Easter lunch prep

Since we were hosting an Easter lunch on Saturday (and had the big zoo night planned Friday) we started getting ready on Thursday. Amara had such a great time decorating cookies last weekend at the Y luncheon, that we decided to do cupcakes--so she could participate again.

I whipped up the cupcakes, while Amara and dad played--and as soon as they were out of the oven, I assembled the icing, sprinkles, flowers, etc...just like the last time. As soon as I called them up from the playroom to help, Amara hopped right up in her chair and grabbed her icing utensil (a plastic knife, since I couldn't find food-safe popsicle sticks ANYWHERE for some reason) and was ready to roll.

We started off well enough, globs of icing up on top of the cakes, smear it around, grab some sprinkles, repeat. But somewhere between 2 and, well, 3--it went haywire. I'm not sure if the still cooling chocolate cupcakes were more than she could take...if the cream cheese icing came too close to her lips, or if that one stray granule of pink decorative sugar got her all excited, but she started licking. And licking...and dipping, and grabbing.

Luckily, she had eaten a good dinner, and wasn't really that hungry--and you know they aren't actually getting THAT much sugar (right before bedtime) anyway...but part of it seemed wrong, but still cute and sweet, that we were making cupcakes for Easter, the old-fashioned way. At the very least (I justified), she could do this with me, right?

I reviewing the shots Eric got, I was sure that we had at least ONE pre-icing photo that I could share, but alas--apparently we didn't bust the camera out until it got 'hands on.' Not surprising. I personally love the COVERED purple hand--she was DEDICATED to her craft and wasn't timid about her use of color.

Amara personally hand-delivered her cake creations to each and every family member at Saturday's luncheon. I think she really enjoyed sharing her creations and that folks enjoyed getting them too (even Grandma Young's with a lick of icing missing from the top). Our little pastry chef :)