No. 55: The Ties That Bind

Hi, everyone:

Tomorrow is Little Arya’s third birthday party. Her birthday isn’t until next Saturday. But she is, nonetheless, very excited.

We make special efforts to keep her birthday separate from all of the other holiday hoopla. It’s important that she gets her day(s) in the sun just like Stella.

For her party, Arya is having a dancing theme. We are going to trick out the garage with a dance floor, and let all the littles get their wiggles out!

In addition to the theme (which is collaboratively picked between kid and parents), we always ask our girls what kind of cake they want for their birthday. One year, Stella had a “surfer girl” themed cake — I even made a somewhat recognizable surfboard out of frosting.

This year, Arya has requested an “orange cake.” That was all I was given. I know she likes oranges, so I went hunting online to see what was out there. I ended up going with this orange creamsicle cake, which tastes just as good as it sounds (at least from what I had of the batter). Mine definitely doesn’t look as fancy as the images from the professional, but it’s the effort and love that count, right?

Right??

I also baked my specialty: a homemade chocolate chip cookie cake. People kind of expect to have this at parties, and I’ve done it so many times that it’s pretty quick to do.

So even if they don’t like orange creamsicle (idk why you wouldn’t), people will have a good ol’ regular cookie cake to devour.

It’s an action-packed Saturday morning followed by a wedding anniversary dinner date at night (thanks, Mom and Dad). Then Sunday, me, Stella, and my dad are off to Columbia, SC to see the women’s Carolina Gamecocks take on Penn State! While Arya, Christine, and my mom are going to see Rudolph at one of the local stages!

What a weekend ahead!!

I hope you have a terrific weekend, too.

Thank you for being here.

- Colin