i wish i had a fancy cookie recipe to share with you, but truth be told i don't, just a lot of adorable pictures of an afternoon turned to evening making sugar cookies. 

here's what you will need:

sugar cooking mix/decorating kit from trader joes (it comes complete with icing and sugar crystals)

rolling pin

flour for rolling

wax paper/slip mat

small paint brush or two

cookie cutters

cooling rack

baking sheet

*juice from an orange (if you want to spruce up your icing a little, if not, just follow directions on your box and use water)

we were able to mix, roll and cut out our cookies in no time. we followed the directions on the box to a tee, only sprucing up our icing by using juice from a freshly squeezed orange rather than mixing water into the powder sugar which comes with the kit. my mom grabbed this kit for us on a whim, and it was so fabulous. i am not at all affiliated with trader joe's and this is definitely not a paid promotion, we just loved this product. what i loved most, is that this sugar cookie kit didn't require that we chill our dough prior to rolling (though you certainly can) saving us a lot of waiting time. as soon as our cookies were out of the oven we gave them a few minutes to cool (distracting holland with a big sudsy bubble bath) and then got to decorating. it was so much fun we all joined in, dad included, and holland spent a ton of time on each and every cookie, carefully painting the icing on, and placing the sugar crystals ever so intentionally. i love to see him like this. it is one of my favorite sights, especially when he is patient with himself, which he all too often is not. afternoon faded into evening before we knew it, filling the after nap midday lull we sometimes find ourselves in. after we decorated every single cookie (it made a ton) we gave holland a second dip in the tub before retiring into our pajamas and snacking on a cookie or two, or three. all that to say, if you are at trader joes and you see this kit, grab it and save it for a rainy day. it's wonderful.