Valentine's Day & Sugar Cookies: A fun activity for toddlers
I LOVE all holidays and any reason to celebrate! You can just ask my husband and he will tell you that literally every holiday that comes up I get so excited and rave about how it is my favorite. And in my defense, they all are my favorite but just for different reasons. I thought maybe as I had more children that I would get burnt out on celebrating them all to the extent that I do, but nope! Still going strong!
Valentine's Day when you are young and in love is so much fun. There is so much anticipation around what you will do and where you will go. I am always so grateful and excited for anything that is planned for me. When my husband and I first started dating he flew out from Kansas City to where I was living in Alexandria, VA to spend the day with me. We went into D.C.
and started our day at the cutest bookstore/bar called Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe. We sipped on Hot Toddys and a warm butter rum drink and ate our way through 4 hours of chatting. Then we went to the Round Robin Bar (pre-renovation) in the Willard InterContinental and enjoyed some Mojito's & Mint Juleps and people watching. We finished the day strolling through Georgetown and window shopping. It was a perfect day. If you are in the D.C. area those are all very cute date spots!
This year my husband has planned something extra special that is a surprise and with no prompting from me! Our daughter is so young (4 months) that I figured we would just have a nice dinner at home and be in bed early. But, he got us a babysitter (my parents, we literally live right next door to them which is amazing), and planned a night out. I keep trying to figure out what it is, and I am relentless so it is almost impossible to surprise me, but so far we are one day out from V-Day and I still have absolutely no idea where we are going!
Valentine's Day with three small children is even more fun than just Valentine's Day with a S/O. My kids aren't to the age yet where they will be exchanging Valentine's in school (I have yet to send them to school actually and am dreading this upcoming Fall when Isaac has to enter Pre-K. I'm sure I'll be fine, it will be fine, I'll be ok, ok I'm internally freaking out... but I'll cross that bridge in a few months). I am so excited to make the day fun for the kids though. Today we tackled V-day baking so that they could make some special things for their nearest and dearest and send Daddy to work with some cookies to share with his office.
Normally, I would make sugar cookies with royal icing. But, since that is a little bit harder for the munchkins to decorate with, I whipped up some thicker butter cream icing (I used the mixer and added 3 cups powdered sugar, 1/3 cup of butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, and 1 tsp milk and blended until it was the consistency I wanted) that is more fun for them to decorate with.
Sugar Cookie Recipe
Total Time: 2 hours and 25 minutes
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Waiting: 2 hours
Cooking Time: 8-10 minutes
Makes about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 dozen
Ingredients:
2 sticks/1 Cup of Unsalted Butter softened
1 Egg beaten
1 Cup sugar
3 Cups Flour sifted
1/4 tsp of Baking Powder
1/2 tsp of Salt
1 tsp Milk
Powdered Sugar for rolling
Directions:
1. Sift the flour (you only want to use 3 cups of sifted flour). Combine the baking soda and salt to the flour.
2. In a mixer or bowl with a hand mixer, mix the unsalted butter and sugar together on a low speed until light in color.
3. Add in the egg and milk to the mixer or bowl and mix until blended.
4. Slowly add in the flour/salt/baking soda to the mixer and mix on a low speed
5. When it starts to pull away from the side of the bowl separate the mix into two balls and refrigerate in wax paper (I use parchment paper) for 2 hours.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
7.Roll out the dough and create your shapes!
8. Bake on 375 for 8-10 minutes. I do 9 minutes every time.
We had so much fun making the sugar cookies. Logan (my youngest son) loves to help me with the mixer. Isaac (my oldest) did a great job rolling out the dough. Both boys enjoyed cutting out the heart shapes. Below are the pictures from our fun cookie making day!
Isaac rolling out the dough like a pro!
I'm not sure which was more fun for them, rolling the dough or cutting the shapes.
Cookies fresh out of the oven! Isaac & Logan did a great job cutting out the shapes.
Let the decorating begin!
The finished product! I am so glad we did this activity! Plus easy clean-up using paper plates.
Made with love from Isaac & Logan
HAPPY (early) VALENTINE'S DAY! I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating with the special someone in your life or enjoying some wine and a good chick flick if you're flying solo!
