PreparationsThe other day I was on the phone with my dear friend
Marina while watching K pick flowers. K brought me some tall grass and told me we had 'wheat growing in our
very own backyard'. She went inside and asked for something to grind it into flour. I gave her our mortar and pestle and she went to work grinding the grass with all of her might.
The concoction
Ready for baking
After working on her flour for quite some time she asked me if she could make a real cake with it. My first reaction was to say no, thinking of the mess that would be made, but then I thought
why not?! What a fun experience for her and great way for her to learn more about the process of baking. So I let her have at it with out any direction or input from me. C came to help her out and they combined rice drink, their 'wheat grass' and whole wheat flour in a bowl. They mixed it up and poured it into one of my pans. K said it was a wheat cake. I guess the idea of cake made her think of birthdays because then a huge smile crossed her face and she announced it was K baby's birthday.
K with her birthday doll, presents and decorations she set up
K's birthday chain decorationShe ran off and wrapped some presents for K baby and then decorated the birthday table for her, too. I thought as a special treat I would bake cupcakes for them. I used
this incredibly scrumptious recipe from my friend Sarahbeth back in Virginia. It's actually relatively healthy and sugar-free to boot! It tastes incredible by itself but K wanted K baby's cupcake to have frosting so I whipped up just enough for three cupcakes quick (so they rest could stay frosting and sugar-free). We put the cupcakes and K's wheat cake in the oven while C and K frosted their cupcakes. We then put two candles in K baby's (K said it was her second birthday).
Frosting her cupcake (Ughh at the paper wrappers, they were leftovers from years ago)
Mealtime candle/birthday ring set up by K (We eat by candlelight every meal)The we all sat down at the birthday table, lit the candles and sang happy birthday. K helped K baby blow out her candles and we feasted. They both said they liked the wheat cake but only had a couple bites of it (while devouring their cupcakes).
K baby's yummies
Blowing out the candles
C's yummies
All of our guests partied until they could no longer keep their eyes open.

Impromptu celebrations are so much fun! We have done them
in the past but I have a feeling after this one they will be happening even more often.
Happy Monday!
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A few of you asked about our schooling choices for the girls in my last post and I can see how it can be confusing! I am going to try and explain it...
We have to pack up and move every four years for my husband's job so in four years we will be leaving Oregon :( It's wonderful for us to dream that we will always be near a Waldorf school but more than likely we will not be. I am pretty much counting on these four years here to be the only years we are able to attend a school. Because of the timing of this K will end up experiencing kindergarten and first grade in school but C won't be old enough to start schooling until after we move. Once we move both girls will be home schooled. So for K it will be a transition but for C that's just how it will always be. I feel fortunate to be in such a large Waldorf community here and I plan on taking everything in and learning as much as I can. I hope that helped explained it a bit and didn't just add to the confusion!

Impromptu Celebration