Post Weekend

This weekend definitely felt like one that was leading up to Christmas.  A winter weekend.  Dare I say - a perfect winter weekend.  It was a winter weekend that felt so nice and cozy because we've got maaayyybeeee another six weeks to go before we are SICK AND TIRED of winter weekends.  So we'll enjoy the fun they give us while it lasts.

Winter weekends were made for snow.  Playing in it...

...and discovering the eating of it.  Way to stay hydrated, guys.

(Nolan's face says it all.  "We were inside the warm house and then you bundled me up so I can't move and put things on my hands so I can't get to my fingers or grab things even if I could move my arm and don't you know that grabbing things is my FAVORITE and I'm not sure why we're out here when it's a solid 50 degrees warmer inside the house where I could crawl around."  Sorry, dude.  But you do look good in orange.)

Of course once we did get back inside, it was straight to some cookie baking.  One of Caden and Brooklyn's favorite activities.  (Which is good news for me, since the eating of cookies is one of my favorite activities.)

Well, favorite activity minus the mixer:

(Death stare.)

I guess it got kind of boring.  But it's all worth it when there are beaters to lick in the end.

(Shhhh...there were totes raw eggs in the batter.  Don't tell anyone's mother.)

My mom was all like, "wow, how ambitious of you to play in the snow and bake cookies all in one morning!" and I was all, "yeah, but I was supposed to be organizing/sorting/going through the mess of clothes that fit/don't fit/possibly fit at one time in all the kid's closets and this just sounded more fun". I'll take ambition, but it was really some productive-looking procrastination..  Tomato, tomahto.  Whatever.

(This recipe.  Downside:  needing to be put in the oven twice.  Upside: placing marshmallows on top was super thrilling for these little hands.  And honestly, I could have done without the dried cranberries in them.  Sorry, Ocean Spray.)

And...

...a tree!  The tree is up!  After debating whether I even wanted to bother with a tree this year (we put up a small one a couple of years ago when Caden and Brooklyn were Nolan's age because I was NOT dealing with two babies trying to pull over a 7-foot tree) we went for it.  After the initial fiasco of "oh crap the middle of the tree isn't lit" (something wasn't plugged in properly OH DUH SURPRISE), it's been a festive note in the background ever since.  I managed to get some ribbon on it yesterday, but I'm not so sure about adding ornaments.  While Nolan has steered surprisingly clear of the tree so far, I'm not so sure he could ignore sparkly, dangly things that look EXACTLY like toys hanging from the branches.

And these two probably couldn't, either.

Maybe I'll call it minimalism and say we're good for the year.  

Project Sandbox

So if you follow me over on Instagram, you already know what our Friday night consisted of:

Operation: Sandbox.

Let's just say these kids aren't afraid of a little dirt.

Or a lot of it, either.

I thought the dirt-butt pictured above was bad, but that was just a taste of what was to come...

(Brooklyn, every time the sand started sliding down the bed of the trailer even a little bit: "It's coming!")

Because clearly, if a truck backs up to dump out a ton of sand in your backyard, it's sand-slide time.  (Great idea, Dad!  I'll be sending you the laundry bill.)

We often add a few drop of food coloring to the twins' bath water for fun, colorful baths. In case you can't tell, this was not necessary on Friday night.  As soon as Caden and Brooklyn touched the water it was ALL OF THE BROWN.  I'm not sure they got any cleaner sitting in it, actually.

And yes, I was having mild heart palpitations the entire time this was going on.  SO. MUCH. DIRT.  My neat-and-tidy brain was doing all it could to not short-circuit, as it kept going back and forth between "they're having so much fun!" to "I can't EVEN with all that GRIME". And apparently I need to get used to it, since this thing is kind of a permanent fixture in our backyard.

 Oh yeah, and that dirt butt?

(Also this one.)

Well...

PARENTING WIN.

Possibly my proudest parenting moment.  Play had left a dark brown stain, mommy washed it white as snow.  Slightly dirty snow.  Like, you wouldn't want to eat it.  But still.  Guess I don't need to send you my laundry bill after all, Dad...

Christmas Cookies

We had some family over this weekend (cousins and their girls) (Sorry, Caden.  You were outnumbered again.) for some Christmas cookie decorating.

And playtime.  Of course.

I wasn't really sure how Caden and Brooklyn would take to decorating cookies.  I mean, fairly young toddlers with frosting and sprinkles?  Will they understand?  Will they care?  Will they just immediately consume everything within their reach?  Do they even have the skills and coordination to decorate a cookie in the first place?

Oh, they had skills all right.  

SKILLZ

I think this was the first time, after a good ten minutes of meticulously spreading the frosting and sprinkles all over the surface of his cookie, that Caden (CADEN! of all people) took a taste.  He took the decorating of his cookies very, very seriously.

And don't let that face fool you.  I kept finding blobs of cookies -- all the edges eaten off, no longer recognizable as any sort of cookie shape -- all over the place.  Remnants of a constant afternoon-into-evening cookie snack fest by this guy.

Brooklyn...

also got into it.

 

She was a bit more liberal with the frosting tasting.  At one point shea ginormous glob of frosting off of her knife, and sat there staring into space for the next minute or so, as the sugar high probably hit and exploded her little mind.

This picture about sums up their whole experience:

It was so much fun, and Caden was melting hearts as he blew kisses galore as everyone left. I think decorating Christmas cookies with the fam is going to become an annual tradition.

(FYI everything was store-bought this year.  Pre-made dough, frosting, etc.  I had no time or energy after recovering from being sick to make much of anything from scratch.  I rolled the (conveniently pre-made tube of) dough out and baked the cutouts before everyone arrived, so they were cool enough to decorate right away.  Half the cookies also spread out and became giant blobs (is this an angel or a Christmas tree?) and guess what?  NOBODY CARED.  Blob cookies still taste delicious.  I also had everything to make Rice Krispie bars and puppy chow and tackled those with the oldest girl.  Everyone got some delicious goodies to take home with minimal effort.  Win-win-win.)