Another Birthday Season Kicks Off!

Of the 10 people in our immediate family, 9 of us have birthdays from February through June (and then Caleb gets all the hype and attention when he has his birthday in November). So yesterday we started our time of birthdays with my birthday! Since it fell on a Tuesday, we spent the day at Rivendell, where there was a lovely party for 3 of us celebrating birthdays this week--Monday for Emily H., yesterday for me, and today for Faith. Quite a special week!
Our party had balloons for each of us, and not one, not two, but 3 different cakes! I made a castle cake exactly like this one I made for Grace's 3 year birthday for Faith. I wasn't as careful this time, because I was making it at 10:00 PM Monday night, LOL, but it was fine. Then Emily's sister Amanda made a yummy big frosts chocolate chip cookie, and Christine made a delicious flourless chocolate cake! So for someone who doesn't even really like regular cake, I had wonderful options!

The weather was absolutely beautiful yesterday, so we were able to eat the cake outside, which I'm sure saved a ton of wear and tear on the church's vacuum. I love it when the weather is nice on Tuesdays and the kids can really run around outside. We had a very special treat in that my other friend Christine and her 2 daughters were able to come by for the party! Look at these 6 beautiful little girls! So fun!

After we got home, the kids ate leftovers, and Bob and I went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We split my favorite, a Chinese chicken salad, and then we split a piece of Hershey's chocolate cheesecake. It was so good, although I would have to say my favorite is the chocolate mousse cheesecake. Still, no bad options there!

I got some fantastic gifts too! My brother and sister-in-law sent me a book off my Amazon wish list that I've been dying to read ever since my friend Johanna recommended it--Amelia Earhart's Daughters. I also got a Baby Blues book and a CD called Hymnworks, which features hymns, played on a piano, interwoven with classical music pieces. It is absolutely beautiful. I have it as a cassette tape from way back, but there is never a tape player around to play it anymore, you know?! I've already listened to it, and it is so relaxing and enjoyable. I highly recommend it!

Faith's birthday is today--hard to believe she is already 3 years old! I barely made it to the hospital to have her, and she continues to grab life by the horns--she's not afraid of much, except for anything that lives and breathes and is not a human, LOL. She is not an animal lover! her favorite things are her "bear blanket" and her Cedarmont Kids DVDs. She adores those and will watch them as many times as I will let her. And if she's not listening, then she will sing the songs--loudly, and over and over. It is really sweet to hear old Sunday school songs being sung again, like "Climb, Climb Up Sonshine Mountain", and "Do, Lord". She's a lot of fun!

Here she is with the shiny pink "princess" balloon she got yesterday. She loves the balloon and drags it around everywhere, but when I tried to take a picture of her with it, she got all shy and uncooperative. So you'll just have to take my word about how happy she usually is! I guess she only cooperates with the dentist!

Big Birthday Bash!

We are having a very special birthday weekend! My dad's birthday was yesterday, Grace's birthday is tomorrow, and Bob's birthday is Monday! So to celebrate, we brought lots of desserts to Bible study, where we sang "Happy Birthday" to all the celebrants, to include Amy P., who shares Bob's birthday on Monday!

My mom and I made birthday request desserts--my Grandma G.s coffee cake for my dad, cupcakes (funfetti ones, just like Anna's!) with purple and green frosting for Grace (notice the "4" design), and chocolate-covered strawberries for Bob. He actually wasn't sure what to request, so Caleb suggested the strawberries--mainly because I hadn't made them since he outgrew his milk allergy, and he wanted to taste them! (He thought they were "okay". We assured him that if he was not THOROUGHLY enjoying them, then he could just leave them for everyone else, LOL.). We came home with a few cupcakes, and that was all--the coffee cake and the strawberries (4 pounds of them) all went!

Grace has been so excited for her birthday to come! We have our church small group over tomorrow afternoon, but after they leave, we'll eat left-over cupcakes and she can open her presents. So exciting!!

