Celebrating Eleven: YaYa’s Birthday

The menu for breakfast in the bathtub was changed at the last minute from blueberry peanut butter oatmeal to already-made banana chocolate chip muffins because the birthday girl was hungry, really hungry, and the rest of us had slept in.

There were wonderful presents to open, followed by a relaxing morning where everyone kind of lounged around, the best sort of winter break morning.  For lunch, YaYa wanted to have bagal sandwiches at Bixby’s so we hopped in the car and headed there.  She had the garden turkey sandwhich, and the little kidlets had peanut butter and jelly.  Because it was a birthday, we ordered juice to go with the sandwiches.  We zipped around the corner to quickly visit the library, and then headed home.

While everyone had quiet time, I baked the birthday cake:  Scandanavian Almond cake, which is one of the most fun and easy cakes to make and one of the most delicious cakes to eat, topped with raspberry sauce.  She chose well!  YaYa spent the afternoon watching her McKenna movie and drawing gymnasts, followed by a great deal of time used to construct a wonderful, large cardboard house filled with magnificent details for her American Girl Dolls.  Who knew those dolls would be so inspiring?

The night before YaYa’s birthday, The Banana was very perplexed about what to give her sister.  “Why DOES her birthday have to be so quick after Christmas???” She asked.  And it’s true, it is hard to recover from Christmas and get into birthday mode so quickly, but we do our very best to make it a super special day each year.  Suddenly, The Banana was inspired with the perfect gift idea.  She and I worked together to make a special fancy invitation for a birthday tea party after nap, which she gave her sister at present opening time in the morning.  Then, all through nap, she worked diligently to set up a tea party for YaYa and their dolls, complete with fancy dishes, a table cloth, crackers and apple juice.  It was really special.

For supper YaYa requested hamburger mozzarella  calzones, and after we finished, Dr. Peds arrived home from work in time to have cake.

To end the day, there was a very special FaceTime call from Grandma Robbie!  We were very excited that FaceTime was working at her house, as she had been having a bit of trouble with it since she procured her new ipad.