Can't Catch Me...

I have a very sad story to share... Akemi was very excited to decorate her gingerbread man at school this year. She brought it home and decided not to eat it right away (big mistake)! Instead, she kept it in the bag and showed it to everyone. It was a pretty big gingerbread man I must say. I'm sad I didn't take a photo of him before he disappeared. DH came to see me the next day and asked if Akemi asked about her gingerbread man. I said she didn't and then he told me the bad news. Our very naughty other daughter (Kiki) ate it!!!! We didn't tell Akemi right away but we knew we'd have to break the news to her soon. We were hoping she would think the gingerbread man ran away like in the nursery rhyme. Sooooo, the following day, Akemi and I came home from shopping after work and the entire dining room area was covered in trash!!! Apparently Kiki got into the stinky trash that was left in the dining room and it was a mess! While trying to clean it up, Akemi saw the empty bag where her gingerbread man used to be and figured out that it was gone. I told her the truth and she started bawling! She was so sad because all she got to eat was one raisin. So now I feel bad and ended up promising her we'd make cookies this weekend. I know this won't replace that special cookie she made in school, but I'm hoping this will help a little. I guess it helped a lot, cause check out these pictures! DH actually helped us bake this year! He was a natural at rolling out the dough so she could cut out her gingerbread men (well, I guess they were more like butter cookie men). See the cookie cutter? Flour and sprinkles EVERYWHERE!!!!! Here's Akemi tasting the cookies. She was really good at that- it even says that on her apron! At the end Akemi told me she was sooooo tired and that cookie baking was a lot of work! I think this is the first year she actually helped me that much... usually she just does one try and is pretty much done, so this year she stuck with it for all the butter cookies and dug out when it was time to make the chocolate chip. I'm glad she had fun. I think she kind of forgot about the gingerbread man for now.