We Have a Birthday Girl

Each year now I have a birthday marathon making cakes about as fast as I can for a couple of days.  That’s what happens when one child arrives early and the other one comes late but at least they still each have their own special day… a day for me to give them a little extra attention and the family can give them the special treatment that a birthday person deserves… like no chores for the day…  Bonus!  The other children divided the chores amongst themselves and without being asked so Lindsay had a nice break.

June 9th was Lindsay’s 12th birthday and the day arrives with the first Lilly blooming in our backyard every single year on that date.  For that reason we call these “Lindsay’s Lillies”.    I cannot believe that Lindsay is twelve now and wonder where the time goes.  Lindsay is a sweet and helpful girl that we love having around.  She is growing into a lovely young woman.

Lindsay’s all time favorite pumpkin muffins appeared on the table for breakfast smelling of cinnamon and cloves.  Even back in Kindergarten these were her most requested snack to bring to school.  I would make a batch and freeze them for her, pulling them out one at a time to send with her for her snack time during a long day at school.  Her teacher could not believe that I made Lindsay these muffins.  Nobody else does that.  But Lindsay is worth it.  And Lindsay is still thrilled with these muffins no matter when they appear; day or night, June or October.  She was very surprised and cheerfully got up to go enjoy one.

So hot outside and still somewhat full of muffins, we decided that lunch would consist of 4 quarts of raspberry lemonade (which we downed by the icy cupful) and fistfuls of blueberries and carrots out in the yard.  We weren’t hungry for any more than that; just thirsty.

Nathan was pretty excited that we didn’t make him sit down to eat lunch and he could wander as he pleased.  Lucky day!

Sitting under the shade of the umbrella eating, the kids still caused plenty of excitement for each other that the heat just didn’t squelch. 

Tristan quietly escaped to the sandbox to create a huge castle which he was very proud of.  But as soon as Nathan was aware of its existence it was demolished.  Tristan has come to expect that.  And while Nathan terrorized the backyard under his Dad’s watchful eye, I escaped to decorate another cake. 

This is my double chocolate “Horseshoe” cake.  I take requests; even ask for them, and somehow so far I haven’t disappointed anybody.  For the horseshoe placed on top of a larger circular cake I baked a smaller round cake, cut off one end, cut out the middle and then split the cut end in half and turned the ends around.  After they were in place over the U shape the whole thing was frosted and outlined. 

For dinner Lindsay chose our menu.  We grilled hot dogs and cheeseburgers, roasted corn on the coals, and had Buffalo Doritos and a raspberry blueberry salad.  The corn was perfect, the burgers were well done to a satisfying crunch and the berries were sweet.  And who can argue with Buffalo anything?

Lindsay is seen here with her gifts and her cards after dinner.  I told her there was one more gift than this but that would be after cake and ice cream.

Haley gave her a tie dye t-shirt she made in YW that all the girls will be wearing for skit night while at camp in a couple weeks.  It’s a really cute shirt and Lindsay is happy to be joining with this group of girls too.  Nathan kept himself busy once we convinced him that today the presents were not for him and Lindsay opened her birthday cards.  She even got a little bit of birthday money from her Aunt to save for her trip to Germany!!!???!!!

Haley re-gifted some bubble bath stuff back to Lindsay.  Hmmmm.

Lindsay was not very surprised by her next gift; a 12 year old “Growing Up” girl which she has been collecting for years now.  And finally a “choose your own adventure” type book about horses put out by American Girl that I picked up some time ago.  I figured she’d still enjoy this book just because she loves horses so much.  Kaitlyn didn’t know how a choose your own adventure book works so I told Lindsay to read it aloud and show Kaitlyn how to make choices in the story. 

Kaitlyn listened and after a couple of pages they had to make a choice on if they were going to ride a horse in the race or not.  Of course they picked that they would be brave and ride and so they turned to the directed page.

The next page is where Lindsay found her next gift on a note I wrote as a continuation of the story for the adventure I knew she would choose.  

There was much rejoicing!  Even surprise because of the presentation of this gift.

There was excitement and shouting.  There was only one gift that Lindsay really wanted for her one true love.  She knew that I had gotten strict with our budget and that horse camp was still probably more than I had to spend on her birthday.  So she started giving up field trips at school, (does anyone else have expensive field trips in the $100 range???) arranging it with both the teacher and the principal, complete with explanation, before I even knew what was going on, in hopes that skipping these combined with birthday money I had saved would add up to the amount needed.  So for anyone who wants to know how I can afford a gift like that on my budget (and I HAVE been asked) this is how.  I am careful and I work hard.  And Lindsay has made some sacrifices as well.

Two weeks of horse day camp!  Paid for in cash.  And just look at that excited face.  This is the gift after cake and ice cream… after by about 4 days!

With that excitement and the hour growing late we moved on to the birthday cake.  Twelve candles really lit the cake up as we sang to Lindsay and let her make a birthday wish for an exciting year of growing up and change ahead.

Looks like she’ll get her wish and we all enjoyed cake with chocolate ice cream as we celebrated with Lindsay.  Our family would not be the same without her.