Cupcakes For Anna

We celebrated Anna's 5th birthday again Friday night at Bible study! Bob flew back in Friday afternoon, and my parents drove in at dinner time, so we had lots of people to celebrate with! The picture is of her and her birthday buddy Amanda, who turned 13 on Mar. 28! For the past several months, we've been trying to nail down what kind of cake Anna wanted me to make. She came up with several complicated princess-y ideas, which of course changed all the time. But a few weeks ago, she came up with the idea of cupcakes, which I thought sounded wonderfully easy! My mom had the brainstorm of using the timy mini-muffin tins, instead of the regular-sized one. I thought this was a great idea, since 24 cupcakes wouldn't be enough for our whole Bible study, and I really didn't want to make up 48 regular-sized cupcakes. She picked out "white" cake, so Luke and I thought she would enjoy Funfetti cupcakes, like Amy and I used to make in college. And of course she wanted pink frosting! So using only one box of mix, I was able to make about 55 mini cupcakes, and we had 9 left over! I just frosted them using a big star tip--some with a big swirl, and some with stars. Anna liked them! Everyone else liked them too, and I especially liked how easy they were to make, LOL. Grace is now saying she also wants cupcakes for her birthday, although with purple and orange (?!) frosting, and I am fine with that! Here's one last shot of the 5 year old birthday girl, enjoying wht is left of her ice cream!

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Well, I am a few days late with this post, but Anna turned 5 years old on Monday, hard as that is to believe! She has been eagerly awaiting her birthday for quite some time now! Bob had to go TDY to California Monday, but fortunately he didn't have to leave until 1:30, so we were able to still celebrate with him before I took him to the airport. We had Anna's birthday meal at lunch ("tuna pockets"), and then she opened her presents and we all had a chocolate chip cookie (we made them Monday morning) and a scoop of ice cream. It was kind of nice to have the celebration in the middle of the day like that! Anna got a magnetic princess book from Grandma and Grandpa B (because she loves the one Aunt Amy gave Grace so much!), a princess coloring book and puzzle from us (puzzle is already missing 3 pieces . . . sigh), and a set of pink pom poms from Uncle Dan and Aunt Melinda (she knows what to do with those from watching all the basketball games, LOL!). She got to play with her presents the rest of the day, so I think she liked opening them up in the afternoon as well!

We are going to take cupcakes (at Anna's request--no big cake! Woo hoo!) to Bible study on Friday night, so we will continue the celebration then. Bob flies back Friday afternoon, and my parents drive in then too, Lord willing, so there will be lots of people around for the second party! In the meantime, Anna is enjoying being 5, along with all the added maturity and growth that goes along with this huge jump in age, LOL.

Happy Birthday, Luke!!

Today is Luke's 12th birthday! We started celebrating on Friday, when we brought Air Force dessert to Bible study. I'm still not entirely sure how this delicious dessert got its name, but it is an old favorite from White Sulphur Springs, and it is much yummier (and easier to make!) than a traditional cake! I had to ask Marty Thomas and Carri for help with the recipe--thank you, ladies!!

We also celebrated tonight by finishing up the Air Force dessert. Luke also opened his presents.
He got a Transformer, as well as 2 comic books (Zits and Foxtrot) Nathan and I picked out from Half Price Books while we were in Ohio. Of course, we actually started celebrating Luke's birthday IN Ohio, where he received a Lego Minotaurus game from Aunt Amy, as well as a really challenging flag puzzle from my parents, where the flag is actually made up of a ton of tiny pictures. He has already started working on this puzzle!

Luke is such a tremendous help with the girls, and I definitely appreciate his attention to detail, especially when he is helping me find something that is missing! He still finds a ton of money whenever we are in stores. He is also an amazing basketball player--taking after his cousin, Pilot! He just finished up another undefeated season.


Here is a close-up view of the Air Force dessert. I doubled the recipe to fit in my big pan (it's a roasting pan, but I use it for casseroles and other big things--like desserts!). We only had a little bit left!


Air Force Dessert


16 oz. Oreo cookies, crushed into crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 gallon ice cream, softened (we used cookies and cream, which is the traditional kind, I believe)
1 jar chocolate fudge topping
1 small cool whip container

Reserve 1/4 cup crushed cookies for topping; mix remaining cookie crumbs with butter, and press into bottom of 9x13 pan. Spread softened ice cream evenly over cookie layer. Drizzle fudge over ice cream, then spread cool whip on top. (We added another layer of chocolate topping here, just for good measure, LOL.) Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs. Freeze.

Faith is 2!!

Wow, I can't believe Faith turned 2 today! It seems like just yesterday that we were speeding to Bethesda, not sure we were going to make it in time!

She's getting to be such a big girl--she definitely thinks she is, anyway, LOL. She is talking a lot more, and she is really playing with Anna and Grace now. She has become quite enamoured with one particular baby doll, so she has started even sleeping with this babydoll. She does not want to be left out of anything--she wants to be in the middle of all the action! Her big brothers take such good care of her, and she definitely adores them! The picture above is of her in the ballerina leotard that I used as a model for her cake.

