Quarter of a Century

Andrew’s so old that we didn’t even have enough candles for his cake this year! Most boxes come with 24 and this year Andrew reached the big 2-5. He’s so old.

I had plans of pampering him for his birthday, but I’m coming down with a cold and woke up feeling awful yesterday so instead of me pampering him, he ended up putting me back to bed and tidying up the house before the Home Teachers came over. Then he played with Rachel and did homework all day while I pretended to be alive.

Gee, Happy Birthday, Andrew!

At least I made a cake for him, with the help of Rachel, who really is actually starting to be helpful. When I was younger I remember dipping the spoon in the batter and then letting the batter drip off and make designs in the bowl. It was fun.

Rachel does that now. And it makes me so nervous. Maybe it’s because she’s only two and her “letting the batter drip off” entails more of “flinging the spoon around and spraying batter everywhere.” I remember being much older when I did that, but I’m sure I started much younger and made my mom nervous, too.

We made Andrew his favorite: Jell-o Cake.

We had to call Karen and get the recipe again, but this time no one got knocked unconscious. I have the recipe memorized now, and we wrote it down, so hopefully we won’t have to ask Karen for it again.

Jell-o Cake

3/4 c. water
3/4 c. oil
1 cake mix (yellow or white)
4 eggs
6 oz. package of jell-o

Mix together and put in greased pan. Cook until done. If your oven has temperature settings, use 350° F. Otherwise just guess like we do.

Let it cool, poke it with a fork and then poor a lemon glaze over it, being sure to use powdered sugar and lemon juice (and not flour and lemon juice). 2 c. powdered sugar and enough lemon juice to make it glazy.

This cake is so sweet. Too sweet, really. We still had two pieces each, and that was too much sugar. Usually I can eat a whole cake, or a least a half of a cake, in one sitting…so if that gives you any idea.

Anyway, we sang to Andrew and he blew out his candles—the 2 from Rachel’s second birthday and 5 other ones, including one trick candle—all by himself. Except for the trick candle, which I ended up blowing out.

We were surprised Rachel didn’t help him because she was completely convinced that it was her birthday, too. Daddy was turning 45 and she was turning 3.

“Happy Birthday at Daddy…and ME!” she said all day long. “It’s my birthday…and Daddy’s!”

When I had her give Daddy the card she made she flipped out because it was her birthday card. I don’t know how long it will take us to convince her that she’s still only two and that her birthday is in July, not September.

For his present, Andrew requested the game Risk, in Arabic (and English). He’s pretty excited to have a man-party so that he can play it. I’m pathetic enough at it that he doesn’t even think it worth it to challenge me to a game. I’m not offended by that.

His favorite part is that Ukraine is spelled Ukranine. We can’t wait to see what other translation errors are contained in the deck of cards. It’s deliciously ghetto, like most games made here, but he should have fun with it.