Last night we went out to dinner to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. We got a baby-sitter for the kiddos and it was fun to enjoy a meal during which no one crawled under the table or spit out globs of chewed food or stuck their hand in my water. Our baby-sitter is a sweet eighth-grader at Emma's school and this was her second time watching the kids. The first time she came, it was our first time ever leaving the kids with someone who was not a relative and I felt slightly guilty and uncomfortable about that, but the kids seem to love her and it's gone really well both times.I wanted to make a little treat for the birthday girl, and since it was St. Patrick's Day and also because I've been wanting an excuse to make these cupcakes for quite awhile, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make them. They are chocolate Guinness cupcakes with a Bailey's ganache filling in the center and Bailey's buttercream icing on top. Seriously yummy, although they took most of the afternoon to make and I probably won't make them again because I don't think cupcakes are worth quite that much effort to me. When I was almost finished with them, Noah came and asked me if I would make those cupcakes to bring to his class for his birthday later this month. I had to tell him no, because not only would it be wildly inappropriate to serve cupcakes with alcohol in them to a bunch of preschoolers, but I think the only cupcakes in my near future are going to come from a boxed cake mix and premade icing!Earlier this week the kids and I made a healthy carrot cake which Noah has happily been eating for breakfast every day, and also a batch of peanut butter oatmeal sandwich cookies. The cookies were pretty delicious and I could have likely eaten them all in a very short amount of time, but luckily we had to bring them up to our church for a bake sale thing they have going on there this weekend. I have pretty much stopped making cookies for just our family to eat, but I always jump at the chance to make them whenever they are needed at the kids' schools or at church. That way the kids and I get to make cookies together and then we get to enjoy one or two (or maybe four or five) and then we take them somewhere where they can't tempt us anymore. It's win-win!Today we went to Kaleidoscope and the Under the Sea exhibit at Crown Center. It was a lot of fun but I think they were all worn out because they all fell asleep early tonight. Steve is asleep in there with them, so I have been enjoying an entire evening of peacefulness all to myself. Bliss!