, repeated this perfectly. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Christmas isn't Christmas without a binger man!


Toy plastic knives are the solution to letting the kids help me chop veggies. Let's just say a lot of veggies go flying when they help me!

This is Alex stirring the fudge. I'm not really a fan of him standing at the stove, but I think exceptions can be made at Christmastime!