Welcome Fall

Okay, so fall officially started last week sometime, but we didn't officially welcome fall until yesterday. The cold blustery weather the past two days was the start of fall to me, so we said hello. I stopped by the grocery store after work and picked up dinner, stuff to make cookies, and some fall colored flowers for my table.

For dinner I made ham and potatoes, really basic, but a meal that I never make in the summer. It's definitely a fall/winter meal for us. It was tasty. Then after dinner the four of us "cooked". Really we baked pumpkin cookies, but the girls call it cooking. They love to cook and whenever we cook together they each get a bowl and there are no rules. They can pretty much spill whatever, get totally dirty, taste whatever they want, and I just let them have at it. I want cooking to be something they enjoy and a positive family experience, so I don't tell them, "No! Don't do that!" I just let them have fun. I give them measuring spoons and cups and let them mix together whatever they want - while I mix the real stuff separately, of course :) Baking supplies are really inexpensive, so wasting a cup or two of flour is no big deal to me.

Berlin is so worried about messes that the first time we cooked together she got really upset when she spilled on the counter. She couldn't keep mixing until I wiped up what she had spilled. Then I showed her how to spill what was in her bowl all over the counter and showed her how to draw in it and mush it around. Things were much better after that. If she spills now it's just an "uh oh" and then she keeps on cooking. Tryn is adorable and takes her cooking very seriously. She mixes everything and measures, then she handed me her really soupy bowl of mix told me that I could put hers in the oven next. It discreetly made it's way into the sink while she was decorating the cookies with frosting.

Serious Tryn.

Tasting flour.

Telling daddy that eating raw flour is yucky. Who would've thought? :)

These cookies probably have a LOT more frosting on them than they are supposed to, but, like I said, there are no rules. I mean, I guess there are some, like the kids can't eat a whole can of frosting themselves. However, we did all dip our fingers into the frosting before we started frosting the cookies. I guess I mean there are no rules when it comes to the creative expression side of things.



Don't actually know what she is doing here, but she sure looks pretty cute :) I wish I would have remembered to take her shirt off before we actually fully got into cooking though...it got a little dirty.