Happy Birthday Eleanor!

Eleanor turned 8... yes... EIGHT! Of course you know what that means! She got out of her car booster seat. This is a monumental day for my children. This also means that Bilbo graduated to a booster seat from a car seat. Mine much prefer the boosters where they don't feel quite so fettered. Poppy of course has noticed she is the only girl with a car seat and she is the only boy without a booster seat... I don't think Poppy is sure whether she is a little boy or a little girl yet! It takes 3 of us to get her into the carseat if Galadriel isn't present.
*
Eleanor's special day began with Mass followed by a talk with one of our priests. The priests give really great talks to the children. Afterwards we went to breakfast with the only other family who was able to make it to the talk.

As we got out of the van we were greeted with this interesting sight. Yes... that is an air-conditioner sticking out of the back window. haha

I know, foggy picture but it's a bald eagle. Right near the restraunt is a place where many eagles congregate. It is so great to watch them flying and diving and just perching. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, I'm not sure why it turned out this way.

The girls

Pippin

The boys

A friend with Merry and Pippin.

Happy Birthday to Eleanor!

To celebrate Eleanor and I baked a cake from the baking challenge book. Let's just say we'll be trying something else. I do not like cookie dough raw but I like cake batter! And this cake batter was very good.

The frosting it wanted me to make with the cake was a cherry frosting that had to be cooked. Anyone who who visits this blog must know I cannot make a nice frosting and that I'm not about to cook one! So I figured I'd just make a nice butter cream frosting and add in some of the cherries. Well, after whipping up the butter I find out I didn't have enough powdered sugar. But I figured (here is where my frosting expertise comes in) that if I just added in the can of cherry pie filling it would be fine... afterall you can't go wrong with butter, sugar and pie filling right?

Galadriel served up the cake and this is how it came out 11 times out of 12. Obviously you can go wrong with butter, sugar and pie filling, it sort of bottoms up on you.

So here is the lone piece that we very delicately maneuvered not to be a piece of down-side-up cake.

*

And the response came from Frodo but nearly everyone made the same face at the same time:

"Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww, what is that taste?!"

Then next statements were something along the lines of, "Do we have anything else for dessert?" "Eleanor, I'm sorry, we'll do something for you on another day." etc...

Incidentally "that taste" was baking powder. It called for 3 teaspoons and let's just say... probably 1 would have sufficed.