We had our big co-op day today, and then Bob and Nathan went to Civil Air Patrol this evening, so we decided to celebrate her birthday tomorrow night, with presents and ice cream. Faith is enjoying being the birthday girl, so I am sure she wouldn't complain about extending the whole celebration one more day, if she even understood time, LOL.

Happy Birthday!!

Friday night we brought a birthday cake to Bible study to celebrate my birthday (Feb. 7) and Faith's birthday (Feb. 8).
Although you can't really tell here, Faith was actually very excited about being sung to! She did not, however, know what to do with the candles. Luke had to come over and help her blow them out.

The cake was modeled after a little pink leotard she has that she loves to dress up in.

It was not my finest work. I forgot to texture the "sleeves" to make them look more like the skirt (because they are tulle, like the skirt), and I also didn't proportion it right. The bodice should definitely be skinnier. Oh well. It's all gone now!

Birthday Weekend

Well, the birthday weekend is over. We celebrated Grace's birthday Friday night, but Bob's birthday was the next day, Saturday (it's on your calendar, Aunt Claire!). He celebrated by getting up early to go to men's group at church, then coming home and making the kids lunch while I went to a baby shower for Elizabeth, and then taking all the kids but Faith swimming! It was so nice of him to stay with the kids while I went to the shower, because I had such a lovely time there, even though it wasn't very "celebratory" for him!

People on Facebook were asking what his cake was. I particularly liked Amy's suggestion of a 12-passenger van cake, LOL. Very appropriate, since that was definitely the big "gift" for this year! But the truth is, Bob didn't get his own cake, I am sad to say. One cake is about all I can handle for a weekend. We had our church small group meet here tonight, so I made one of Bob's favorite desserts for that--chocolate-filled oatmeal walnut bars. MUCH, much better than cake.

Right before small group started, we finally got around to opening Grace's presents. Friday night Bible study was at our house, and we were rushing around trying to get dinner cleaned up when people started arriving, so there was no time. Then there really wasn't a good opportunity yesterday either. Fortunately, at 2 she has no concept of what should happen for a birthday, so she didn't know what she was missing, LOL. She was happy to open them this afternoon, and she got some fun things, like a little princess puzzle, a talking "piggy bank" with big plastic coins, and a set of fake food that you "cut" apart with the wooden knife. All the kids at small group enjoyed her new presents too!

Now we have one more month until the next birthday, which is Jonathan's, on June 2. He has ben counting down the days since March! Nathan and I are trying to talk him into a "joint cake", like they had last year. Nathan is pushing for an aircraft carrier, but Jonathan is not sure. I think he is just being difficult, since he knows Nathan wants it, LOL.

Month of Luke

We've been celebrating Luke's 8th birthday for a few weeks now. His actual birthday is Feb. 27, which was the day we drove back from Ohio. Unless you count listening to Henry Huggins and snacking all day to be a celebration, that particular day wasn't filled with birthday cheer. But a few days before, we all went to Young's where we had ice cream, and Luke received some great presents, like a kit on making balloon animals (we've tried a few, and believe me, this is not as easy as those clowns make it look, LOL) and a gift card for Barnes and Noble. He also got a set of Star Wars figures, which made the ride home go a lot faster for him and Nathan! We went to Barnes and Noble the next day so he could pick out his books. The gift card was for $25, and he and Nathan had a great time selecting which books, including tax, would maximize the value of the card. Finally they picked 4 books (Star Wars of course, since I would never buy those for them, LOL), and the total price came to $24.45, due to their careful calculations. Hey, there are adults who can't figure out things like that! Luke was especially thrilled because he got the remaining $.55 in change.

Last night we finally had his special birthday dinner, since we made a huge commissary trip on Wednesday. This is the first time since the beginning of December that we have gone, and let me tell you, the ol' pantry was getting pretty bare! He requested Aunt Amy's lasagna, which we all enjoyed, except for the fact that I forgot to get tomato paste at the commissary and had to make a special trip to the little store down the road. Grrr. We spent over 2 hours and $800 on groceries (I told you it was a huge trip), and I forgot something for a meal the NEXT day! But I digress . . .

Due to my glucose test preparations last week, I didn't feel like making a cake, so we're bringing his cake to Bible study tonight. Luke wanted a Star Wars ship, so we decided on the A-Wing fighter because it looked to be the easiest. We still have the box from the Lego model they got for a present one year, so that is what I will go by. We'll see how that turns out. And I think that tonight will be the final celebration of this 8th birthday!