Birthday Cake with a Kick

Yesterday was Taylor's birthday.  One of his law friends also had her birthday yesterday and hosted a double-birthday party at her house.  Tacos were on the menu, but no one had specified anything about dessert.  So... I thought I'd use some of the strawberries we received in our vegetable share this week to spice up a layer cake.

But, speaking of spices, and thinking of tacos, I said to myself, "Why not give this sweet, chocolatey, coffee-y cake a hearty kick?"  So, to each cake I made, I added a nice dash of cayenne pepper.  It was just the thing.  Have you ever had a [South American Country] mocha latte?  It's along the same lines. A tiny bit of some sort of pepper is added to the chocolate and it gives the already-hot drink a delicious warmth to it.

Which, as it turns out, is fabulous with strawberries.

To keep the cake moist (thanks, Smitten Kitchen!), I mixed some (unsweetened) strawberry jam with a bit of water and a tsp of vanilla and brushed it on each layer before placing the strawberries.  It helped the berries stay on, too, which helped the whole cake stay together (a good thing since this cake had several blocks to be driven, on Boston roads, by my, um, enthusiastic husband (really, though, he was very gentle with the cake. Thanks, Love!)).

I even added a layer of strawberries to the tip-top of the cake, since I had extras, and proceeded to dollop the frosting on.  I used a basic (vegan) buttercream frosting and added about a tablespoon of finely ground coffee.  I decreased the sugar by half and added a bit more butter, whipping it up longer in the mixer, since I didn't want a super sweet frosting (I will eat the cake and leave the icing if it's too sweet!), and I figured the coffee would mellow out the sugar.

Looks kinda vanilla-bean-y, huh?

It was a big hit!  Everyone kept checking with me: "Is the cake supposed to taste like this?"  "Is there... some sort of.. pepper in this?"  I reassured them that I had indeed intended such a taste, and they told me it was great!  The birthday kids also really loved it, which was all a baker could want. I guess it made their night, in a way (I mean, really, a three-layer chocolate-cayenne-coffee-strawberry buttercream-coffee-frosting cake would make any night for me).

We had a good time at the party. Taylor made sangria (quite well, as a matter of fact--new party feature chez Black, methinks) and we had margaritas. The tacos were tasty and loaded with fixings. The company was in good cheer, despite the approach of doom (i.e., 1L finals), and we all enjoyed the chance to relax a bit. Hooray for good friends and fun parties and delicious food.  And praise the Lord for my wonderful quarter-of-a-century-old Husband :)  I love you about a guh-zillion (and a half).

Enjoy the pictures :)

Mo & Taylor's Birthday

Take-Out on Kutani

T and I arrived in CA late on the 21st.  Vivian picked us up from the airport, we ate at In-n-Out (oooh, the beautiful wonders of great burgers!), and drove the three hours up to Daddy's house. That is, Viv drove, and Taylor talked to her.. I was konked in the back seat after finishing a blue Christmas present (aHEM, Garrett).

We were greeted when we drove up to the house by cheery Christmas lights hanging on the pergola. Thanks, Daddy :) It was good to come home to that, late at night, with the stars out and the air crisp and cool--it made it feel more like Christmas (you may remember I was having a hard time getting in the Christmas groove).  We brought our bags in and said goodnight to Daddy and went to bed.

But Tuesday was Vivian's birthday, and there was work to do!  Daddy went to work, and Taylor went for a run. So Viv and I tidied up the house and got out the Christmas decorations box (y'know those huge dishpack boxes that movers use?).  Daddy had purchased a 3-food tree at a garage sale this winter (the flocked tree Momma got last year decided it was done (flockin' tree)), so Viv and I put the Small Tree up with Daddy's Santa ornaments on it, and Momma's wax angel from Germany.  We also put lights around the window behind the tree. A very Christmasy room was the result.

Throughout the day we spent a lot of phone calls trying to figure out what we wanted to do for Viv's birthday dinner. We didn't really want to go out to eat, but we weren't really set up for cooking a big dinner at home (at Daddy's or Bethany's).  So the verdict:  sushi take-out!

Actually, it turned out pretty spectacular.  We warmed up some leftover rice, and Bethany came out with her three sweetie-kids. Daddy picked up our sushi order on his way home from work.  None of us felt bad for having take-out for dinner since none of us know how to make sushi better than a restaurant.  But not to be outdone (what would Momma have said if we ate out of styrofoam on a birthday?!), we pulled out Momma's kutani china, which looks beautiful under any kind of tasty food, and served the sushi on that.

