Birthday Cake

 For me, there is nothing better than enjoying the spoils of a birthday than with a big day-after slice of homemade cake.  After flipping through a cook book Myles landed on red velvet cake for his ninth birthday. It didn't actually turn red on account of not having one third of a cup of artificial coloring. But it was tinted red with the natural stuff, and tasted mostly like chocolate.  When I was in the middle of making the icing for this cake, things were looking disasterous. I was one hour away from the family arriving, and my frosting looked like cottage cheese. So then I had a revelation. Call a professional! I picked up the phone and dialed the number of the bakery where the recipe was from. I spoke with a baker and she walked me through my process and helped me fix my mistake. It was amazing! (The problem was my house was too cold for the butter to properly soften. ) Never again will I give up when things look curdlely.  Five years ago I would have dumped it out with tears beside.

So now, for us the holidays are finally over.  January birthdays always extend the festivities a bit, but now we are home with good books, and some leftover buzzing.

Literarily this is what a day in the life of our nine years old looks like:

not pictured: Tin Tin, Tin Tin, and more Tin Tin.

This post really captures some of the emotions I was feeling as my oldest child heads into the unknown territory of getting older. Thrilling and chilling in the same moment. Check it out. Rachel's writing is really wonderful.