A celebration

This morning I found a dead fly on my bed.

 "I did it. You've been bearable this week. 
You're welcome."

"Thank you (I guess) Audrey for your lovely, thoughtful gift.

We celebrated our oldest daughter's birthday this weekend. It was lots of fun. Now that we have had time to do some work on the landscaping here we feel so much better inviting friends and family out for a visit.  There's not so many holes to disappear into or thorny weeds to tear your feet open. I actually walked across the lawn in flip-flops yesterday and not one injury to report. :) Oh, there's so much yet to do with the grounds and I expect we'll still be cleaning up a year from now but I need to get onto inviting out those I have missed so much.

A few photos from our family celebration.

Here's Riley teaching her cousin, Gwynn to play soccer.

 

                                      Our son coaches little ones so he was having a great time.

 There's more work you can see in the background. Logs to be stacked this week.

Here are the men waiting for chicken.

 

 

Of course, there was cake.

33 candles.

BANANA CAKE

1/2 C Crisco

1 1/2 C white sugar

2 free-range, organic brown eggs

3 brown bananas mashed (the browner the better)

2 Tsp. vanilla

1/2 C milk

Mix together

In a bowl combine

1 Tsp cream of tartar

1/4 Tsp salt

1 3/4 C all purpose flour

Mix with wet ingredients

Mix 1 Tsp baking soda with 1/2 C of hot water

After mixed, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes

The icing is the tricky part.

You need:  1/2 C butter

2 C conf. sugar

1/2 C light cream

2 Tsp vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan until golden brown.

It will actually start to foam as it reaches the right temperature.

Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Blend in cream and vanilla.

Place pan in ice water and beat until it can be spread. 

It should be like a creamy fudge consistency.

Ice your cake and enjoy.

 

 And the group photo.

They are always fun to look back on.

My sister, brother-in-law & their grand-daughter joined us to celebrate this birthday.

                      I'm not sure what baby Gwynn is doing. Just ignore the finger, please. haha! :)

            Nana's garden was a hit with the kids and lots of tomatoes went home for lunch today.

 

Riley

Well, I'm off to cat-sit tonight.

There's something I haven't said for a long time. :)

Hope you had a fun weekend.

Hugs, Deb