I've been kinda busy lately, but when Cole said "UJ's birthday is this Friday!" -- I knew we had to something special for him. But I also knew I needed some help. Who better to employ for help than the perfectly capable kids next door? Ok, so they are our nephew & niece, Oscar and Lucy. And this was not exactly child labor. They weren't compensated at all, in fact! No but seriously, I thought it would be cute and fun to do this project together with the kids and send it to San Diego to arrive on UJ's birthday as a little present from all of us. So I baked up some square cookies, iced them them with a blank slate of white icing, and let them dry overnight. I brought over a pack of "FOODoodler's" and let the fun begin. (Even though I use these edible marker pens for adding little details to my own cookies, Sweetapolita's adorable "Doodle Cake" post from a while back helped me make the connection that this is a an ideal kid-friendly craft project.)

Oscar, who is quite the artist nowadays, has no shortage of ideas. He could have decorated all the cookies by himself. I knew this might be a little more challenging for Lucy, who loooooves her some iced sugar cookies... but she handled it surprisingly well!

Except for one minor incident...

A little love bite. Top left corner. No big deal. We sent it anyway. ;)

What's that you say? Some of those cookies are too amazing to be done by a 6 year old and 2 year old? Ok, fine. You're right. We grown-ups couldn't help but get involved, too...

We all had fun making this surprise birthday cookie package for UJ! Except for Georgia. She wasn't included and she wasn't happy about it. UJ would have given her a cookie.

"Wait, what's up? You talkin' bout the cookie man with the pool? I fit. I ship."

Speaking of "if it fits, it ships" -- Cole and I took the cookies back home and made the cookie packaging magic happen.... Voila -- party perfect presentation!