And it was delicious! And so filling! And so blessedly easy :)

After dinner, we all sat down to chat and had a good evening. I gave Bethany (and Lorna) an early Christmas present, which they seem to be enjoying :)

And we made silly faces together.

Taylor and Michael wrestled.

Wednesday, the eve of Christmas Eve, we all (everyone) went shopping. It was then that I began to realize, in practical application, how hard Momma worked for Christmas every year.  Granted, she was shopping for Christmas every time she was at the store throughout the year (how's that for foresight, eh?), but even so, it was just hard to find little things here and there that people would enjoy.  But we had a good day spending time together.

I think T and Daddy had a better time once they freed themselves from the women and children, though.

Understandably. We're pretty silly :)

Day 8

[Here I am... day 8 of NaBloWriMo.  I'm technically still posting before tomorrow!]

A friend of mine asked me what makes my new birthday scissors so nifty. So I've made a short list.

1. They're shiny!
2. They're silver (anyone who knew me in middle school knows how much I like(d) silver)
3. They're left-handed
4. They're "knife-edged" (no, I'm not sure what that means, but they make an awesome sound when you scissor them near your ear... shhhck shhhck)
5. They make cutting fabric like cutting through tissue paper (= nice break for my hands)
6. Taylor gave them to me :)

Also, I made four of these this weekend.  What are they? Well, you'll just have to wait and see :)

Many Happy Returns

Yesterday I posted about my first birth day.  Today I thought I should share my 26th birthday with you :)

I went to work in the morning (ah, another year of successfully not telling them it's my birthday. There can be so much frivolous fuss in offices... I prefer to avoid it) and then hurried to meet T at the T :)  He had picked up some sushi-to-go for lunch, and when I arrived at the station, the train was just pulling up so we hopped on and headed downtown.  Also while I was at work, T had waited in line for rush tickets to the Boston Symphony Orchestra's matinée performance of Beethoven's 8th and 9th Symphonies (skipping class :-o and waiting in the frigid wind, I might add--see how much my husband loves me?).

We sat in the sunshine to eat our sushi, since we made great time getting downtown and the concert didn't start until 1:30.  Even though the sun was shining, we were still cold, holding chopsticks, shoving (tasty) sushi (and maki) into our mouths as the wind whipped past our faces and stripped us of all body heat! Brrr...

Thankfully, Symphony hall was nice and warm :)  The symphonies were thoroughly enjoyable (despite our afternoon-drowsiness--who's idea was it to hold concerts during siesta time?!) and we were glad to have been able to get tickets (Thank you, Taylor!).

Dinner reservations were for 5:30, so we had some two hours to pass after the concert finished.  We ambled over to the Museum of Fine Arts (well, we walked briskly... into the wind... hands in pockets!).  The MFA has a great cafe, so we sat down and had some deliciously hot beverages to warm up.  T read me some poems (aww) and we chatted about this and that...

Then we visited the Secrets of Tomb 10A exhibit.  I know, the name sounds a bit dry (C'mon, people, "Tomb 10A"?), but it was very interesting for us Classics majors :D  For some reason, I get such a kick out of looking at objects that are thousands of years old. Isn't that crazy?

For dinner we went to Meyers + Chang, a restaurant with a "funky indie diner setting" that has fabulous food! We ate a whole lot... but it was very good (and we must have been pretty hungry because we weren't terribly full afterwards, either (though we did enjoy the long-ish walk to the T...)). Highly recommended if you're in the Boston area!

So we walked back to the T through downtown Boston, warm, full bellies under our coats, and came home to open presents.  I got:

• several awesome books (I'm sure you'll hear about them eventually)
• some new crystal glasses
• an awesome scarf/glove set
• the niftiest sewing scissors I've ever touched :D
• a "Faith Hope Love" stamp
• and, of course, oodles of lovely cards!  

Without question, a fabulous way to remember my birth day :)

Thoughts On My Birth Day

Two years ago, after I found out that Momma's cancer had returned, the birthday card she sent me made me cry.  She told me about Halloween the year I was born: "I remember walking through the neighborhood trick-or-treating, holding a flashlight in one hand, Bethany's small hand in the other.  My arms would go to sleep I was so large with you.  The neighbors were out on their porches handing out candy. It was the end of an era."

