Making cupcakes

(I always forget how the pictures load and I did these pictures in reverse order!)

It is hard to be a working mom and try to spend quality time with Lauren. We have such limited time together each day during the week. I try to do something together each night that we are home. This could be just taking a walk or playing a board game or playing house or the like. Tonight I thought it would be fun to make cupcakes. Lauren loves to help me cook and bake so she was thrilled with this idea.

I am not a great baker or a great cook and I admit that I use box cake mixes. Lauren loves to put the eggs in the bowl. She has gotten pretty good at breaking the egg and not getting the shell in the batter. I use to have to clean out a bunch of shells but now she does it without getting any of the shells in the batter. When we bake together she wants to do everything so I measure out the ingredients and Lauren puts them in the bowl. She then likes to use the mixer and mix the batter.

Her favorite part is licking the bowl after we are done. I know that raw eggs are bad but I did this as a little kid and it is a great memory so I let Lauren do it too. She loves the batter. Sometimes I have to keep her from just eating the batter with a spoon.

While the cupcakes baked Lauren and I read some books and got ready for bed but she really wanted to ice at least one of the cupcakes. They were still a little warm so the icing was a bit hard to put on but she did it. Then she had to add the decorations. Sometimes that does not get done that well because she really just wants to eat the cupcake.

Lauren enjoyed sampling one of her creations. She only eats the top off the cupcakes. She is an icing girl and will eat the top off cupcakes, donuts, cake and anything with icing. The rest of the item is then just left.

It was a fun night. I worry that the only memories that she will have of her childhood is that I was always working. I hope she remembers these times also.

By the way, it was the end of the day and she had finished dinner and spent all day at school and that is why she has a dirty face and messy hair!!!!

I love the smiles and the concentration that she has when she is doing something like this.