LoveOutLoud...with cookies!

Happy Tuesday, dear loves!  I am just beyond amazed at how fast January is flying by already!  It seems that each time I blink, another month goes by!  Anyways, I have a very special post today.  Of course, you all know I'm playing catch up!  You will obviously be able to tell from this post because the goodies we made...well, they were very holiday-esque!  So, I don't remember if I mentioned this but back in November (of 2011), I had an opportunity to get together with Project LOL and donate some of my time and passion with a very special group of kids at the Toussaint Academy San Diego. At that first "hang out," I showed the kiddos how to make fresh vanilla ice cream and pumpkin pies.  All from scratch.  Yes, we're talking about real home-made ice cream...putting simple ingredients, such as eggs, cream, and sugar and turning it into some yummy, creamy goodness.  We also made mini pumpkin pies from scratch.  The kiddos made the pie crust, pureed fresh pumpkins (not that canned stuff!) and mixed it with a bunch of yumminess to create this wonderful, flaky, melt-in-your mouth goodness called pumpkin pie.  Yeah, it was that good.  OH, don't forget to add that home-made vanilla ice cream on top of the pumpkin pie too.  OH, wait, I almost forgot.  We also whipped up some fresh whipped cream to top off all that goodness.  I wish I had pictures to show you...we definitely had a lot of fun.  So much fun, that I asked my friend and co-founder of Project LOL, Daniel, to set me up with another play date with the kiddos.  And, my man pulled through.  We had a play date to decorate sugar cookies...just in time for Christmas!

I was very happy to see my kids from our previous bake session come back!  There was a Chargers game going on that very day, so, a lot of the kids kind of trickled in throughout our time there.  But, again, I was super excited to see my kids from last time come back, along with some new faces.  Like I say, the more, the merrier!  And who the heck can resist home-baked sugar cookies...to decorate and then to eat??  What I did was pre-baked the sugar cookies into various shapes.  That way, the kids can spend more time decorating the cookies (since we have limited time at our bake session) instead of mixing, baking, and then decorating.  Even I don't try to do it all on the same day, so I can't expect my kiddos to either!  And they all did such a great job decorating the cookies!  Look closely, dear readers...there are some great artistic expressions in those cookeis!!  It must be because they were fueled with cookies to decorate these cookies! We also baked a few batches of fresh cookies that day too.  We made very simple chocolate chip cookies...some just with chocolate chips and some with festive M&M candies.

I just love the looks of happy, content faces!  See Danny's gigantic grin after taking a few bites of fresh cookies?  Oh yeaah...he definitely enjoyed those cookies.  I think we were all on a sugar high that day! I had also brought some goodie bags for the kids to bag up their cookies.  I always appreciate home-made gifts over store-bought, any day!  So, I thought it might be fun to instill something that I always (and still) love to do and hope it's something the kids will keep in mind when thinking about gift giving.  I feel that something made by one's own hands, is just so much more precious.  The fact that so much time and effort was put into such a gift, is something that is just not replaceable!  And not only that, these gifts are one of a kind...you definitely cannot find it at the store!  I definitely had a blast with my kids and I cannot wait for our next bake session!  Who knows, I might uncover the next great baker here!

Thanks for stopping by dear readers!  I hope you enjoyed this very special post and I hope I'll have more adventures with these kids to share with you!

XoXo,
Linda