The idea that this time of year--fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving--reminded her of my birth had never struck me before.  I suppose that's just what mother's do is think about their children.  Not that father's don't of course :) but mothers have all those special memories of their babies all the way through their lives.

I was born at 7 in the evening, at home in Florida (having been raised in CA, I always adjusted the time for Pacific time--4 pm, thankyouverymuch).  Daddy was in California at the time (I can't recall why--business trip? looking for a new job?) and so Momma was "on her own" for the end of her pregnancy with me. Of course she had a wonderful community of close friends in the area, so she had lots of help.  That day, Momma took the older three kids to Church's Fried Chicken drive-through for dinner.

She had been having mild contractions all day (and didn't feel like cooking), but hey--with her fourth kid, she was a pro at labor by now, right? :)  At the drive-through, she pulled into the lane, ordered her chicken and pulled forward to wait in line.  Another car pulled up behind her and--as if on que--her contractions intensified and she began to feel claustrophobic.  I mean, who wants to get stuck in a drive-through lane when your water breaks?  She she started her breathing exercises and told the kids to sing!! Musical distraction, she told me--to let her body know that right now is not a good time to deliver Baby.

They got their chicken without incident and drove home.  I can't remember what she did with the older kids--sent them to a friend's house or just let them watch TV?  She started walking around, breathing through the contractions, rubbing her lower back, as she called her friends to let them know "The time has come." My God mother delivered me at home, in my parents' bed.

[Have I told you I have pictures of my birth?  Don't worry--I won't post them here! (They're in my baby box--and I only looked at them once, until I realized what they were) :) haha... I guess my God mother wanted Daddy to experience the birth too?  I dunno...]

Momma always told me, "You just slid out, you were so small."  I was 7 pounds 8 ounces.  A perfect baby :)  ...a perfect baby with such fatty thighs that they had to peel them apart to see if I was a boy or a girl!  Daddy picked my name, Anne Michelle.  At first, he thought "Michelle Anne" would be nice, but then he decided that sounded too much like Michelin (as in the tires).

I was just two and a half weeks old for Thanksgiving. I wonder what Momma did that year--with Daddy out of town.  Did he come home for Thanksgiving to meet me?  For my first Christmas, I was nearly two months--and probably quite fascinated with the lights of our Christmas tree...

Momma and three of her girls

This is the first birthday I haven't gotten a birthday card from Momma... so I'll send her one, in prayer, this year.

Happy my-birth-day, Momma :)

Thank you for the gift of my life,

and for the gift of yours!

June!

June is busting out all over!

I was quite productive on Saturday. I finished the books on the shelves, cleaned up the house, and made these cards for our end-of-June festivities :) It's nice to feel productive.

Noni Girl

Happy Birthday!!

You are two years old today!

May God grant you many happy years

in peace, health, and happiness :)

(this is Taylor's and my God daughter;

my brother's 5th child, 4th girl;

Daddy's 8th grandchild (6th grand daughter).

She's a cutie!)

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Dear Daddy,

I know you won't get your card today (hopefully it comes Saturday), but you are in my thoughts and prayers today (and always). We love you very much and may God grant you many (MORE!) happy years in peace, health, and happiness.

Enjoy your birthday :)

Crazy?

Our visit to CA:

Family BBQ and a birthday party for three grandkids.

Mass w/ the family.

Babysitting nieces and nephews.

Babysitting more..

and more..

and sewing a bit.

Chatting with my Daddy and the sibs.

Cleaning the house and sorting through heirloom treasures.

God-mother-ing at a double-baptism (only God mother once, though) :)

Cleaning some more before the reception and family pictures.

A great evening with good friends...

and lots more family!

Mass again with the WHOLE family (amazing!)

Pizza and the best breadsticks ever!

Carpooling with three children in our car to the airport.

Home on a red-eye to Boston.

Exhuasting Monday.

Better Tuesday. But still can't sleep right now...

See? A great visit.

