Baking a Cake with Aiden

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is to bake. It is something that Jenny and I have been doing together for years, and Aiden helps us most of the time too. We usually just use the baking mixes from a box, but we have baked things from scratch a few times too.

A few weeks ago I purchased some cake mix and had planned on baking it with Jenny and Aiden. Our weeks have been a little crazy lately so we just never found the time to do it. I had kind of forgotten about the cake mix, until last night when Aiden pulled it out of the pantry and asked if we could make it.

Honestly, I had 1000 other things I "needed" to be doing instead of baking a cake. But I just couldn't tell him no! He had been waiting so long to bake it, and he was so excited. So, he and I baked a cake last night! He added all of the ingredients himself, all I did was stir it, put it in the oven, and remove it from the oven.

He did a great job, and enjoyed eating the cake. I even let him have a piece of cake for breakfast this morning.

Our Weekend

Am I the only one who feels like the weekends always go by too fast? It seems like you wait all week for Friday to get here, and then once it does, it's already Monday again. We had another good weekend here. Not too busy, but not too boring. In my opinion, those are the best kind. :)

Friday night, the kids and I went out to dinner with my parents to our usual Friday night place, Monterrey. Aiden always does really well there, and he likes the food too. Sometimes when I ask him what he wants to eat, he'll tell me he wants Monterrey. Haha!

When we got home, Jenny and I used her Easy Bake Oven for the first time. Uncle Billy got it for her for Christmas, but I didn't have the right kind of light bulb for it, so we couldn't use it right away. She liked using it, and it was easy for her to do. She was very impressed with the way the cake turned out. :)

My little Daisy Scout is selling Girl Scout Cookies this year! Her goal was to sell 75 boxes to get her Girl Scout Cookie patch. Saturday we went door to door to a few houses in my parent's neighborhood and we sold to a few more family and friends. She liked selling door to door more than I thought she would, and was a little upset when it was time to stop.

Saturday night, the kids and I baked some brownies in the real oven. Jenny added all the ingredients by herself and she mixed it all up too. She is really getting good at baking! The brownies turned out really well. Jenny went to her mom's house today so I sent some of them with her, and I also gave some to my parents. I don't have enough self control to have an entire pan of brownies sitting in my kitchen. Since I am the only adult here who likes sweets, I would end up eating way to many! Haha.

Today we didn't do a whole lot. The kids and I spent the morning cleaning the house and doing laundry. I prepared a few things for tomorrow's Girl Scout meeting, and got ready for the upcoming week. My mom kept Aiden for a few hours for us tonight while Jaime and I went out to dinner at Applebee's and then went to see a movie. We saw, "No Strings Attached" with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. I liked it, and so did Jaime. It was a little cheesy at times, but was also pretty funny and had a good ending. If you're looking for a good movie, I'd recommend that one.

I think that's it from this weekend. I hope you all had a great weekend too! =)

Christmas Cookies

Yesterday we had the oppertunity to do a little Christmas cookie baking and decorating. It all started in the morning, when my cousin brought her sons over for me to watch while she went to the doctor. Since there were going to be 5 kids in our apartment, I thought it best to do something that would be fun, but still keep them busy at the same time. So, we decorated cookies!

I just bought some of the pre-cut cookie dough and some icing and sprinkles to decorate them with. I baked them, and then we all sat down to decorate. Here are a few pictures from the decorating....

Aiden wasn't really into decorating the cookies, he just wanted to eat them. =)

The finished products.

That same afternoon, Jenny had a friend spend the night. It was the first time she has ever had a friend spend the night, and she was very excited. So, of course, we baked more cookies! This time we did the peanut butter cookie with the chocolate Hershey Kiss center. They were a lot of fun to make, and turned out really well!

The finished product. These were so easy to make!

We are also going to make a few crafts this week and of course we'll have to bake cookies for Santa Friday night! I hope you're enjoying your week of Christmas!!



Cheesecake

Today the kids and I made cheesecake. It was actually a JELLO No-Bake Cheesecake. In case you are thinking that there is no way anyone could possibly mess up a cheesecake that you don't even have to bake....you're wrong!! We messed it up. Before you laugh, please keep in mind that I was working with two children both under the age of 5. Ha!

Basically the instructions said to use 2TBSP sugar, 5TBSP melted butter, and the crust mixture to make the crust. Then for the actual cheesecake part you use the mix and 1 2/3 cups of milk. Well, we (Jenny) accidentally poured the milk into the crust mixture instead of the melted butter. Oops! At that point I really didn't know what to do other than going to the store to buy another box and just starting over. So instead of doing that we just mixed all of the ingredients up at the same time and put it in the fridge like the box instructed. Suprisingly, it actually turned out pretty good!

Aiden pourng in the crust mix.

Jenny pouring in the milk. (I have proof she poured the milk instead of the butter! She won't admit she did it. Ha!)

Melted butter.

Aiden waiting patiently for his turn.

Sunday Is Family Night

Sunday is probably my favorite day of the week. That's because I get to do my favorite thing in the world, spend time with Jaime and the kids! I am a big believer in spending as much time as possible as a family. I think it's great for Aiden's and Jenny's growth and development, and it's also a great time to create a lot of great memories. A lot of my favorite memories of Aiden and Jenny are from our family nights. I would definitely suggest creating a family night for any of you out there with kids who don't already have one.

This Sunday I made beef tacos with rice and beans. That's one of the kid's favorite meals, and of course Jaime and I like it too. After dinner we went to the park to watch Jaime play soccer and then afterwards we let the kids play on the playground and kick the soccer ball around a little.

When we got home Jaime and I made cookies with the kids. Jenny is starting to get really good at baking, and Aiden really likes watching and helping when he can.

Sundays really make me feel thankful for my family, and make me feel very lucky to have such great kids!

Jenny Loves Brownies!

I'm conviced that Jenny loves baking just as much as I do - maybe even a little more than me! She's always asking me about baking, and she's always asking me to find new recipes for things we can make. We've always kept it pretty simple, and mostly just bake things from a box. We've baked several times this way, and she gets better at it every time. She's getting so good at it in fact, that I am going to look for some more recipes to make our deserts from scratch rather than from a pre-mixed box.

Earlier tonight she and I made our favorite - chocolate brownies with walnuts! Everytime we go grocery shopping I always ask her what she wants to bake and usually she always asks for brownies. She's my kind of girl! Ha! I try to mix it up a little bit though and so we rotate what we bake. Otherwise we would bake brownies every time!

Pouring in the oil and water.

Cracking the eggs are her favorite part, and she's really good at doing it!

Mix it up!

I take back what I said about cracking the eggs, I think licking the spoon may be her favorite!!