Best of Both Worlds: Baking

Baking has always been something I loved to do! I grew up with a grandmother who always had something yummy coming out of the oven. Some of my greatest memories are baking cut-out cookies with her. She always had just enough patience to let me help and because of that I knew once I had children of my own, I would do the same with them. Plus, who doesn't love a loaf of fresh banana bread in the morning!

Kendall lucked out since she was the first born! We baked a lot together when she was little. I have many pictures of her, with her little blonde pigtails, where she is licking the beaters! I think my favorite baking memory with her was actually this past year! She really wanted to bake something all by herself (with no help from me) typical of a 8 year old. She decided to bake chocolate chip cookies. There were a few times I really wanted to step in and take over, but I remembered my grandmother and let Kendall do her thing. The cookies turned out pretty good (a few unmixed chunks in there, but hey, she was 8) and the best part was how proud she was of herself!

Now Max hasn't baked with me as much as his sister. Maybe it's because he is a boy or the second born, who knows? He just hasn't been as interested in it....Until lately! Today Kendall was at her friends house and we had no where to go. I asked Max if he wanted to bake something, first he asked if he could lick all the beaters since his sister was gone and then told me he wanted to pick out the recipe. Despite the few extra egg shells in the batter, I think our Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars turned out great!

I just hope my kids have as good of memories of baking with me as I did with my grandmother! And I hope they bake with their children as well. It really is the simple things in life that bring us so much joy...a little flour and frosting goes straight to the heart!