Frosted Sugar Cookies

Evelyn and I baked sugar cookies yesterday. She rolled and cut the dough very well, only needing a little bit of help. The cookies need to be completely cooled before frosting them, so we waited a day before decorating them.When we got ready to decorate the cookies, Julia helped lay out the supplies. See that innocent smile on her face? Well . . .
. . . look closely at the containers in the picture below. You can tell Julia was there!
Julia tried her hand at adding sprinkles to cookies, and she dumped out WAY too much! But that was okay, we just put the extra sprinkles on three or four other cookies.
And here are our masterpieces - festive and delicious!

Julia's Lunch Preferences

Julia currently rotates through four lunch entrees:

* Grilled cheese sandwich

* Chicken nuggets

* Macaroni and cheese (only Kraft)

* Quesadilla

She also has a serving of fruit with her lunch - applesauce, apple slices or a banana. Finish it off with a glass of milk, and she's good to go for the afternoon.

Fantasy Fudge

Tonight's sous chef - Julia - helped make Fantasy Fudge. She loved being a big girl and helping with things like stirring the sugar/butter/evaporated milk mixture on the stove.And you know she didn't put all of the chocolate chips into the fudge...she had to snitch some!
Fantasy Fudge

3 cups sugar

5-ounce can evaporated milk

3/4 cup butter

7-ounce jar marshmallow creme (use Jet Puffed, not generic)

1 teaspoon vanilla

12-ounce bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Combine sugar, butter and milk in saucepan; bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Continue boiling five minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate chips until melted. Add marshmallow creme, nuts and vanilla; mix until well-blended. Pour into greased 13-inch x 9-inch pan. Cool at room temperature; cut into squares. Makes three pounds.

Russian Tea Cakes

I let Evelyn choose which holiday treat to make today, and she chose Russian Tea Cakes (also known as Snowball Cookies). Evelyn did a lot of the work this afternoon - she measured ingredients, used the hand mixer to blend the ingredients and rolled the baked cookies in powdered sugar. Want to know how to make 48 delicious cookies? Read on...Russian Tea Cakes

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

powdered sugar

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla. Stir in flour, nuts and salt until dough holds together. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until set but not brown.

Roll in powdered sugar while warm; cool. Roll in powdered sugar again.

3 Hours

I am always aware of how much physical activity and how much screen time the girls have each day. Today it felt like the girls were more active than usual, so I added it up. Julia and Evelyn each had about 180 minutes - 3 hours! - of physical activity today.

Julia:

Walked Evelyn to school - 25 minutes

Little Gym class - 60 minutes

Played at Chick Fil-A's indoor jungle gym - 30 minutes

Walked to get Evelyn from school - 25 minutes

Played at the park - 60 minutes

Total - 200 minutes

Evelyn:

Walked to school - 10 minutes

P.E. class - 50 minutes

Outdoor recess - 30 minutes

Walked home from school - 15 minutes

Played at the park - 60 minutes

Total - 165 minutes

Evelyn's First Nutcracker Performance

Evelyn was in her first Nutcracker ballet this afternoon! All those Saturday rehearsals finally paid off, as she performed on the big stage at the Rockville campus of Montgomery County College.
Now, I need to explain something - Even we family members have to pay full-price for tickets to any and all performances we want to see. Since some of our friends are going to tomorrow's show, I did not see Evelyn this afternoon. But I heard - from another mom who did see today's performance - that the punchinellas did a great job! Here's Julia, greeting Evelyn at the stage door with a bouquet of flowers -
Our proud little ballerina. She said she wasn't nervous at all, and she wants to do it again. That's good because she has four more shows to do this season!

How to Prep a Punchinella

It takes about 30 minutes (at home) to get Evelyn ready for her role as a punchinella in the Nutcracker ballet. The easy part is putting on her tights and leotard. The next step takes awhile: making two high pigtails. I have to get the center part just right. Then I wet her hair and use gel to keep all the little flyaway hairs down.
Finally, I use a curling iron to give her wavy hair some guidance and body. And that's it for me - she doesn't put on make up until she gets to the theater. (You'll have to wait for pictures of Evelyn in full make up and costume until after the performances, when we will have a chance to view and buy professional photographs.)