We all dread the moment as bakers and moms.
That loud crash,
the ear-splitting clang,
the feeling of your heart sinking to the pit of your stomach with a thud...
All because your cookie sheets and your
perfectly decorated cookies have scattered across the floor...
into a million sandy little pieces.
*sigh*
My moment came almost eight years ago,
the day before Ethan's third birthday party.
I successfully blocked the occasion out of my mind completely until I was asked by Frigidaire to write a post about a "Do-Over" moment and it all came back to me.
It all started when I found a circus animal cookie cutter set.
I was instantly smitten and knew Ethan HAD to have a circus birthday party!
I could see it all in my mind....
there would be balloon animals and carnival games,
prizes to win, goldfish to adopt...
...most importantly,
I would make these cookies and decorate the cake with them!
All the kids could even take an entire herd of circus animal
cookies home with them as favors!
It would be the best party EVER!!!
(there is nothing in the world that tempts fate more than a mom
with out-of-control grandiose birthday party plans)
Since these were going to be my first 'official' fancy sugar cookies
I spent lots and lots of time researching.
I agonized over colors and consistency.
Do I use sanding sugar or sprinkles,
royal icing or buttercream?
After many days of practice, and quite a few cookies being sacrificed to tea time...
there they were....
There were zebras, camels, rhinos, giraffes,
elephants, monkeys and even gorillas!
AND...
I made enough for everyone!!!
I could just picture it....
...no peeking!
...all the kids would be outside and
we would announce it was cake time!
Ethan's favorite friends and cousins
would help him blow out the candles.
Their little eyes would light up when they realized
the decorations were really cookies!!!
(I baked and decorated at night so Ethan would be surprised too!)
And just when the negotiations began and we started to hear....
"I want the rhino!!
Can I have the gorilla?
But I wanted the gorilla...."
I (playing the role of super mom) would save the day and announce...
"You can all have ALL the animals!!!
You each get your very own circus full!!!"
"Yay!!
Really?!!!
That's so cool!!"
No.
No it didn't happen that way.
There was no fabulous announcement.
Do you know what there was?
There were cookie crumbs beneath the couches in my living room.
Know Why?
Because after I decorated the cake with cookies
and put it in the fridge for the next day,
I stacked up the rest of the cookies onto cookie sheets
AND stacked the cookie sheets so I could hide them in the laundry room.
I'm still not exactly sure what happened.
I remember a zebra escaping off the side of the top cookie sheet and trying to catch it....
...but you can't catch anything without first dropping whatever is in your hands.
It wasn't pretty...it was a massacre.
PETA would be mortified.
So what is my "Do-Over" part of the story?
Well, there are a few:
1. I wouldn't have used the cookie sheet without sides to move decorated cookies.
(Duh)
2. I wouldn't have tried to carry all that ridiculousness into another room.
(here's the big one)
3. I wouldn't have tried to be super mom.
I didn't need to make cookies for the entire neighborhood.
I didn't need to make everything perfect for everybody.
I realize that while I needed to do all those things for me,
the kiddos didn't NEED any of it.
Whoops.
Luckily, while I haven't had a 'do-over', I have gotten lots of 'do-agains'.
Birthday parties are much more relaxed now.
Oh don't misunderstand...there's still a significant amount of fuss involved,
But now, it's what the kiddos need to feel special.
Not what I need.
So how about you....what's your 'do-over' moment?
I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective.
All the opinions expressed here are my own.
Thanks for stopping by,
Lizy B
