Birthday month

This month sees a couple of birthday celebrations in our family. My husband's has come and gone a week ago. We don't tend to go overboard for birthdays and most of the time it's a simple family celebration. That's exactly what it was for my husband - a few pressies, his choice of menu items for dinner (he chose hot chicken curry and naan bread) and definitely cake - yet another try for me to get his Grandmother's Pineapple Cake right. Since no recipe exists, I did the trial and error thing for years. And then I gave up. But a trip to Debbie Macomber's site and her recipes gave me an idea and so the urge to try again came up.

The other birthday this month is a milestone - my eldest becomes a teenager next week. And as such a special celebration is warranted, right? I will confess to hating sleepovers because usually they do not involve sleep. I'm fond of sleep. And her birthday is on Sunday - 13 on the 13th. So I suggested inviting a few girls and taking them for manicures before coming back here for pizza and cake.

At first she was on board with that, until she realized that one of the girls she is inviting really isn't the manicure type, and she wants to do something everyone will enjoy. So her suggestion is a movie afternoon followed by pizza and cake. And she's kind of funny. She's like...order in some pizza, but will you make hot wings and caesar salad and pasta salad to go with it? We may just not order in but have a "make your own" kind of thing - which could be way more fun.

And then there's cake. I'm going to attempt to make a chocolate buttercream layer cake. This could be interesting because I am converting my favourite white cake recipe to chocolate, and then trying a new buttercream recipe. I also have some yummy ideas for the top too.

All in all though I LOVE that she's low maintenance, and more concerned with hanging out and having a good time than making a big expensive splash. Yay for low-key kids! And yay for birthdays!

Donna

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