The first week in August is a little crazy and fun at my house, because it’s both of our daughters’ birthdays! My youngest daughter just turned 1, and she is obsessed with her little teddy bear. She is always holding it, and when she is sad or tired, I’ll ask “Where’s Teddy?” and she immediately starts looking around and giggling. When she finally gets her hands on it, she snuggles that thing like there’s no tomorrow- and it just makes me want to snuggle her :). I love how much she loves her teddy bear!

So it was only natural to think teddy bear thoughts when planning her birthday ;). My mom always made our birthday cakes growing up, and I’ve tried to continue that tradition with my children. However, 1st birthdays are a little unique, because we always let the birthday girl (or boy ;) ) dig into their cake in typical smash cake fashion ;). Although to be honest, my kids tend to barely touch the thing! I don’t know if it’s because they feel self-conscious with everything watching or if they just don’t like cake (they’re ice cream fans like me ;) ), but there is usually plenty of cake leftover.

However, this year, I wanted to make a back-up plan for everyone, because Enslie (my 1-year old daughter) is a bit of a spitfire- and she is a total FOODIE. She loves food. (That’s my girl ;) ). So I was pretty sure she might do more to her cake then just look at it. And I was also pretty sure that our guests wouldn’t love the idea of smushed, drooled-on birthday cake, so I decided to make an alternative.

And so we make these darling Teddy Bear cookies! I just love how they turned out. And I’ll be honest- I think I like mine better than the originals ;).

To assemble these tasty Teddy’s, you’ll need chocolate cookies and frosting, Nilla Wafers, Mini Oreos, and M&M’s. You can decide if you want to use blue M&M’s for the eyes, or if you want to purchase candy eyes. I opted for the M&M’s, because candy eyes are not exactly cheap, and they just look too silly to me! For a 1 year old birthday, I’m going for cute, not necessarily silly ;). Though I think my older kids would have loved the candy eyes!

Anyway;). Frost your cookies, and place a Nilla wafer at the bottom half of the cookie for the mouth. Place two mini Oreos on the top for the ears, and two blue M&M’s for the eyes (or candy eyes if you prefer). Finish with a brown M&M dipped in a tiny bit of frosting (to hold it ;) ), and place on the Nilla Wafer. I kept mine in the fridge so that the frosting could chill and the cookies wouldn’t fall apart- but I don’t think this step is completely necessary, especially if you’re eating them right away (and if it’s not a hot August afternoon;) ).

These cookies would be a great activity with kids! They are super easy to put together, and they just turn out so darling! These would be great for any birthdays, kids’ activities, or even a baby shower!

And to top it all off, they taste as good as they look ;). I hope you enjoy these Teddy Bear cookies!