Birthdays, April, Dana

How am I supposed to follow a post like Nora's!?  She writes such a beautiful story, I pale in comparison.  And it is as it should be, a new baby is always tops the chart.

My oldest three had birthdays last month and turned 4, 9, and 11, in that order.  Just for fun, here's some birthday trivia about our family.  All six of us are born on odd days of the month. 1 Feb, 9, 13, 29, April 31, May 15 Dec..  Chris and the girls were born in even years.  Me and the boys were born in odd years.  And birthdays come in order, youngest to oldest, with me trailing in at the end.  According to the Chinese, all the boys are farm animals: horse, goat, and rooster.  (I have to laugh.)  The girls and I are all exotic, wild animals: snake, tiger, and dragon.  Fitting?  Yes.

The goal for April was cakes and parties.  And in a sense, I suppose you can say I accomplished it, we threw two friend parties, one family party, with a total of four cakes.  And yet, I wish I'd taken more time, (maybe cancelled home-school lessons??) because everything was thrown together last minute.  When next year comes around, I hope to step it up a bit and be more organized and thoughtful

When it comes to my cakes, let me just explain.  First,  I’ve never taken a cake decorating class.  Second, I no longer bake with white flour, white sugar, or food coloring.  Since my boys have loved tractors and monster trucks and  I love chocolate,  we've compromised nicely over the years.

  

But each year the birthday cake request becomes more intense.  A couple years ago, I think we reached the climax of my cake building skills with the earth cake.   (Parsley for the green coloring, red cabbage for the blue :))  Mighty impressive, eh??

So this year, Asia woke up on her birthday asking where her cake was.  I wasn't planning on a cake until the family party.  Oops. With only an hour before I had to leave that morning, I threw together a dinette cake from scratch, made some pink frosting from pureed strawberries and cream cheese and she got a cake for breakfast.  The only thing she wanted.  Oh and a pink smoothie, while the cake baked.



               

Isaac and his army tank (green food coloring: spinach)

Isaac wanted a party that I never got around to planning until the night before.  But really, what do you need to plan for an army party?  Just set up an obstacle course, and plan a Nerf gun war.  We ended up having so much fun that London decided he needed a party as well.












Three days before London's birthday we sent out text invites to his friends, and I was still decorating the cake during the party while they played capture the flag.  Turned out great, in fact, I'm thinking we should plan monthly Nerf gun wars...






Overall, it was a fun month, but next year, I'm seriously taking a break from all other responsibilities so we can focus on building birthday memories and celebrating Easter.

This month's goal:  slow down and engage in imaginative play with my kids.