birthday

18 Already!

It’s hard for me to believe, but Moose’s 18th birthday was yesterday!

Since he had a busy school day, we split the celebration over two days. He waited until after school to open his presents…Lego is still one of his (well actually all of ours) favorite things!

He had a late day at school, so he picked something quick and simple for dinner…chicken patties and mac ‘n’ cheese (I added the green beans so we could pretend there was a healthy component to the meal!). It was excellent timing, because yesterday was also National Fried Chicken Sandwich day!

And we had his cake on his actual birthday, which worked out well, because there enough left for round two today!

Today he had off of school, so he spent the day relaxing and doing some of his favorite things. And tonight, for the first time in about four years, we went to Red Robin for dinner!

I can’t believe that 3/5 of my children are now legal adults, but I have loved seeing the people they have become as they’ve gotten older, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Moose!

Only Nineteen (But Her Mind is Older)

Today is Bunny’s 19th birthday! We started the day with a “Bunny Walk.” We had quite a bit of rain overnight, so we didn’t see as many bunnies as we would have on a drier morning, but we still saw about a half-dozen or so, which was a good way to begin Bunny Day!

As always, present-opening was the highlight of the morning. There was a dual theme of Star Wars‘ Ahsoka Tano and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

We watched some movies this afternoon, and I worked on dinner. She asked for the apple punch from The Brothers Grimm Cookbook that we enjoyed a few weeks ago to go with her traditional birthday dinner of Stromboli:

This year’s bunny cake was based on The White Rabbit from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I don’t think I got his expression quite right, but he was pretty easy to decorate!

It was a very fun day celebrating Bunny!

Sartorial Saturday–The Linen Love Continues

Earlier this season, after a long-standing “no linen” policy for my wardrobe, I decided to give a linen dress from Miss Candyfloss a try, and it quickly became one of my favorite pieces. Well I’m back with a second linen dress, the Rebecca-Pia, in the same checkered pattern (but different color), and with my favorite neckline/bodice!

It’s so light and lovely for summer!

I added a sunhat (very practical for summer) and gloves (not so practical, but they look nice!) to my double stack of Splendette duchess bangles:

Since I wore this dress for the first time on my birthday, I made sure to pair it with my Erstwilder birth flower brooch…luckily for me, they’re a good match!

I love the muted shade of pink of the dress!

The one thing I will say about linen is that I find it a bit scratchy…it’s definitely not as smooth as cotton or some of the blends of my other dresses. But it is cool for summer, and once I embraced the fact that it wrinkles, pretty worry-free!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday!

It wouldn’t be a celebration for me if I didn’t get to hang out with Roald:

Apparently Grimace is celebrating his birthday right now, too, so Ryan went out and got me a special birthday shake…it was surprisingly good!

We watched a couple of my favorite movies today, including Cars, which I’ve been thinking about ever since we went to Disney’s California Adventure. I also wanted to wear my new Miss Candyfloss dress and go somewhere pretty…I picked this spot in downtown Belleville, which has a really fun mural!

The girls made me a beautiful birthday cake for dessert, too!

And a little more Animal Crossing, including a visit from Chickadee:

I had a very nice day, and as always, I’m sad it went by so quickly!

Sweet Sixteen

Today is Ladybug’s 16th birthday!

We did things a little differently this year since Moose has a band concert tonight. So let’s start with a look at her birthday dinner, which we actually had on her Birthday Eve! She chose two recipes from Destiny: The Official Cookbook…tortilla chicken soup with all the toppings, and “Coldheart,” a green smoothie with kiwis, banana, mango, avocado, and spinach:

For dessert, she turned to The Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Online Cookbook, where she found a recipe for “Princess Pudding,” which was a type of lava cake:

She waited until this morning to open her presents. It was a very Stitch themed birthday!

Is it even a birthday in our house if there aren’t Legos?

Happy Sweet Sixteen Ladybug!

Ready for Hogwarts

Today is Chickadee’s 11th birthday, and she found a letter from Hogwarts waiting for her at the table when she got up this morning!

After the excitement of receiving her invitation to study at the wizarding school wore off, she opened her presents:

We spent most of the day watching Doctor Who…I’m always intrigued by what she chooses! While we watched, I worked on the dinner she requested…pork tenderloin and käsespätzle (plus the pickled beets I added to the menu). She also asked me to make Butterbeer, and that was before she even knew I had planned Harry Potter elements for her birthday!

I asked her if her cake could be a surprise…I really wanted to make the cake Hagrid made for Harry on his 11th birthday. I was really happy with how it turned out!

It’s hard to believe another Markel birthday has already come and gone!

Twenty Already!

As hard as it is to believe, Turkey turned 20 years old today. There’s something significant about those ending-in-zero birthdays, and this was no exception!

As has become tradition, I made a Thanksgiving-style birthday dinner. I’m not going to lie…this was one of the worst turkeys I’ve ever prepared. The rest of the meal was good, though, and I think Turkey enjoyed it!

I made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert. It was possibly the best cheesecake I’ve ever made, and also one of the prettiest! Conveniently, candles come in packs of 20, too!

I always have a fun time celebrating my children…I’m so blessed to have a considerate, kind, funny, intelligent son!

17!

Today is Moose’s 17th birthday! If that isn’t unbelievable enough, he keeps me reminding me that in just one year, he will be a legal adult, and I am just not ok with that!

We started with presents before school…I was especially excited to give him the Lego Ideas Jazz Quartet set, because he loves music, and especially jazz, so much:

I think he had a good day at school…most importantly, he didn’t have any homework tonight! He picked McDonald’s for his birthday dinner, and requested a space-themed cake. I did my best to copy the picture he made for me, and I was really pleased with how the cake turned out!

He got all 17 candles in pretty much one breath!

It’s always a little disappointing when a birthday is on a school day, because that limits how many fun things we can do, but even with school, I think it was a great day!