Friday, October 26, 2012

Sugar Cookies, Pumpkin Carving, and a Couple of Silly Boys!

There's something about this time of year that makes me want to bake and bake and bake and create delicious goodies in the kitchen.


And, there's nothing I love more than sugar cookies and spending time with my guys.  



So, the other night I whipped up some dough (and just about ate all of it...no lie) and we got all floured up, rolled it out, and cut out some pumpkins, bats, ghosts, and more pumpkins, and we made some Halloween cookies.


{My super easy sugar cookie recipe is at the end of this post!!}

Parker was totally into it.  Andrew not so much.  But, that's okay.  It was the perfect moment of teaching my boys something I love (baking) and giving them a new memory for their Halloween tradition memory bank.  




Another tradition we've got goin' this Halloween - Carving Pumpkins.  Parker has been asking about this since August.  He's had carving on the brain....so, tonight, while the wind was howling, the moon was shining, and the feel of Halloween creeped in our garage, we carved some pumpkins.


I was totally impressed.  Parker had a design all planned out.  He took that black marker and he drew the design out on his pumpkin complete with crescent shaped eyes, a triangle nose, and a jig-jag mouth.  He knew exactly what he wanted his pumpkin to look like.




And, when it came time to make one for Andrew, Parker grabbed that marker up and drew one out for his little bro.  Andrew helped, of course, and what they got were two scary jack-o-lanterns.



Something these two boys weren't into - touching the pumpkin guts.  It was hilarious....they made their Momma do it!  Parker thought it smelled so bad, he wasn't about to stick his hand in it.  And, my Andrew, he would get up really close to the pumpkin guts and say 'ewwwwwwww!'  Seriously?!  Two little boys made their Mom clean out the ooey, gooey pumpkin guts?  Whatever.  I had fun and so did my silly boys.  

{Parker was trying to make the same face as his pumpkin....it was cracking me up!}

I love these two traditions.  Know why?  Because I can remember at every holiday, my mom would flour up the counter top and we'd make ourselves some sugar cookies.  I love this memory from my childhood and this is something I am so thankful to have with my own kiddos.  Another reason?  I can remember sitting out on the back deck with my dad carving pumpkins.  I remember pulling the guts out, telling dad what I wanted it to look like, and when the carving was done, I remember going inside where there were roasted pumpkin seeds waiting to munch on.  Such sweet childhood memories.

Traditions make our family unique.  I love them all and this time of year, these traditions burst at the seams.  What are some of your family traditions?  Do you bake sugar cookies?  Do you make  trip to the pumpkin patch?  Do you roast pumpkin seeds (I was not that ambitious this year!)?  Do you go to football games?  Play in the leaves?  What makes this time of year special for your family?

Have a great Friday Friends! 


How to make the world's easiest sugar cookies:

Ingredients-

1 Cup (or two sticks) of Unsalted Butter, Softened....I used margarine and it worked fine also.
1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 Teaspoon Almond Extract
2 3/4 Cups of Flour
1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder
1 Teaspoon of Salt

Plus some extra flour for rolling out the dough.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy (I never think mine is light and fluffy, so I just mix it until it's all mixed together).  Beat in egg and extracts.  Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.  At this point, you can chill the dough or you can roll it out now, either way works fine.  Once cookies are rolled and cut out, place them on a cookie sheet and bake for 6 minutes or so.  This should make around 3 or 4 dozen cookies.  Enjoy!

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