Secret Revealed - Guess what! I'm going to be a ......

Okay, I know you didn't sleep all night long because you were so excited to see my secret revealed in cookies. Oh wait. That was me up all night. I bet you slept really well! So... guess what! I'm going to be a....

This beautiful girl of mine and her husband decided it's time to turn my pink hair into gray hair ;-) and become a GRANDMA!

 Did you catch the shirt saying? This is how she told us the exciting news! She waited for us to read her shirt!

So I decided to make cookies. Yesterday's cookies were pickles and ice cream to get you ready for the big secret. By the way, Mellissa HATES pickles, but I bet she could put up with some pickle shaped cookies ;-) So then I made a bunch of GRANDMAS.

 Notice they don't have pink hair. What's the deal with that? Yes, my grandchild will have a grandma with pink hair. That part you can be sure of!

 I had too much fun with these grandmas.

 and more grandmas

 Then I made little girls that were packed up to go play at Grandmas house. I don't care AT ALL if it's a boy or a girl, but I made these cute little girls. We'll know more in March...

 Then I made some fun sayings about grandmas

 so true...

 This will be very true of this grandma :-)

 I don't really believe in spoiling to be honest. I think a parents job is to NOT do too much for a child. The most important job we will EVER have is to raise independent, competent, caring, loving, giving children. I'm all for spoiling with lots of love though.

 Ok, so here's where I need your help. What should my grandchild call me? I can tell you right now that he/she can call me chopped liver and I'll come running, but Mellissa wants us to come up with a grandma-type name fitting of me. I need your input. Leave a comment with grandma names to help us find something fitting.

I LOVED all the comments yesterday both on my blog and on my Cristin's Cookies Facebook page. You all touch my heart and always keep me smiling! I appreciate you!

* he/she will be special blessing from God and you will somehow have to figure out how to smile wider than you already do! lol Blessings, Donna B.


* You have such JOY coming to you that you will be in utter AWE. :) ENJOY, Susie


* Hang on to your pink ponytail. Being a grandma will be the ride of your life. Carroll's Cookies


* It's the most special and beautiful thing that can happen to a parent! Paula of Vanilla Bean Baker

* I think maybe your daughter Mellissa is gonna make you a Granny...but you seem too young to be a Granny... so we need to find you a way cooler name... mmm I think he or she should call you GranPinkie... yeah... that's is it GranPinkie... or just Pinkie! Kim of The Cookie Puzzle

Kim is right, I need a name. So what do you think? Help think of some grandma names and share...

I Have A Secret

I have a secret! I'm good at secrets. Really I am. I was especially good at this one and I deserve brownie points for that. (insert name) are you listening? Brownie points! So while I'm really good at secrets, I don't lie. Really not ever. So I was lucky that no one came out and ASKED me about this secret, because then a big smile would come across my face and really that would be it. But I finally can share! BUT I'm going to make you work for it. I made some cookies to partially share the secret, but tomorrow's cookies (if I finish them tonight) will really tell the story. I'm super excited. Can you tell? ;-)

So what do you think? Ok, I know. You have to pretend those green things actually look like pickles. I tried, but I don't have ability in smooshing cookie cutters and re-shaping them, so we have to use our imagination here. Still... you see pickles and ice cream right? Do you know yet?

 Well how about if I add in a few more cookies.

 Okay just these then. Are we getting it yet?

 Ice cream sundae bowls

 Ice cream cones

 Ice cream swirly/softies

 Ice cream sundaes

 Pickles. Yaa I know, but they are. Just go with me on this one. Pickles.

 Hmmm storks...

 What is this?

Do you know? Do you know? I'm not really telling you til tomorrow's cookies. I know you're bursting at the seams just like me.... pretty darn exciting! I'm off for a bike ride - with a big smile on my face :-) and ok, tears in my eyes. It's just the way I am.

Oh and take a look at MY photo on the right side bar. Look at yesterday's post of my beautiful children. My last child is going off to college in a few months, so don't even go there....!

Sweet Shoppe Party - Swirl Cookies & Cake

I told you that I would let you see the world's ugliest cake. I find cakes stressful actually. When I'm busy decorating cookies for one of my kid's birthdays, I don't want to stop to make a cake, especially when I'm not good at it. I had this vision of a super cool Sweet Shoppe Party with decorated cookies, candies, swirl cookies and an awesome cake for my daughter. Well life got in the way and instead we had a party filled with love and time and family and togetherness. That's way better anyway and I KNOW without a doubt, that my daughter agrees.

So here's my ugly cake, but with my daughter in the picture, she makes everything beautiful.

But the world's ugliest cake, was pretty darn fun on the inside at least :-)

Mellissa happened to come over when I was attempting to make swirl cookies. Have you ever seen Carolyn's swirl cookies of The Occasional Cookie? They are GORGEOUS. She even made a tutorial for us on Sugarbelle's site. Well she conveniently left out the part that Carolyn is simply a GOD. Maybe it's just me, but they sure aren't as easy as she made them look. And it's messy to make them. Messy doesn't really work with me. Mellissa had great fun in showing her silly mom and how messy really isn't my thing.

Since I didn't want food-colored hands for a week, I started with food-grade disposable gloves. They say one size fits all, but good luck with that! Mellissa taped them on me to help the monstrous size gloves stay on better. If you watch the video, you'll see that didn't really help so much ;-)

 Then we roped Nick in as a helper. Mellissa taped him up too, but only after hitting him up with a bunch of flour on his clothes ;-)

 It took quite a while for the color to knead all the way into the dough, but eventually it does get there. It is messy though...

After we got the colors of dough that we needed, we took bits of each color and made them into worms (think play-doh). They didn't come out nearly as beautiful as Carolyn makes them, but we laughed and enjoyed the silly fun together.

Happy Birthday to my baby girl, Mellissa

 love my kids

Okay tomorrow, if all goes as planned, I will be revealing a HUGE secret! Hmmm maybe I'll make you work for it first ;-) more info tomorrow.

Sweet Shoppe Cookies - lots & lots of candy!

My beautiful baby girl celebrated her 28th birthday last week and guess what I did... I made lots and LOTS of cookies. I know you're so surprised. She didn't have a specific theme she wanted, so I chose a Sweet Shoppe theme and made LOTS of candy/sweets theme cookies.

 These were my favorites - candy dots

and Smarties

 Tootsie Rolls

 Peppermint candies

 Hershey's Chocolate Bars

Bubble Gum Machines

Cotton Candy

 Candy Jars

Candy Sticks

 Rock Candy

Caramel Apples

 Lollipops

Ice Cream Cones

 Ice Cream Sundaes

 Ice Cream Sundae Bowls

Strawberry & Chocolate Shakes

 Ice Cream Swirlies/Softies

Push Pops

Pinwheels

 Cupcakes

Cakes

Presents

Birthday Hats

Balloons

 Happy Birthday to my Mellissa

My baby girl, Mellissa, with her husband, Irik and my niece, Alexa

 Isn't she beautiful!

 Me with my babies, Mellissa and Nick

Would you believe that her birthday cookies weren't ready in time for her birthday? Terrible huh. I tried, but my super woman cape wasn't working and yaa I went a little overboard... (she would input .... gee, you think?) The cookies were done in time for the big 49er game though and everyone got to take sweet shop cookies home then. Tomorrow I'll show you the world's ugliest cake. I definitely need to stick with cookies ;-)