Check out the flickr photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/renidemus/sets/72157614384333326/

I'll try to post some Picasa pictures soon, too. And the toy truck pictures, Summer :)

Golden Birthday

Today is Vivian's Birthday (happy, happy birthday!).  In fact, it was her Golden birthday! She turned 22 on December 22nd.  This year was T's golden birthday, too... 23 on April 23rd. (I had my golden birthday wasn I was six... I got a book about chickens and eggs.) Fun times :)

Anyway, Momma thought it would be a good idea this year, since 90% of our family is in town, to have our family dinner for Viv's birthday, rather than trying to coordinate C'mas Eve or Day plans. Momma made a delicious, fabulous, melt-in-your-mouth, maple turkey (so good!), and we had sweet potato souffle, Momma's stuffing, Mic's salad, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, lots of gravy, and (of course) lots of fun family time! 

Events of note during dinner: 

Michael bit the rim off his [crystal] glass. 

Bethany is really funny when she's pregnant. 

Giulia really likes to toast with fancy [crystal] glasses. 

Momma makes the best maple turkey ever. Yum!

Viv wanted a lemon cake for dessert (I know, kinda strange, but you gotta accomodate the birthday girl, right?) so I made her one.  I also made a nice lemon butter cream frosting.  As far as lemon cakes go, it wasn't too bad :) 

After dessert was, of course, presents. All the little kids were kind enough to "help" Aunt Vivian open her loot. Momma and Daddy got her a lovely cordial glass set with a decanter (though when Viv pulled it out of it's bag Taylor shouted, "A bong!" which was hilarious--you should have seen Viv's face. If the present had had a tag on it (To Viv Love Mom) she would have laughed it off, but the horror: "Oh no!  Did Taylor and Annie really give me a bong for my birthday?! What are my parents going to think?").  

It was a great evening. We enjoyed spending some quality family time--even clean up was fun! I realized that I miss my family a lot... However, I think I can say (without fear of criticism) that I don't want to "go back" to when we were all living at home together. I think that's largely because, as we grow as a family, it's much more fun to return and be together again, with spouses, children, new interests and knowledge, and the ability to reminisce about all the fun times we had as kids.  One is stuck with the family one is given--and I'm very blessed to be stuck with mine :)

-----

[After presents, we had a surprise for Momma and Daddy. My oldest sister was inspired to create a Night Before Christmas book "at Grandmama's house" for my folks. We have been working on it since August, revising the original poem to be more specific to our family, taking pictures, formatting the book, and finally editing all the text and ordering it. It was a lot of work, but it turned out so well! We presented it to Momma and Daddy and Momma read it out loud to us all.  :) (I think we got video of most of it, so if any of you are interested, I'll try to post the videos sometime.)  The little kids, of course, were terribly excited to see their own faces in the book :) And the book was fun to put together, too. Thanks to all my siblings for helping make one of the greatest presents we've given to Momma and Daddy!]

-----

And so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Vivian! We love you a million-billion-six! 

Birthday Loot :) And Things

On T's birthday this year, he kept saying that he didn't understand why he got presents on his birthday. Afterall, he didn't really do anything--his mom did all the work :) I think he has a good point, too. So I just want to let Momma know that I'm glad she did all the work on my birth day. And over these past 25 years (!), my parents have done many wonderful things for me. So thanks to Momma and Daddy :) I'm so glad to be your little girl!

This year, instead of going to to dinner together (which is nice, but not all the time), T and I went shopping the other day and picked up some yummy vittles and spent an evening in the kitchen together making a nice dinner. On the menu:

Apple and pecan salad with honey basalmic vinegarette dressing Baked lamb chops Steamed French green beans with sauteed onions Mashed butternut squash (and ice cream cake left over from our halloween party!) :)

After dinner I opened my presents! New kitchen towels (very much needed), bath soap, skillet handle holders, a nifty trivet for our cast iron teapot, supernifty serving pieces to go with our silverware (one is obviously a spaghetti server, can you figure out what the other one is?), cordial glasses, sewing machine needles, chapstick, candy, a Raggedy Ann & Andy book, and CARDS! I love to get cards on my birthday :) especially from fambily!

So for those who were wondering, I had a wonderful birthday. After dinner, T gave me a very relaxing massage and we read some Tolkien before going to sleep early. I got many wonderful phone calls singing "Happy Birthday," which lightened my day at work quite a bit. I was also very productive at work!

Happy Halloween!

