Cookies with the Cousins

I have two wonderfully fun and witty cousins: Laura and Lacey. They are exact replicas of my sister and me--except they don't quite fight like the two of us did. My sister and I love each other to pieces, but we regularly say to each other that there is no way we could ever live together again. She's what you would call "carefree" in her cleaning, organization, and house-keeping, whereas I am what they call obsessive, neurotic, and picky. I'm working on those issues. I don't know how she does it, but as soon as my sister, Kim, walks into a room, EVERYTHING is out of place!! I can feel my blood start boiling now as I'm thinking about it. One shoe is on one side of the room, the other is on the couch, her purse and its contents are sprawled out on the table, her jacket is on the back of a chair, her sunglasses on the ground, the lamps broken, the couch cushions turned upside down, the rug rumpled, the pillows strewn hastily across the floor, the bookcase tipped over, and me in the fetal position in a corner somewhere while she noisily slams doors and asks me why my house is so dirty...

...okay, maybe it's not that bad, but she really is like a tornado. Just ask my mom.

Back to my cousins. They came over one day on our Easter Vacation from school and I showed them how to bake and decorate cookies. I relied on some previous knowledge gained when I made these cookies with Cooking in Cucamonga, and we ended up a blast together. We were supposed to scrap book, but we're planning that for another day. We made lunch about an hour into the process: Lil' Smokies wrapped in crescent rolls; they learned how to make this simple and quick lunch that I regularly take as appetizers to parties and plan on showing their mom how to do them too! The day was fun, but our cookie decorating took forever! I didn't realize how much longer things take with an 11- and 12-year old by your side! I have posted here just 3 of the 80 cookies we made and have provided you the link from where the recipes came. Enjoy and have fun with this!

From Annie's Eats:
Cookies
Royal Icing and Royal Icing Tutorial