My Birthday

I had a wonderful sixteenth birthday yesterday. My dad had some doctors appointments in the morning/early afternoon, and mom has to drive him, so it was just me and my sisters from about 7am to 3pm. We had a job to do, though. Quite a big job, too. We had to clean the house. :O  I know. We vacuumed, swept, mopped, wiped counter tops, cleaned the bathrooms, dusted, washed dishes and did laundry. Haha, yes, we were busy bees until momma and dad got home. :) At 6pm that evening my Nana & Papa, Me-ma & Pa-pa came over for dinner. Mmm, mmm. So, here are some pictures I (or sometimes Narthea) took of my birthday. :)

Yesterday morning Caldirwen and I made breakfast.

Bacon!

Pancakes!

They smelt so good....

The finished products.

After breakfast Narthea was finally awake (okay, it was only 9am) and we all got right to work. Narthea was still not feeling well (she has had strep throat for the last week or so), but she's on antibiotics, so they're helping her feel a smidge better (that and Advil). She was able to help out. I was perfectly fine with cleaning. I actually enjoyed myself. :) Which is weird, because I normally hate cleaning. o.O  That's the effect birthdays have on you, I guess. ;)

For lunch we had Chicken Salad.

{this is not the finished product}

I never got a picture of the finished product, but we put 8 boiled eggs and 3 celery stalks (chopped up) in our chicken salad, along with (of course) the canned chicken and a few spoon fulls of Mayo. Mmm!! My favorite quick-fix!

Later that afternoon, after my parents got home, I got to work on my birthday cake. I insisted on making it this year. This was my first time to make Red Devil's Food Cake (my absolute fav!), and making the icing is really difficult, so I opted to wait for Momma and dad to get home, and mom volunteered to help out. :)

Me making the cake.

By the way, the apron I'm wearing, I made it the other day!! :D

This is the cake batter.

While the cake was cooking Narthea set up the morning room table with my gifts and our dry erase board with "Happy 16th Birthday" written on it.

{do you see my converse-look-alikes? Eep!}

"Happy 16th Birthday!!" Aaaaah! I still can't believe it! :)

....okay, I can now, but it just feels so unreal! I've been anticipating this since.... I turned 15 last year! lol :D

These are the gifts from my parents.

Ah, ze cake is cooling and waiting for ze icing.

The reason the icing is so hard to make, is because you have to stand over it while it's on the burner, stirring it constantly, for about 40 minutes. I know. My hand was cramping so bad. See why I took Momma up on her offer to help? :)

After the icing is done on the stove, you stick it in the sink in cold water with ice in it, while blending it with an electric mixer.

Now ze cake is done waiting. :P

Boy, oh boy, I couldn't wait to eat this cake!!

{see how messy I was being? That was my evil plan so I could "clean" it all up. *wink*wink* rofl :D}

When my grandparents got to our house around six o' clock in the evening, everyone gathered around the island in the kitchen to pray and then we dug in! We ate steak (thanks Papa!), baked beans (thanks Nana!), corn on the cob (thanks Me-ma!), rolls (thanks Momma!) and potato salad (thanks Narthea!). Mmm, mmm, mmm!

Word from the wise [Eldarwen]: When putting candles on your cake, try to remember your age. :P

{and yes, I seriously did not switch the '6' and '1' on purpose. It was a total accident. We laughed and laughed!}

Lit candles!

Mmm. Red Devil's Food Cake with Blue Bell's Homemade Vanilla ice-cream? It just can't get any better than that....

....oh wait.... yes it can! Presents!

And that is where I leave you until my next post. :)

Oh yes, I love dragging these things out. ;P