Success! Our first fall-costume-party-that-happened-to-be-on-halloween was loads of fun! Less than an All Saints Day Party (because you could dress up as a non-saint if you wanted) but more than a halloween party--no spooky costumes (except for Paul (but we're still not sure, precisely, what he was anyway)). I spent Thursday cleaning up the house (which, really, I enjoy doing!). 

I was lucky enough to be able to take yesterday off work--which was a good thing because I had to sew T's shirt for his costume! I'm happy to report that my one-day shirt turned out quite well, even though I didn't get the bottom hem done in time (it was ok--he was wearing overalls so it didn't even show). We went as Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. I was Raggedy Ann in 6th grade--Momma made my costume that year. She usually made our costumes, actually. In fact, she didn't even let us talk about what we wanted to be for halloween until the week before. So she probably made my Raggedy Ann dress that halloween day so long ago :) And (this is the awesome part) it still fit this year! 

I think the fact that the dress still fit is due  more to Momma's sewing ability and the pattern of the dress than my size (hardly consistent in the past 10  years), but hey, it's still cool.  The dress was, however, a bit short  for comfort, so I got some bloomers to wear under it, added some  stripped stockings, and a red yard wig and I was good to go! 

We had Tom Bombadill and Goldberry at our party--pretty exclusive, eh?

 

We had the two Lucille's (from the TV show Arrested Development), Three Philosophers, Groucho Marx, a construction worker, and a few guests who came as the mystery of themselves :) Disguise enough in many cases! It also happened to be Hector's birthday, so we had ice cream cake after the pumpkin pie, eggnog, apple cider, and (of course) candy. 

And "Oh, does Hector like ice cream cake?" we asked Tom Bomdail (who brought the cake). "Well, I don't know if he does, but I do." :) 

The highlight of the evening for T and me, though, was being able to have so many of our friends over to spend time with! We've always wanted our home to be a welcoming place--neat and tidy but also comfortable and homeley (in the Elven sense, that is!).  And I guess we've succeeded because we received so many lovely, wonderful compliments after our party! Burke even told us it was "Hobbit-ish" :) which is probably the nicest thing anyone's ever told us. I'm so glad our friends enjoyed themselves! Praise God for good friends, good times, and good victuals :D

Craftiness and Things

One of the things I've noticed about the east coast is that quite a few people are amazed that T and I are so "handy" (as they say). We did, after all, remodel our bathroom by ourselves! But, coming from the west coast, I found it rather amazing that people here are amazed that we are handy and crafty. "Isn't everyone crafty?" (I suppose that is true, but the creativeness comes out in different outlets. One of our friends doesn't consider herself "handy" but is a phenomenal pianist. Another of our friends isn't, say, good at tiling, but he got his BA in drama and tells the most hilarious stories!) I suppose it's more of the type of craftiness or handiness that amazes people. I can knit and sew, but (at least to the older generation on this coast) that is something that all young women should know, "And good for you for learning those things these days." T can play the cello and has a thorough knowledge of classical music (thanks Mum!) but that, also, is something every young person should know. People seem to be more impressed that I can operate a jigsaw on my own, that I've used air-compressor tools, and that T has built houses and can fix most of our plumbing problems. They are amazed that we want to update our kitchen and are considering doing it all by ourselves. But, then again, we come from a land of pioneers, who did everything themselves anyway! Some people over here are impressed that I make all the cards we give people. T doesn't believe in buying cards for people, and he's helped me invest in card-making things. I have all sorts of paper (mostly scraps we save from magazines and invitations and letters) and I get the $1 stamp deals at Michael's (only on the west coast--do they have Michael's' in Boston?!). I do tend to splurge on the stamp pads a bit, but the longer they last (and the more you use them) the better the return on your investment. If I get the really juicy stamp pads they stamp well right up to the end. I also have markers, crayons, colored pencils, a good paper cutter, some of the shape-hole-punches, and a few pairs of the fancy-edge scissors.I'd have to say that making cards has become my most creative outlet. I used to paint ceramics before I got married, but T and I just haven't had the space for me to spread out that type of task. So now I make cards--spilling paper doesn't stain rugs, and if you leave a crayon out of the box it doesn't dry up. (And with the size of our family it's a good thing we don't pay $3.50 per card we send--for birthdays we have 17 on my side and 11 on T's, then at least 10 anniversaries and C'mas and Easter cards. Not to mention any special occasion cards--weddings, baby showers, thank you notes, etc, etc). But really, I love it :) I spend a few days at a time and spread out all my miscellaneous tid-bits and stamps and go to town! I hope I'm able to continue making cards when we have kids. It might be a bit more difficult (and I may not be able to do it on the floor anymore), but I think it would be fun. T's mom always has all the kids make cards for the birthday person. It's so great to receive a nice thick envelope on your birthday with at least 7 completely beautiful and randomly-stamped birthday cards! So, even though the craftiness seems to vary from coast to coast, I agree with the motto of The Paper Source (awesome scrap booking/stamping store)--"Do something creative every day." No matter what it is! :)

These are some of the cards I've made recently.

