Playdate and Cookies

Ladybug and Rosie had a play date with a friend from preschool and her little sister.  They are the perfect play mates for my two girls since they are nearly the same ages as L and R, so they play fairly well together.  Although, Rosie is at that 2 1/2 age where pushing Ladybugs buttons is high on her priority list while listening to what Mum says is on the bottom of that list.

Any who, I had a total of 4 girls under 5 and only myself to entertain/wrangle them.  In an attempt to keep them entertained I cracked out the bouncy castle that we had purchased knowing that we could spend $300 on a single day use of a bouncy castle or we could buy one ourselves, so we could crack it out when ever we wanted.  I'm hoping you see the logical conclusion to that question.

The bouncy castle kept their interest for less then 20 min, which I found somewhat shocking since if I could go on the bouncy castle, I could probably entertain myself for a good hour.  Shortly after losing interest, the fighting between L and R began.  

Ladybug doesn't like Rosie getting into her bed since she is in the top bunk and Rosie is on the bottom bunk but Rosie like to make attempts to get up to the top which makes Ladybug a wee bit annoyed which generally means yelling and screaming.

I came up with this brilliant plan, we would all bake cookies.  Logistically, it is hard to divvy up cooking among 4 kids who can't read and really like make a mess or twelve.  It worked well until they lost interest although I had to come up with a plan to deal with the fact that only L and R could agree on what they wanted.  One didn't want anything in the cookie, the other wanted raisins and L and R wanted chocolate chip.  I decided to make a Oatmeal cookie base and then spoon some into another bowl or two and add the desired ingredients.  

I didn't want to make too many for the kids since they would want to eat them.  That left some cookie dough for me to make cookies too.  I decided to make Peanut Butter and Chocolate Oatmeal Cookie Pockets.  I mixed some natural peanut butter with some icing sugar and added some dark chocolate chips to the center of  a small round of dough, then top it with another small round encasing the chocolate peanut butter within.  So tasty.

Here are the small rounds of dough.  I used my small ice cream scoop to make them approximately the same size, then made a dimple in the middle to put the filling.

A small ball of peanut butter mixture topped with dark chocolate chips

Then top with another round of dough and rolled to encase the filling.  I decorated it with some more dark chocolate chips.

These little beauties have lovely center of peanuty goodness.

Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup oats, old fashioned or quick
3/4 cup additional goodies: chocolate chips or raisins

*Preheat the oven to 350
*In a large bowl, beat sugars and butter until light and fluffy.
*Beat in egg and vanilla.
*Beat in flour mixture just until blended.
*With a spoon, stir in oats and additional goodies.
*Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop and roll into balls and place on a cookie sheet.
*Bake 10-15 minutes

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookie Pockets


1 recipe of Oatmeal Cookie recipe
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup icing sugar (if it is too thick add more peanut butter)

*Mix in a bowl, until combined.
*Spoon a small dollop in to the center of a small round of dough.  Add some chocolate chips and cover with another round of dough.
*Bake 10-15 minutes.  Allow to cool the completely.