Birthday Week

Tommy turned 4 on Monday, Maggie turned 21 on Tuesday -- two birthdays, two family dinners -- it's been a great week.

Tommy's cake turned out to be an ordeal -- despite the fact that the Super Why character's heads were filled with styrofoam and plastic wrap, they were still top heavy, and there were many nosedives right into the cake. And, for some reason, the icing slid right off the big cake in the back. Yikes. I melted down a little with each catastrophe, and it wasn't exactly as I had planned, but Tommy was thrilled, and that's all that matters. So, here it is, my slipshod masterpiece:

(Each of those little books was supposed to have a character standing on it. Oh well. I titled the books Tom Thumb, Little Tommy Tinker and Tom Sawyer.)

Carly reminded me that they sometimes have catastrophes on my very favorite tv show, Ace of Cakes, too. The question now is, what to do with Super Why, Red, Princess and Pig? It seems like a lot of work to just pitch out, but keeping them seems a little silly, too -- too sweet to eat, too fragile to play with, and the only cakes I have to make soon are Blue's Clues and a giant golf ball, neither of which needs a super reading hero on top.

We had brats and hot dogs, pasta salad with lots of white cheese (Tommy's favorite) and Buffalo Chicken Dip; I had heard many people talk about how delicious it is, but had never tried it -- they were right.

And here's the big present: his "tractor." They rode it until we made them come in and have cake, but Clay took them out again after, even though it was dark. Definitely a hit.

They drove it into the dark again last night when we had Maggie's party. She loves vegetable soup, so that's what I made. But I cook like my dad -- as if the threshers were coming to supper. We ended up with two big pots of soup, enough for supper for many nights, and enough to share with the neighborhood! We also had her favorite birthday cake, from Dairy Queen.

Clay's co-workers from all over the world are in this week for meetings, so he is going to dinner with them this evening. Will and I are going to go out, even though we should probably stay home and eat soup!

Peace.