Apparently, Shields and Yarnell were not enough to dispel the pall I put over my blog yesterday. I must pull out all the stops. Let's talk about little girls baking and decorating cupcakes.

UberElder had her friend Sophia over for a visit yesterday (I refuse to use the term "playdate" -- it sounds so contrived, like "synergy" and "thinking out of the box"). We made cupcakes.

Watching cupcakes bake must be considerably more exciting than watching paint dry, because for 21 full minutes two five-year-old and one two-year-old girl sat watching in rapt attention through the glass oven door as 24 lucious chocolate cupcakes baked.

They even cheered on the process, rooting for different colored cups as they rose: "Come on Pinky!" one would shout, while another urged, "Come on, baby! Go higher, go higher!" Younger just cheered them all.

While the cupcakes cooled sufficiently to frost, I got out all of my decorative sprinkles for them to peruse -- Halloween, Christmas, Easter, colors both pastel and bold -- all were made available. I hoped that looking over the choices and varieties available would keep them occupied for a while; I still had a lasagne to assemble for dinner.

My plan worked, but with a twist. I heard the bone-chilling call from the dining room table, "Mom! Meghan made a mess!" I didn't expect them to open the bottles. Sometimes, I am incredibly short-sighted.

With trepidation, I entered the dining room. Three little girl mouths and chins were coated in colored sugar as if they'd been huffing sprinkles. They looked somewhat like Sysm's evil twin's mug shot, pictured here:

Luckily for me, I have this battery-powered sweeper called "The Shark" which made short work of the mess on the floor, and there were still enough sprinkles left with which to decorate the cupcakes.

But further sugar consumption was forbidden until AFTER dinner, at which time the sprinkles were glued to the little faces in the same huffing pattern as before, by the thin coating of spaghetti sauce that covered them. Plus chocolate frosting.

UberGirlies were put in the tub as soon as the door closed behind Sophia and her mom.