An Overdue Birthday Interview

How old are you?  Four!

Did you have a good Birthday?  Yes.

What did you do on your birthday? Ummmmm........ nothing.  No, wait, I went to DisneyWorld!

What did you do there?  Buy stuff. 

What kind of stuff?  Like a pirate Mickey doll and pirate cars and that’s it.

What's your favorite thing to eat?: Grilled cheese, mac & cheese, and pineapple. And cake. And cupcakes.

What food don't you like?: Tots with cheese, bugs, green beans and peas.

Who are your friends?  Owen and Ethan and Jon and AJ and Bella.

What kind of stuff do you like to do?  Play with my toys and color pictures.

Do you have a favorite toy?  Yeah.  I’m gonna tell you what it is.  I’m gonna show you.  I’m gonna bring it out here.  Here!  My boat, and my planes, and Megamind.

What’s your favorite part of the day?  Going to preschool and staying home with you. 

What do you like about preschool?  Playing with my friends. 

What else do you want to say now that you are 4?  Yeah.  That I like baby eggs. 

What are baby eggs?  They are bird eggs.

What do you like about them?  ‘Cause they crack.

And I have one more question because you forgot to say what's my favorite show.  Hmm.... I'm thinking... Disney Junior, like I went to Disney World.  And I like Fresh Beat Band.  

6

My girl is 6! Sometimes it seems like just a few years ago that we were getting ready to head to the hospital to meet our baby girl. And now she's 6. I feel old.

We gave her the option to stay home and relax on her birthday & she CHOSE to go to school.

We all got up a little early to open presents and partake in her birthday breakfast (donuts & fruit smoothies). One of the few things she asked for was a new dress-up box. She LOVES to dress up and often saunters around the house in her princess high heels. A girly-girl all the way.

My girl is very susceptible to the power of the infomercial, and that, combined with our slightly chilly house, led to a fascination with the Snuggie. She thinks it's pretty awesome.

I am not a scrapbooker or a stamper, but after seeing so many adorable birthday banners on the craft blogs I read, I had a notion to give it a whirl. She thought it was GREAT.

Triple Layer Red Velvet Cake with Swiss Buttercream Frosting.

Recipes from Smitten Kitchen. It turned out good (not great), but I think it was clearly due to my lack of practice in cake baking, NOT the recipes.

Noming on cotton candy at Chuck E. Cheese. She was SO excited to go to CEC for her birthday. Thank goodness her birthday was during the week, as I don't think Big Daddy and I could have tolerated a weekend visit.

I wasn't sure what she'd think about the cake, but she loved it.

(Note: 6 year old girls can be a touch persnickety).

Blowing out candles.

She wore that crown all evening, and puts it on every day. Nothing says birthday girl like a blow-up crown!

Sprinkles

For my birthday my Mom was kind enough to support my cupcake madness with 2 cupcake cookbooks, 150 cupcake wrappers, a decorating kit, sprinkles galore, and 2 boxes of cupcake mix from the semi-famous Sprinkles cupcake shops. They are Red Velvet and Lemon - 2 of my favorites. Here's the container for the Red Velvet. Nice packaging!

The instructions were straightforward, but I thought it was a little weird that it called for vinegar in the mix. Here's the result: Nice red color, decent flavor, much more batter than needed to fill 12 cupcake cups (I filled them to the top and still had batter left over).

I made the recommended cream cheese frosting (delish!) and frosted them.

Here's the setup before I ate the first finished cupcake. The dot is part of the Sprinkles experience (at least that's what the instructions said). They were included with the mix.

Net/net: Well, for something from a cupcakery that has received as much press and accolades as Sprinkles has, they were not awesome. The cake was dry and flavorless. Red Velvet cake should taste chocolate-y, but it really didn't taste like anything at all. The batter said it would make 12 cupcakes, but I filled them to the top and they overflowed, creating a big overhang that wanted to tip the whole cupcake. The frosting was incredible, but wasn't enough to salvage the cupcake itself. And the dot? Rock hard, shattered when I bit into it, and made me afraid a tiny candy shard was going to embed itself into the roof of my mouth. Total Bummer. I hope the Lemon is better.

