Birthdays

I think I like having both kids' birthdays over and done with in the first two months of the year.

Coen's party (because all one-year-olds get a big old party in our family) was at our house and I made a Brobee cake.

I swore I'd never torture myself like that again. I was up until 2 a.m. doing this cake. I had trouble frosting the sides where it was cut because it was crumbling. I forgot to reserve some white icing for his eyes so my parents dug in their cupboards and brought some crusty small marshmallows. They worked, I guess. The black icing gel ran a bit because I didn't knead it before I started. But everyone said it was cute and I did a good job, so I'm happy with it. Coen started walking right around his first birthday, and a week or so later was walking full-time.

For Kalten's birthday, I decided to try to get him a ride on one of his favorite vehicles. I posted on facebook, "For his birthday, Kalten would adore a ride in any or all of the following: a yellow car, a fire truck, an ambulance (preferably NOT for an emergency), a helicopter (mommy says no),a school bus, a mail truck, a PUS truck (he means UPS). Got any connections?" and a few people suggested our church's purple school bus. I called the pastor and arranged for him to pick K up at our house, take him to the grocery store (odd, I know) to pick out one new car from their display that Kalten must visit every time we get groceries, and then to meet his friends at McDonald's. All of this was going to be a surprise for him.

He requested a fire engine cake, which is NOT as simple as Family Fun would like you to believe. First of all, HOW did their cake get so squared off and perfect, without leaning? Second, I froze my cake overnight and it still crumbled as I frosted the cut edges. Overall, though, my cake looked acceptably fire-engine-esque, so I was satisfied. Tasted good, too.

Kalten had so much fun riding the bus and when we went in the grocery store, he was a little celebrity. He knew exactly which toy he wanted (a black train engine), and my friend who is a cashier there arranged for him to be given a yellow balloon, yellow being his favorite color. We got to McDonald's and his friends were arriving. It was just so perfect. My dad had gotten a table in the party room and just sort of "spread out" so we'd have enough room, since McD's doesn't reserve the room for lunchtime. He had a lot of fun, and then we got to ride the bus back home! He didn't nap yesterday, but still didn't sleep until almost 11! He was having so much fun with his new toys. I'll have more pictures later.