family birthday party

On Ava's birthday we had the family over to celebrate both her and Noah's birthdays. May is always a bit hectic with birthdays, mother's day, etc.  It's really fun to set aside time to celebrate with these two and our family!

Ava couldn't wait to get into her new dress for the "party".  Nana did a really great job and we are so thankful that she can sew her heart out!  (cause if it ain't a straight line, mama can't sew it!) The kids received some pretty awesome gifts.
Here comes Vera....don't you love this face?
Uncle Bill and Auntie Diane come up with some pretty great things for the kids. This bug holder/magnifier is really cool. First came the hunt...then the examination.
...and now it's time for CAKE! This year Noah, thanks to his buddy Ethan, has discovered Star Wars. We haven't let him watch the movies yet, but there are books, legos, and Brian's favorite - YouTube. He's seen enough to be hooked. Light-sabers (or as he says "life-savers"), he loves them. We've already made several out of swim noodles. This year he wanted a Star Wars cake. There were some really amazing cakes out there, but I went for fun and simple. Remember the garbage compactor scene? (BIG thanks to Uncle Isaac for saving your original figurines!)
My Ava-Roo decided to go elegant this year. She wanted a cake that looked "sort of boring" on the outside, but "would be a BIG surprise on the inside!" I'm excited about how the cake turned out, but for posterity this is a record of the cake baking events as they occurred in real time...

It was getting late last night, but I still needed to bake Ava's cake. My wonderful mama gave me a guilt free pass to use a boxed mix this year. Every other year I've made the cakes from scratch. For some reason I just needed permission to box it this year, thanks mom! Okay, Noah's cake is cooling, time to get going on Ava's. Got the mix out...ingredients...still watching 24 (mistake)...commence mixing. I mean really, that's all it is with the box, add three ingredients and mix! Unless you are me, who got distracted by the late hour and 24, and only added two of the three ingredients. Me to myself, "hmmm, I haven't made cake from a box in quite some time but this seems really thick. That's weird. At this rate I won't be able to fill four pans to get the layers Ava wanted." As I'm half way through pouring batter into the second pan I glance at the box. Wow. How did I miss that? Added the eggs, oil...wait, what? Water? Yup, that explains why this is so thick. Oooookay, back in the bowl it goes. Added the water and remix. Ahhh, that's much better. Okay, no worries, we're back on track. Filled the first two pans, all set and feeling pretty good, into the oven they go. If only it ended there. About four minutes into baking it hits me. "Sarah, did you put any food coloring in the second cake? Um, no. I see. Lovely."  I weighed my options for about 30 seconds and knew that I had to make another cake from scratch. Out comes the Betty Crocker book and I'm looking up white cake. So much for my guilt-free-easy-peasy cake.  I am happy to report, however, that Ava got her four different colored cake layers, one of them a homemade cake and the other three from a box.  Look at that smile.
...totally worth it. Hey, wait. Why is she looking at Noah's cake like that???

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This year Ava has been talking all about getting a hamster.  Mmmm, mommy wasn't that crazy about the idea.  My brilliant plan to replace hamster fever?  Fish!  How hard can they be?  We bought her a 2.5 gallon tank for her room.  She loved it!  When the tank was filled, and the light turned on, it was rather pretty.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVES!