Chocolate Cut Outs & Valentines

The little one and I have recently joined a playgroup. Being almost four apparently means wanting to play with other children and socialize more.

With Valentine's Day approaching, I suggested having a little party complete with a Valentine exchange and decorating cookies. Another mom offered to make cookies also.  I had sought out a chocolate cut out recipe to try.  I'm not a big fan of sugar cookies, but hoped a chocolate version would be better. 

I found a shining review here of LilaLoa's End All for Chocolate Cookies.  

The recipe sounded easy enough and came out well. My family seems to like them. I think adding frosting will improve the taste further. My husband suggested they taste like the outside of a chocolate poptart. 

We found some really cute Valentine sprinkles at Wegmans.  We will do buttercream frosting and sprinkles for the kids. I may frost some with royal icing if there are cookies leftover.

For the Valentine's, I found an example on Google images of using a thumb print monkey with the words, "I like hanging out with you!"  Perfect for playgroup friends!  Kessa decorated the back with stickers and used her new "Kessa" custom rubber stamp.