A Good Life . . .

Kindness

Audrey and I were talking about the guest list for her upcoming birthday party.

Audrey: "Even though ____ is not nice to me, I am going to invite her to the party.  She likes to dance.  And to show her kindness and how she can be kind too."

Me: Speechless and very proud.

Mermaids

Come on, what little girl doesn't want to be Ariel?

80/20

Please allow me to present Audrey's first Valentine's Day Bag (note: her teacher's specifically said she could bring a box or bag for her Valentines).

This creation is 80% Audrey and 20% me, and I'd like to remember just how the 80/20 transpired.  I suggested a heart-shaped felt bag.  She changed it to a "regular" shaped bag.  I suggested ribbon for the handles.  She suggested a strip of a different color of felt.  I suggested a felt heart or two on the front.  She suggested six hearts (and later inserted a seveth one - the black one).  I suggested that I could put her name on it later tonight (feeling a little pressed for time).  She suggested that she could just write her name on it.  And the smiley faces . . . oh, those were all Audrey.  She sewed one side of the bag.  I finished the sewing.  And she, of course, glued all of the hearts on the front.  Yea, I'm kind of proud of her.  

And now I'm off to finish the Valentines for her friends and teachers.  Those were more 20/80 . . . but there's always next year.

And the fourth time is a charm . . .

If you are ever in need of an eggless spritz cookies recipe, I have you covered.  I'm doing a Valentine's cookie project with Audrey's class tomorrow and one of her friends is allergic to eggs.  I found a few recipes for eggless spritz (press) cookies online, so I didn't think it would be a big deal.  However, I didn't start testing the recipes until this weekend (yikes!).  But of course this story ends well . . . or you wouldn't be reading about it here.  So, here is a picture of my progress and the recipe, should you ever need it.

 

Eggless Spritz Cookies

½ cup softened butter

1 ½ ounces softened cream cheese

½ cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tablespoon warm milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 ¼ cup flour

¼  salt

Food coloring if desired

 

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350°F.

                      

Step 2

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

 

Step 3

In a separate bowl, mix cream butter and cream cheese together.

 

Step 4

Add sugar and mix well until light and fluffy.

 

Step 5

Add vanilla and milk. Mix well. 

 

Step 6

Gradually add flour mixture.  Add food coloring, if desired.

 

Fill that cookies press and enjoy!  Bake for 7-9 minutes.

 

Rockin' it out!

We are putting together a dance party for the girls' upcoming birthdays.  I'll give you three guesses why we picked this theme.

Boyfriends and favorites

As Audrey, Amelia and I were driving to dinner tonight, Audrey explained that one of her friends was upset because she was no longer close friends with a certain boy.  Audrey's words of wisdom:

"That's what I told her.  You don't get to be boyfriends and girlfriends always.  Boyfriends can choose a different girlfriend, and girlfriends can choose a different boyfriend."

I thought this little gem needed to be memorialized, so I used my phone to record a voice memo.  In response to this, I heard from Amelia in the backseat:

"Mommy. Sometimes Charlie K knock down my structure.  You record that?  And sometimes there are houses on the street. You record that?"

So figuring we were clearly on a roll, I asked the girls a few questions . . . their answers are below.

Audrey
Favorite Color - Fuchsia
Favorite Food - Corn dogs
Favorite Flavor Ice Cream - Strawberry with sprinkles on it and then mixed with chocolate and vanilla
Favorite Book - Magic Tree House books
Preferred stuffed animal - Her little monkey

Amelia
Favorite Color - Pink, Purple and Orange
Favorite Food - Light bulbs, shoes, signs . . . and once she was done joking, she said "broccoli"
Favorite Flavor Ice Cream - Chocolate
Favorite Book - "Who lost an eyeball?"  Yes, she is my comedian.  When I questioned her on whether that was really a book, she said, "Yes, I want to buy it from a store sometime."
Preferred stuffed animal - Simba and Snoopy