So, now that we know we are at home for the long haul, I am looking for new and frugal activities for us to do as a family. I headed to the public library about a month ago and went through the big stack of books for sale. You could pay a $2 flat fee to fill as big of a bag as you wanted! WHAT A DEAL! I found lots of treasures, but one was an old activity book from the 1970's. It was chock full of fun ideas for activities to do at home. We tried one of them out yesterday...cookie painting!
The first step was making the dough..a simple butter cookie that made enough for at least 3 dozen cookies!
I did this on my own...the ingredients were very simple things in my pantry (flour, sugar, shortening, butter)
After I made the dough, I divided it into fourths and the kids each rolled out their own designs with random cookie cutters I had in my baking tote. Everyone enjoyed creatively cutting their dough shapes.
We had to paint the cookies BEFORE baking...I almost missed that essential step. The "paint" was simply egg yolks, water, sugar, and food dye. I also bought these cool Wilton baking paint brushes which made the painting super easy.
Everyone painted and assembled the cookies on baking sheets with parchment paper under so no sticking!
We then baked the cookies at 350 degrees for around 8 minutes until the edges were brown. They turned out so cute and bright! The also tasted good...a great butter cookie for tea or coffee.
I love the marbled look AND the copy of Anne of Green Gables sitting by the cookies. My stepdaughter and I are enjoying talking about this book right now too!
I would recommend doing this with kids of all ages. My bonus kids are 12, 14, and 17 and we all enjoyed! I am aiming to do one fun activity a day with them while in quarantine...this could be anything from yard work, to field trip to Starbucks, to a hands on activity like this! But as always, want to keep the right perspective. This is the magic we will never forget.
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