Sweet gift from a new found friend with love bugs for the girls, too!
Oh, my sweet birthday boy, we love him so very much. I can't believe he is already two! We are amidst a birthday week in our home. That is something that my Mom and nieces do to celebrate their birthdays but we hadn't. This birthday week was unintentional but really enjoyable! You see Little L's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which meant that Kevin wouldn't be able to be with us. So it only made sense to have his party on Monday instead since Kevin had that day off from work. Little L didn't know the difference but the girls sure did. They were quite upset over not doing anything on his actual birthday so the four of us celebrated again on Tuesday. The celebration is continuing and I have far too many pictures to share so for now I'll just begin with Monday...
Monday morning the girls and I asked Kevin if he could distract Little L while we made his cake and finished up gifts. He took him out in the backyard to clean up after our dogs (and trust me cleaning up after three dogs takes awhile!). Little L loves doing "work" with Daddy so that was a gift in itself.
Once they were outside we got to work making his birthday cake. We adapted a recipe from The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book, and poured it into a train shaped cake pan (thanks to my friend, Amy!). As it baked the girls finished up their present. They chose to sew him an owl from this book that my Aunt got them for Christmas. I love that they collaborated on this and they only used items we had on hand. It seems like its filled with even more love being made from accidentally felted sweaters, wool felt scraps from past projects, left over fabric from our throw blanket and a pair of pants for him that are still in progress. They spent all weekend on the owl but it just needed a few finishing touches. Then they wrapped everything up in play silks.
Kevin and Little L finished up at the same time the cake was done baking so they came in and we made some lunch to eat before the cake. All of that hard work with Daddy really tired Little L out and he fell asleep in Kevin's arms as I was getting the cake out of the pan. He doesn't take naps anymore (gave those up at almost a year old) so that was a bit of a surprise. Kevin placed him in C's bed to nap and we made lunch. Once everything was ready the girls went in and woke him up by softly singing "Happy Birthday" to him. It was such an endearing moment to witness but as I am sure you can tell he was less than thrilled. Food quickly changed his mood.
We ate our lunch and moved on to the cake. The recipe I used was pretty dense and had apple chunks in it so it didn't come out of the mold as pretty as a traditional cake recipe would have. We nonchalantly said a few "Choo-choos" here and there until he caught on, then he understood and got excited over it. I put candles in the engine and placed it on a plate with fresh fruit and a scoop of some agave sweetened vegan coconut "ice cream". We lit the candles and sang to him but he blew them out before we could even finish. Everyone dug in and the three little ones (who's chair were all pulled so very snug to each other so they could be as close as possible to the birthday boy) soon started stealing food from each other's plates. It was all in jest, though. They were having so much fun!
After the cake was present time. My little guy is a bookworm so I requested books as gifts. He could spend half the morning just looking at books and I love it. We have too many toys for us (okay, really me) to handle already so I wanted it all to be kept simple. Nana and Grandpa got him The Happy Man and His Dump Truck (farm animals and a truck all in one book?! This was the biggest hit by far), Hannah on the Farm, 1 is one, and Baby Angels. Little L didn't have a growth chart yet so they also got him this one (which isn't so pink in person).
The girls gave him his owl and you could see the pride in their eyes when he said"Hoot hoot". C also finger knit him a necklace to go along with it. I finished up his birthday sweater in just the nick of time but the pants will hopefully be finished tonight. Pictures of those gifts soon to follow (unless we have another Christmas sweater incident).
Okay, that was a lot to say. I don't want to bore you so I will end here...for now. But first let me share our cake recipe. It's quite yummy!
Little L's Birthday Cake
1/2 cup (or 1 stick) of margarine (we use earth balance soy free margarine)
1 cup maple syrup
2 cups chunky applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp baking soda
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cream together margarine and maple syrup. Stir in applesauce and vanilla. Sift flour, cinnamon,nutmeg, and baking soda over the applesauce mixture and mix well.
Pour batter (it will be thick) in a cake pan of your choice and bake for 70 - 75 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.Cool in pan for about 20 minutes.
Come back tomorrow for a fun giveaway!