A quick update

I've been trying to blog less and do more, and this will continue for the next week or so. I have been busy with my birthday, finishing BBC, writing a lesson for Church, reading Breaking Dawn, and trying to pick up around the house while wrestling two maniacs every day. So here's how everything is going:

1. Birthday - see previous post. My final gift arrived on Saturday (cupcake stuff from Mom). Can't wait to try out some of the fun designs from the Hello, Cupcake book. Depending on how obsessive/ crazy I go for Big J's first birthday, he will likely end up with the crocodile cupcake cake on pg. 87. I don't have time to scan & post a pic, but I will soon.

2. BBC - I'm done with the summer session. I don't own a scale or a tapemeasure, but I can tell you that I am much stronger than when I started. Due to the intense ab exercises, I might actually have functioning ab muscles again. I highly recommend the class to all moms. Saturday classes are still going on, are free, and will meet at Raccoon River park @ Biddle shelter from 10-11am. I'll be there, and hope you will too. Ok, I might skip next Saturday. I really want to go to the Fair or the Farmer's Market.

3. Writing a Lesson for Church - Let's just say I am glad it's over. I sweated and stuttered my way through it, and at the end I wanted to shout "I'm much more articulate in real life."

4. Breaking Dawn - Big Daddy was so good, and bought me 2 of the books on my birthday list. I actually took 3 days to read Breaking Dawn, but that was because I just didn't have an uninterrupted block of time to read it in one go (oh yes, I could do it, too). Net/net: SO good, but I am a little sad that we won't be hearing from Edward and Bella any more. I really hope she continues the series in some way. I want to read more about their world. I heart Stephenie Meyer.

5. Picking up around the house - It's a mess. I have to do a quick sweep through the kitchen and living room as the Elders are coming for dinner tonight. I'm trying 2 new recipes, found on The Pioneer Woman. Love the blog, hope the recipes are just as good. Big Sis is going nuts waiting for school to start. Big J is now eating solid foods (sort of), but still dislikes it intensely. I feed him in the morning now, and it's going a little better, but he never finishes the little bit of food I make him. We'll try green beans tomorrow but I can only imagine how disgusted he'll be. He's also getting a little more vocal, with little hoots and monkey screeches added to his vocal repertoire.

Happy Birthday to Me

Alrighty, so this post comes a few days too late, but I've been immersed in birthday-related madness, so I am excusing myself. Wednesday was the big day, and it was really, really nice.

As always, I had spent days building up plans in my head, deluding myself into thinking that I had perfect children who would cooperate with my every whim, and a job that would send no emails and make no phone calls that day. Yes, a dreamer I am.

Big J and I woke early, and were subsequently ordered by Big Daddy that it was time to open presents. The man has no patience when it comes to gift giving. So he woke Big Sis, and I opened my gifts. Good Stuff! We had a quiet morning consisting of cleaning, conference calls, and some good indoor playtime. We got Thai food for lunch (takeout, of course), and hung out at home until BD got home from school. I made dinner at home, then we took a family walk. It was SO nice out. After we got home, my friend Robyn came by with another gift for me (love it!). The kids wrangled into bed fairly easily. All in all, a good day - marred only by the fact that both my Dads didn't call. I expect people to forget my birthday, but not the immediate family. Dad1 left a message yesterday morning apologizing, using the classic line that he didn't forget, he just got busy and didn't remember later in the day ( I can relate). Dad2 did email, but no call. A little surprising, as the only time I usually talk to him on the phone is on my birthday. Ah well, I guess I consider myself lucky that at least he emailed.

And btw - don't even ask how old I am. Let's just say that I'm glad that "30 is the new 20".