You're Only 11 Once

Tomorrow is my oldest nephew's birthday. We celebrated it today, though, since he and his family have to head back to Vegas tomorrow to catch their flight back east. T and I will be heading back east soon enough, too. It seems this visit has flown by... The party was great, though. As a treat, Colum's parents treated everyone in the family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents!) to a movie. We all headed in for an early showing of Wall-E, the new Pixar movie. It was such a good movie--especially considering there was no dialog for the first half of it! I think the cockroach is one of my favorite characters, though Mo is pretty cool, too (sometimes my sister reminds me of him!). It was a great film, much enjoyed by all of us--from grandparents down to babies (actually, I think Noni fell asleep, but better that than her being fidgety and making mommy and daddy miss the movie). Highly recommend it! After the party we all headed back out to "Grandmama's house" to have lunch and cake and ice cream! Heather got a Wall-E cake from Albertson's (they accidentally made it twice as large as she had ordered, so we had LOTS of cake!) and it was pretty yummy (except that the blue frosting stained a little too well). If you click on the picture below, you can scroll through the 10 or so birthday pictures in the album. Be sure to let the video of us singing happy birthday play :) When we were finished with cake and had relaxed a bit, we all went back into town to go to Mass. We are going to have a big tea party tomorrow morning and we need to do it early so Ray and Heather can get going on their way back to Vegas. Mass was very nice. It's always good to go back to your home parish, even if it isn't "home" in the same way for you anymore (I think I consider Ss. Cyril and Methodius home now...). It's good to get back to your roots, to feel and see where you "got started" as it were. I have so many memories associated with St. Ann's church--so many key moments in my journey to God. Of course, it was also fun to take up almost two full pews with family members--and all the skittery little grandkids! Tomorrow's the tea party. Gotta wake up early!

T's Birthday!!

Yesterday was T's birthday. He's kinda funny when it comes to birthdays because he says, "Why should I get presents? My mom did all the work 23 years ago!" He's a fan of hobbit-style birthdays. If you come to his party, he gives you a present. If he had the resources, everyone he knew would get a present on his birthday, whether you could come to a party or not. And in proper hobbit fashion, we ATE FOOD to celebrate! T even got a Guinness--on tap (it comes in pints?)! We went with our good friends D and M, and P (our marathon buddy) came too. (D and M are happily expecting their first baby, so please keep them in your prayers!) We went to "Cheers" the Replica. Some of you may remember the TV series Cheers with Kelsey Grammer (who, incidentally, later starred as the same character having moved from Boston to Seattle in the series Frasier. Kind of the opposite progression of T and me...but we'll get back to WA one of these days!). Anyway, it's pretty good food (though the wait was L O N G), and we had some good conversations. NEXT, we went to the New England Aquarium. D is an amateur skin diver from CA and he loves going there (he wanted to dive into the huge central tank and swim with all the sharks and fishes!). M is a professional photographer, too, so if she'll let me, I'll be sure to post some of her pics here! She captured some fun moments, for sure. Having P there was a treat, too, since it was like having a brother along. Sometimes he felt like an older brother, sometimes more like a younger brother. I think he had a good time, too, which is important. After the aquarium we took the T back to Cleveland Circle and had Italian chocolate cake at our apartment. It was the prettiest Italian chocolate cake I've made in a long time, and I'm sort of mad at myself for forgetting to take a picture of it. :( I also got to use the cake plate we got for our wedding. That was nice too.

The three Philosophers, enjoying the cake

So, I think it was a happy birthday. I haven't called T's mom yet to thank her for having such a sweet boy, but I can do that any day! And Happy Birthday, My Love :) I LOVE YOU A MILLION-BILLION-SIX!