My Valentines

Nolan has been quite the help in the kitchen lately. He's helped me make meatloaf for dinner one night, and then we made cookies together yesterday. It's bitter-sweet for me. I love that he's engaged with me and wanting to be involved. BUT...if you've never cooked/baked with a two-year-old, you have no idea how exhausting it can be, not to mention messy! I turned my back for two seconds yesterday, he turned on the mixer, and cookie batter went flying all over my kitchen and all over his face! Caught, red handed! I wished I had my camera when he shouted, "Aw, man!" and looked at me with batter dripping down the side of his cheek. I couldn't help but to laugh. These are the fun moments we'll remember as moms, right?

So today we made cupcakes for our neighbors and a heart-shaped cake for daddy. I was sure to have my camera with me this time!

The frosting madness started off pretty tame.

Then we started decorating and things got a little hairy. When he first started shaking the sprinkles over the cupcakes, he was determined to pick up every little sprinkle that fell on the cookie sheet. Cute. As you can see by the mountain of red sprinkles, he never thought they had enough on them!
The cake for daddy was just a crazy mess. It all started with the cake falling apart as I was taking it out of the pan. So of course, we had to "glue" it together with mounds of icing! And to be honest with you, I was having just as much fun as Nolan was. It's amazing how I get swept up in the innocent excitement he finds in the simple things. Sometimes we all need to roll up our sleeves and get a little messy; it's really quite fun!

By the way, our cake said "We heart U" before the top to the sprinkles was rammed into it. Again, Nolan had a heyday with the red sprinkles, hence the mountain. Daddy's lil' cupcake had to join in the fun. She was an observer this year, but don't you worry, she'll be in the middle of the fun next year, I'm sure!
This was a very fun and exhausting day for all three of us! Thankfully, daddy appreciated our hard work! He appreciated mommy's exhausting day so much that he gave me a gift certificate for a manicure and a pedicure for Valentine's Day. What wonderful pampering! I was also suprised with beautiful yellow tulips. Thanks daddy!

I'm sure we'll be baking again soon since it's pretty cheap entertainment, especially on those days that we can't go outside and play. A $0.69 box of cake mix and a $1.25 container of icing provides a good couple of hours of entertainment, not to mention great bonding and fun with your kiddos, if you do it the fun way!