The cutest kid

Preface: excuse the absurd number of pictures here, my mom asked for more!

We had a fun end of the week and weekend around our house this past weekend with no big plans, which are typically my favorite days.  The hunt has begun for the containers we want for the laundry room, but no final decision yet, so I'll post after pictures once we have found them and put them up!  Fun event #1 for the end of last week was another fire with s'mores.  The weather here has been gorgeous and we are enjoying every outside minute we can get!  As you can tell, Emerson loves it, and continues to be such a ham and source of constant humor and fun at our house.  The only s'more that I ate was all the leftovers off her sweet cheeks as you'll see below:

This next picture kills me, I think it is a glimpse into what she looks like as a 'grown up' kid.  She looks so old and so precious here but it breaks my heart a little at the thought of her growing up.

Friday night, after we finished dinner together, we all stayed at the island for some Pinterest inspired arts & crafts.  I had seen this on Pinterest recently and knew Emerson would love it as we have talked about Valentine's Day coming up and she loves anything that involves baking and being in the kitchen with me.  The same week that I saw this on Pinterest, I also found these silicone ice cube trays at Target in the $1 section, aka, my favorite section in Target.  We have also used these to make OJ ice cubes and put 2 in Emerson's cup of water to spice up her life a little bit.  I know, I'm living on the edge.  So, here's how the arts and crafts project went:

Step #1: Have a brilliant husband who realizes that Crayola has made it really tricky to get the paper off of their crayons.  The Pinterest sites that inspired this craft did not mention this, but don't waste your time trying to peel the paper off the crayons like I did, just use a kinfe to slice down the lenght of the paper and it pops right off - you can see the difference in our attempts in our scraps pile.  Tiny little pieces by me, perfectly shaped wrappers by Terry.

Step #2: Other sites show cutting the crayons, but we wanted everyone to get to do this together, so we just broke them, even Emerson got the hang of it after a few tries - and put them in the silicone trays.

Step #3: Fill each heart up, stick them in the oven at 230 degrees for 15 minutes, carefully take out and cool until solid.

Step #4: Admire your handiwork!  These turned out great and they came with us several places over the rest of the weekend and kept Emerson very entertained!  I will have to keep my eyes out for other fun shapes to keep doing these.  Great for little hands!

The fun isn't over yet!  Terry had been craving chocolate chip cookies, so Saturday we spent some more time in the kitchen and finally got around to making some and to using my Christmas present from my mom - as you can see, mom, the stand mixer was a hit with everyone!  This recipe is from a friend, and I think it is from Cooks Illustrated?  It makes huge thin cookies that are a little crunchy with just the right amount of chewiness.  They are delicious.  Let's just let these pictures speak for themselves.  I couldn't choose to take any out, because the progression of Emerson realizing I would let her take a lick of this cookie dough straight off the mixer was priceless:

"Hmm...that was pretty good, please God let my next choice go over well..."

 "Yep.  Lip lickin' good!"

It's amazing that I am the one laying in bed recovering from a violent stomach bug that knocked me off my feet last night, considering the amount of cookie dough I let our family eat as we baked these...Here's Terry teaching Emerson the art of eating raw cookie dough.  He would rather eat the whole bowl raw than eat one  fresh cookie out of the oven.  True story.

 Emerson was a quick learner.  I think Terry's eyes are closed in euphoria here.

The finished product in all their crispy, chewy glory.  Recipe below, go make them.

2 1/8 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

12 Tbsp (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled slightly (approx 5 minutes)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk (hmm, oops, I definitely forgot this part!)

2 tsp vanilla

1-2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325

Mix flour, baking soda & salt.  Set aside.  Mix butter and sugars until well-incorporated.  add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  Add flour in 2-3 batches until just mixed.  Stir in chips. 

Cover baking sheets with parchment or silpat.  Drop 1/4 cup scoops (Seriously, that is huge.  I use a heaping Tbs) of dough onto sheets, space 2 inches apart.  Bake 15-18 minutes.  Let cookies cool on baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack (they are very fragile and thin)!

Yum.