Birthday Party

This past Friday, we had a birthday party for Samantha and her cousin, Alex. Samantha and Alex are only 2 days a part. Samantha's original due date was July 12, 2006. Once they decided to induce me, that bumped her up to June 23. Alex's due date was earlier...I'm not sure when...but he was late -- and I think he entered this world substantially later than my sister was hoping for. Oh but it all works out right?

This year, for Samantha's cake, I was stumped. What do I make her this year? When Marcus suggested a schoolbus (since she rode the bus during her first full year of school), I knew that was it. How perfect. So a schoolbus the girl got...with wheels, little friends in the windows, a stop sign, and all.

I went with a poundcake and your basic buttercream frosting. I'm not sure I'll do that again. The frosting was good, but I wasn't sold on the cake. It just didn't taste as good as my yellow cake -- but I didn't have that recipe with me so I had to try something new. This cake was really fun for me to make.

Alex is really into bugs...and lately, he's all about spiders. Aren't these cupcakes so cute? Good work Lisa. Alex recently found a spider that was rather large. I saw the pictures and that was enough for me thank you very much. Anyway, he had Lisa put it in a jar. He had to take it with him wherever they went -- to the grocery store, to the library, by his bed when he slept. And, he named him PJ Karate. Lisa released him back into the wild a few days later. Spiders. Very fitting for his birthday this year.

"Happy Birthday to you..."

Opening up her gifts -- with help from Callie. Ian and parts of Lindsay are seen in this picture too. I have to say it's been really fun to be with my neice and nephew. They love Samantha and Callie so much. They are so gentle and kind...and rough and playful...all at the right times. We are having a lot of fun. I'll really miss these great kids. Lindsay plays with Callie all day. It's great. She'll do anything Callie asks her. I'm sure it makes Linds feel important -- and it should. And with Samantha, they just treat her so so well. I love it. I really really do. She's just their little cousin who they've prayed for for years and thought about and loved...and now they are just enjoying time being with her. It's really great stuff.

Ok, so here's some angles of the cake. It ended up being a tad too orange for what I was going for, but whatever. The girly poo got a cake, right? And there's different shades of the yellow/orange color within the schoolbus family...so I'm pretty sure I'm ok on this one. Marcus was most excited about the stop sign that stuck out. I'm glad little things like that excite him. It makes me job a whole lot easier.

Aside from my really tired eyes...I think this is a cute picture. Sammy looks so happy. I, on the other hand, am happy, just tired. I've been hit with a pretty bad cold and usually am up from 3am-6am coughing in the basement. It really hasn't been a highlight of the trip, but oh well.