Happy Birthday, Birthday, Birthday, Birthday

I am going to take a break from blogging for a little while but before I do I wanted to post about four of our summer birthdays.

We start with CJ's birthday in June. The girls baked his cake for him. They have been watching Cake Boss lately so this was their attempt at the fancy cakes they see made and I have to say it was really good. They know that he loves chocolate covered strawberries so they made him a double layer strawberry cake with chocolate and strawberries in the middle and on the top. The strawberry sauce in the middle made the cake so moist and yummy. Their dad really loved the cake too and that is what they wanted. I'd make some joke about how old he is getting but since I am older than he is I am just going to point out how young he still looks.

Next was Rebecca's 12th birthday. Our tradition is for the girls to make and decorate their own cake. This is something they look forward to every year. Since Rebecca has assisted in so many cake bakings I decided it was time to let her fly solo on this one. I wasn't even in the kitchen so that I wouldn't be tempted to help. She did really well. She made a two layer cake and the layers looked and smelled really good when they came out of the oven. When she was ready to put them together she was having trouble getting the cakes out of the pans so I stepped in to assist. I had trouble too and asked if she had greased the pans. "Oops", she said. I did manage to get the cake out of the pans still looking somewhat like a cake and encouraged her to still decorate it. Cake is cake, it tastes the same no matter what it looks like. She did the best she could with the icing and even put Sour Patch candy on as well. I thought she did a great job on her first cake and I love that she didn't give up even though she wanted to. She is growing into such a beautiful young woman. She is so compassionate and helpful in all that she does. I still have a hard time calling her my 12 year old. She is in Young Women's now and is LOVING it. She will be starting Jr. High this year and I am nervous about sending my sweet child into the lion's den. She is excited about school so I am happy for her and can't wait to see her blossom even more.

When the girl's hit certain ages we let them have a party with all their friends. This was one of those ages for Rebecca so she actually got to have two birthdays this year, one with us, and one with her friends. She had soooooo much fun with her friends.

The day after Rebecca's birthday is Elizabeth's birthday. Since we had just had cake she decided to bake a birthday brownie instead. Okay by me since brownies are one of my absolute favorites. We are now officially parents of a teenager. Lizzie is 13...emphasis on the teen. It is great that she is growing and becoming more like the adult she will be one day but I am already missing my little girl. She is almost the same height as me and looks so grown up so sometimes it is hard to believe that she is only 13...sigh. She loves to fix hair and nails and is loving her iPod. She takes Megan and many of the neighborhood kids (Megan's age) to the park often. It is such a nice break for me and the other moms. She is so good with kids. I know she will be a wonderful mother.

With all the talk of birthdays Megan was so excited to hear that it was her turn for a birthday. She asked me if she was going to get to blow out the candles like everyone else. She got a birthday card from my parents that talks and she loves it. She takes it with her everywhere she goes and calls it her "birthday cake". We took her to Toys R Us on her birthday so that she could get the balloon and crown and she had so much fun.

Since there had been so much cake already this month we got her a little cake just big enough for everyone to have one piece. She didn't care as long as she got to put on the candles and blow them out. Our little sweetie is 3. She is so funny. She is still trying to get the hang of this talking thing (there are so many words to remember) and can sometimes say the funniest things. I think it is interesting to watch her little face when she doesn't quite know what word she is trying to say and she searches all the words in her vocabulary for the one she needs. She loves to play outside but not as much as going to her friend's house. Right now she is missing Grandma and Grandpa and keeps asking when she gets to go to their house. Since they live in Arizona it might be a while before she gets to go. She had a fun birthday and I had fun seeing the excitement of a birthday through a child's eyes.