Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Graduation Cookies and a Surprise Gift

My youngest child is graduating in 25 days! I can barely say that without crying. I'm going to be SUCH a mess, but I'm so excited too. The other day I received a super special present in the mail from a Cristin's Cookies fan. How incredibly cool and kind is that?!!! Yvette from CutnTiedByRedYvette sent a personalized, homemade blanket for my son to take away to college! I was so incredibly touched by her thoughtful and generous heart. The blanket is of a nautical theme since his school is on a bluff overlooking a river and their logo has a ship's wheel. I'll show you the beautiful blanket below and also tell you about another surprise...

So I made graduation cookies. I will be making LOTS and LOTS of graduation cookies in the next few weeks. My son's school is hoping to gather 167 DOZEN cookies for their senior picnic and Baccalaureate. I can't even fathom that many cookies! Thankfully there are lots of volunteers bringing cookies to this very special event for our graduating boys. Here are my graduation cookies, all of the cutters are from CopperGifts.com.





These were adapted from a tutorial that my friend, Callye of Sugarbelle's did last year. I had to make a silly one too ;-)
and these wise owls came from a cute design that my friend, Susan, of The Painted Cookie did for Copper Gifts. He's so cute!
Now, you can't tell anyone about my son's blanket. It will be packaged up as one of his graduation gifts, so keep a secret... shh ;-) This was a gift sent from CutnTiedByRedYvette from her Etsy shop. She sent a super nice card and another surprise too. 
 I will show you the other surprise that she sent in the next day or two. It's pretty awesome!!! Thank you for your big heart Yvette! Wow, I'm so incredibly touched and I'm sure Nick will LOVE his blanket!

So I FINALLY went out on a bike ride today. I rode 39 miles early this morning because I had a gal coming to pick up cookies in the early afternoon. It felt so great to finally get back out there. It's so easy to get caught up in to do lists and so many family things, but then I get out on the bike and I remember how much easier I handle stress and the endorphins make me feel on top of the world. Well at least until I saw a HUUUUUGE snake that took up half of the trail and I had to maneuver my bicycle around him. Ick!

Graduation blog background for today:

10 comments:

  1. I love these cookies Cristin! 25 days wow! Hang in there. I'm sure you have so many different emotions going on. The blanket is great. What kindness. I don't think I'll ever ride a bike 39 miles but I really need to get back to exercising. When I exercised regulary I was feeling pretty good. Life & cookies have gotten in the way and become an excuse to not exercise. I need to learn to put that at the top of my list and the cookies below it. I need to get healthy again.

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    1. Me too Melissa. I need to lose some weight and I was going to suggest a weight loss challenge this month instead of a cookie challenge, but then I chickened out of sharing that :-) It's going to be a super crazy busy month, but I want to try to eat really healthy and get lots of exercise one way or the other and look and feel great at Nick's graduation!

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  2. As always your cookies are AMAZING! I love the blanket...Yvette, joined with me and others in an Autism Awareness Giveaway...she is soo kind and giving. She is a rock star in my mind. Hang in there Pinkie...I know it will be hard when Nick graduates, but take comfort in the fact that you raised him well, you have given him all the tools he needs to make it in life.

    Hugs
    Kim

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    1. You always make me smile Kim. I'm glad that you've had a chance to get to know Yvette too. She's a sweetie for sure!

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  3. Wow when I first read I thought you had to do 167 dozen cookies! I am sure yours will be the first ones to be grabbed up! They all look great! Our oldest will be graduating HS in 3 years and I can't imagine him leaving either! I have a feeling you will be perfecting your shipping methods over the next 4 year! Hugs♥Susan

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    1. Definitely not ME making all those 167 dozen cookies! I can't even imagine! I thought about inviting a bunch of the Mothers Guild moms to come and help bake and then thought that might make it MORE work and clean-up than what I'll need to make my portion of the cookies! I didn't give them a number of how many I would make, I just said that I would make as many as I could. I wish I could start now and freeze them, but the icing changes colors or gets splotchy so it will be A LOT of baking in the week leading up to graduation. And yes, I will be shipping lots of cookies to Nick at college ;-)

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  4. Yvette's gift of the nautical blanket was so thoughtful! What a wonderful lady. I can't get my head around 167 dozen cookies either but I love your cute graduation ones. Glad you got out on the bike for a good ride. You will look wonderful for you son's graduation but be sure to wear water-proof mascara! ;)

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    1. Oh thank you, thank you, thank you for the reminder of buying waterproof mascara! I just added it to my shopping list! That would have been a horrendous site for sure ;-)

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  5. Please tell me that you are NOT bagging and tagging all of those cookies! Do yourself a favor and buy some waterproof mascara. You will need it in the next few months. Fun and emotional times.

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    1. I'm not even baking all those cookies let alone bagging and tagging them. I'm making a portion of them along with all the other volunteers. No bagging and tagging needed as they will devour them at the senior picnic and Baccalaureate. I'll have to see how many that I can crank out in the week leading up to graduation and hopefully still have some left over for my own son's party!

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Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! I love hearing from you! Cristin