Birthday Candles

The highlight of my day was sitting in line at the DMV to renew my drivers license!

After that it was a fun and enjoyable day.  Two of my boys (Nathan and his Dad) took me out to a very nice local restaurant that I’d never been to before for lunch and it was wonderful.  It was in a neat old building over 100 years old and I look forward to going again sometime.  I had lobster and shrimp pasta and a salad with sundried tomato balsamic dressing.  We also decided to try one of their special desserts, since we were there.  Two desserts in one day???  Well, I guess it was a birthday and they did stick a candle in it for me… no singing though:)  It wasn’t that kind of place.  Nathan fell asleep as soon as he was put in his car seat after lunch.

 

My husband brought me red garden roses… 30 something of them… because he loves me!

They smell wonderful and look beautiful, even on our busy kitchen table.  Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Kaitlyn eagerly helped wash strawberries with me in the afternoon, placing them on a towel to thoroughly dry in the breeze of the fan.  They were for the cake.  Kaitlyn loves to help me in the kitchen as often as possible and she’s quite good at just about anything involving fruit.

 

 

 

 

I opened my birthday cards and read special messages from special people.  The kids had made a “mad libs” birthday card for me which we filled out and then read the silly birthday message.  They let me come up with all the adverbs and nouns myself while they wrote them down.  Then we had a good laugh.

 

 

We had decided to have presents and cake before dinner because first, none of us were really hungry and second, because Nathan hadn’t gotten a good nap and was turning into a pumpkin early.  I did want Nathan to be part of the celebration.  He does like ice cream AND I have to teach him to blow out a candle!

 

 

 

In the bag I received a CD with hymns played by Jenny Oaks Baker on the violin, a book by Dieter F. Uchtdorf, whom I love, and a new movie to watch this weekend called The Errand of Angels, which I’m looking forward to.

 

 

 

At the bottom of the bag was a heavy box containing an apple/potato peeler and slicer from Back to Basics which I’ve been wanting since we borrowed one from friends last fall to try out.  This thing is heavy duty, well made and the kids got in on the fun of making apple sauce, etc. with several bushels of the apples we picked last fall.  Our work went twice as fast with this and the amount we need these days is probably twice as much as what we were producing before.  This is a great gift.  Even the kids were excited.

 

 

 

My packages were unusually large this year!  Here came the second one.

 

 

 

A dehydrator!  I also borrowed this last year from a friend who thought I might like it and I had fun making apple snacks for the kids, who immediately remembered this upon seeing it again.  I also reduced a HUGE pile of zucchini into a half pint jar after taking up a ridiculous amount of freezer space with the rest of it.  It re-hydrates easily for soups and breads.  I’m sure I’ll have some more fun with this now that I own one as the growing season progresses. 

 

 

  Next came the box of diapers!  We had a good laugh over that one. 

This box was really heavy and was a complete mystery to me.

Inside were a great many “peanuts”.  We had to grab them from Nathan, QUICK!

 

 

Whatever it was, it was very well wrapped in tape and lots and lots of bubble wrap and more “peanuts”.

 

 

 

Wow!!!  OK, the story behind this is that I fell in love with these special order “Calico Cat” dishes sometime soon after we got married.  I resisted for a time and then in the Autumn of 1995 they went on clearance as they were to be discontinued.  Feeling that I should have a set of my own everyday ware I decided to order the set of 8 place settings.  They were an unbeatable price at the time, too.  Over the years we have loved this stoneware using them constantly and they have withstood the ware and tare of everyday life with family well but we have lost a few over the years and the family has grown over the years.  I’ve been thinking to myself just recently that we are about at the point where I will have to retire what’s left and find a whole set of something to use everyday.  At the same time, Rick has been mentioning that we are down several pieces but they have lasted so well… almost 15 years???  On the sly, he googled and found a lady selling a set of 6, minus the bowls, for a really great price, though the shipping about doubled the cost.  They have all been gently used and then collected back into a smaller set!  There was only ONE set.  We googled last night and found that there are 5 bowls available and being sold separately from another place so we ordered them to round out the set again.  I was so amazed!!!  For fun, we looked for our flatware which we purchased for our 5th anniversary.  We’d hoped to get more of it but when we went to buy more it had been discontinued.  I wish I’d known!!!  Anyway, we did find that we can purchase more of our silverware but because it was limited, it is now a collector’s item and is worth a small fortune.  I did not buy any but I do wish I had purchased more of it to have a bigger set since we barely have enough for the family to use at a meal.  It’s too easy to run out of silverware!  Oh well.  I could sell mine and buy a larger set of something else, but these were an anniversary gift to each other so I don’t think I’m up for that.  For now, we’ll deal.

 

 

I decided to make a “Chocolate Covered Strawberries” cake to try something new that uses in-season fruit which I love.  My kids can’t get enough strawberries, either.

 

 

 

 

It looked delicious and beautiful.  I really liked the consistency of this buttercream and it made a generous amount to include between layers as well as for dipping strawberries.

 

 

 

 

 

The cake itself had fresh berries baked within it and there were strawberries layered with chocolate between the cakes as well.  The cake was pretty good, but I may think of ways to doctor it for next time.  I like how fancy it looks.

 

 

As per our family’s tradition, I got to eat cake and ice cream off the special birthday plate.  The last decade went by very quickly and I remember my Mom telling me 10 years ago that these years would go fast.  Again she was right!  Turning 40 didn’t hurt but it does make some parts of life seem just a little longer ago now than they did just a few days ago, somehow.  And it causes me to reflect on things as well.  I’ve grown during these years and there is still a great deal more to work at and experience, while time continues to fly.

When my Mom turned 40 I was in college so I remember it quite clearly.  She made a huge deal out of her approaching birthday for quite some time and seemed to dread it.  I thought it was kind of funny and I remember having a little fun with that birthday for her that I should probably apologize for.  It was all in good fun and I think it was pleasant enough (except for the smoke detector incident which wouldn’t have happened if she’d come inside faster).  There was chocolate involved so it couldn’t have been all bad but I probably could have been nicer with the choice of color in streamers and the messages on the paper plates and cups.  Wasn’t that just yesterday?  I think turning 30 was harder for me.  Anyway, sorry for that Mom!  We’re all 16 now!