Monday, June 3, 2013

Happy Birthday Party Day! 

What? Y'all don't celebrate that? lol

We decided to actually have David's birthday celebration on the weekend with everyone. Plus, my mom flew in to visit, so she was here to celebrate too. We figured after church was a pretty good gathering time.

He usually goes with either a pineapple upside down cake or tres leches. This year he said he wanted something different. I could pick. Gah...this made it so hard. First I had to go through my whole Pinterest cake board and try to see what he would really like. I didn't want to just do chocolate...but he can be difficult to pick for. I dunno, he's not that picky about most food...but this is his birthday. I wanted him to really like it...almost felt like a how well do you know me test. hahaha! Anyways, I finally narrowed it down to a peanut butter fudge cake (which I felt sure he would love...he's a big Reese's fan) or a chocolate malt cake with vanilla malt frosting. I was feeling super indecisive at this time, so I made him pick! lol...he immediately said no to the peanut butter fudge (see, I totally would have gotten it wrong!) and said the chocolate malt sounded cool.

Then it was on to decide the menu. He just said order some pizza. I said that's not that special. Then he's all, well, ribeye!  Umm, no, you already had that on your real birthday and those are expensive. Then we thought, hey, lets go with a soda shop theme...malt shakes, burgers, fries. Cool, that's perfect! And really, burgers are David's favorite! (other than ribeyes :) But of course, being the ice cream snob that he is, regular old Dreyers isn't good enough for shakes (or regular consumption). He decided he wanted Fish Family Farms, a local creamery. Not his absolute favorite, but pretty close. 

So, the kids, my mom and I all head to the farm to pick up ice cream on Saturday. It's a pretty cool little place. They have Jersey cows...such a pretty golden color. If you time it right, apparently you can watch them being milked. No such luck for us...but we did get to see and pet a couple of cows. There was one outside that like being pet...and in the barn there was a teenager cow...so cute! It kept trying to eat Red Two's shirt! And it was licking everybody...apparently it was hungry! In one of the stalls, there were even a couple of calves. Of course the kids loved that. Buddy's been telling everyone about the cows this weekend! When I headed inside the little store, they were out of chocolate! Shoot! But I got a bunch of vanilla...what else is chocolate syrup for?


I wanted to try to get some big ice cream/malt glasses...but the only place I found them they were too much! I did find some super adorable themed paper goods at Target though. They had these really cute fries cardboard containers, hot dog boxes, and celebrat (get it?) plates. It was perfect! Of course, the kids kept calling the bratwurst "Celebrats" the rest of the weekend!

Then I made the cake...no biggie. On to the frosting...the recipe called for 3 sticks of butter and only a cup and half of powdered sugar...but not a swiss meringue style. It was way too buttery and soft...so I added a lot more powdered sugar...it looked OK, so I put a crumb coating on the cake...it started just a slipping and sliding all around! It was way to runny! Grrrrr! I put it in the fridge to harden up and added tons more sugar to the frosting. Finally got the consistency right, but while the cake was in the fridge over night, the top layer slid a half inch or so over before hardening! Of course, then it's hardened into place and I couldn't slide it back. Frosting over the crumb layer wasn't the easiest either, as it started to soften once out of the fridge. It wasn't the prettiest cake, but it tasted pretty good ;) 
It's basically a Whopper cake, lol

After church, we headed home to fire up the grill! We volunteered Papa to man it (thanks Dad!) and made the malt shakes...yum! We actually wound up having burgers, dogs and brats...and fries of course! It was super good!
Aren't those the cutest paper goods?

 David started feeling not so great after we ate though, so he headed upstairs to nap. He's started the next round of chemo, so definitely even more tired and nauseous. We figured it was a perfect time to go fly some kites. It was much windier than the last time we tried. Success!!! We got the one kite all the way up...500 ft of string! It was so cool! At one point a hawk even came over to check it out...of course by the time I got the camera it had moved on. It was up for a long time! We never could get the little one up though. 

See that little tiny dot? That's the kite at 500 ft! Red One was SO proud of herself...you'd have thought no one had ever flown a kite before her...haha

 Red One in action...I love this, and Red Three just standing there...such a perfect pic!
 Apparently Red Two is a ninja or something...she's got the superhero fighting stance down.


Buddy is a monkey!

It's so nice having the little playground, parking lot, and wide open field to hang out at. It's perfect! Although, maybe not the best kite flying location...it's a little hard to catch the wind there. Also, we almost lost the big kite. After being up in the air for a long time...I'd say at least 30 min...it fell pretty quick and got caught in the trees, on the wrong side of the power lines! Yikes! Dad was just about to call it a loss and cut the line, but Red One gave it a tug and up it came again...she reeled it in quickly, so if it went down again, it wouldn't be across the power lines. Whew...close call! 

Time to head back...everyone was ready for cake and ice cream! David's nap did him good, so he was ready too! It was a lovely day...always nice to hang out and relax with family!
Buddy is ready for cake!


Guess what though?!?!?!? I totally missed out on National Cancer Survivor Day! Oops. I was off the computer all day, so totally forgot about it. But really, what is it all about but faith, family and fun...and we had all of those yesterday. That was the best celebration for National Cancer Survivor Day, IMO!
If you want more info on it, here's a link: http://www.ncsd.org/

For everyone affected by cancer, whether just diagnosed, in for the long haul, cancer free, friend or family member...I pray blessings, strength, and hope to you all!

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