Birthday happiness

What a lovely day it has been! My birthday morning started early, as usual, cuddling Kate in the dark on the couch just after 5 a.m. The treat today was that she fell back asleep and we dozed together until 6:45!!! Nobody in this house ever sleeps that late.

The double treat there is that Kate woke up in a fabulous mood. She led my by the finger into the kitchen where Jim was making us all oatmeal and Molly gave me a big hug, dressed in full ballerina costume. I think she was more excited about my birthday today than anybody. She gave me a card she had just made in the wee hours of the morning while everybody else was asleep. She even chose my favorite color for the paper and sounded out all the words herself. :)

We drove over to my mom's to clean the bunny cage, as per our Thursday routine, and we all were treated to quite an array of special birthday nibbles.

I negotiated a few minutes alone to drive to storage where I dug out some things I've been missing, including my kitchen aprons. Finally found those, yay!!! (simple pleasures, right?)

Back at my mom's house, I dug around in her attic and found a treasure trove of our old toys, many of which may find their way under our Christmas tree this year (the legos, at least). I brought home three huge boxes of Barbie stuff to sort, too. I don't think the girls are old enough for that stuff yet but I'm so excited to get out all the little drawers of clothes and see what's in there. The stuff appears to be all packed up just the way I left it when I was a little kid!

In yet another birthday treat, Kate stayed awake on the drive home so I was able to put her down for a real nap in her bed. That meant I got a real nap, too. I must have been sleeping pretty deeply because when I dozed off Molly was banging around in the living room on the giant Big piano while simultaneously cranking the Sound of Music sound track. And when I woke up it was only because she was fishing around under the covers trying to find my fingernails and filing them with a nail file she had found on my dresser. It wasn't until I woke up a bit that I realized she had put a barrette in my hair. :)

After nap I pulled out the cake recipe I've been looking forward to trying for weeks. It involved melting 4 bars of chocolate and a stick and a half of butter, whisking egg whites into stiff peaks and other fun stuff like that. So much fun!!! The cookbook, "Bistro Cooking" by Patricia Wells, has captured my imagination with her little introductions and the mood she sets of small family restaurant cooking around France. The chocolate cake I made had this quote next to it:

"Life is so brief that we should not glance either too far backwards or forwards ... therefore study how to fix our happiness in our glass and in our plate." --Grimod de la Reyniere

The fact that the cake cracked and crumbled as it came out of the pan made it no less delicious.

Make a wish!

Bedtime for the girls was calm and easy. Now I'm off to do some knitting and play with my Barbies sort some boxes. :) I couldn't ask for a better day.