A week of birthdays

At my prenatal appointment last Friday the midwife made a comment about my weight gain being a little higher than what it usually is between my appointments. My excuse? Four birthdays in five days. I think that's a pretty good excuse. Marc and I had ours, then three days later was my dad's, then two days after his was Hugh's #2. And, actually, I just made one cake for Marc and me to share. Maybe next year we'll have our cake be whatever Hugh has for his cake. It is kind of a lot of cake and ice cream crammed into a short few days. Or figure out some other celebratory treat. Like, maybe this.

Here's the triple-layered chocolate cake with a Nutella-based frosting that I made for Marc and me. Notice the little hands trying to reach for the cake...

Just a few minutes later, after I had left the kitchen, thinking I had pushed the cake far enough away from the edge for those little reaching fingers. Our clue that something was up? Ben appeared from around the kitchen counter, with fingers in mouth and eyes glittering with pride/joy/mischief. I was just grateful he didn't pull the entire cake down to the floor. Funny boy!

I didn't get any photos of it, but we made mini Nutella cheesecakes for his birthday. For as active and energetic as he is, it was really hard to grasp that this birthday was his 75th. If I didn't know better, I'd guess he was at least ten years younger.

For the last few months I've been showing Hugh, the lover of trains, this picture of a Thomas cake that I found on some website a while back. (Wish I could remember where to give proper credit.)

I had decided it'd be fun to make it into an ice cream cake. The one thing I failed to take into consideration was the time limits for decorating an ice cream cake, without having it melt into a runny mess. It didn't help at all that as I was doing the first stage of layering the cake and ice cream, then rushing it into the freezer that the freezer would decide to not turn on for more than 20 minutes. I turned the temperature down to its very coldest, but nothing would budge that darn freezer to blow its freezing air onto my Thomas masterpiece. In that time, Hugh's poor cake was turning into a very sorry-looking sight.

It was all very sad and I felt incredibly disappointed at my inability to take the perfect cake from my imagination and turn into the perfect cake for my newest two-year old. But, I laughed it off and just felt relief that Hugh is too young to care and would love it in all of its ugliness. The good news is he blew out his two candles with perfect precision and was clearly pleased with his efforts!

I love this photo of Hugh, with his little hand ready to catch any cake or ice cream that might fall off his spoon.

The funniest part of Hugh's birthday was while we were eating his cake. Both boys were so busy eating that neither was really aware of the mess that blue frosting was making on their hands and faces. At one point, Hugh looked up at Ben and saw this:

Then, with a giggle, Hugh said, "Ben's face!" and then laughed some more.

What made it particularly funny was that Hugh had no idea he looked as ridiculous as Ben. So, Marc took a photo of Hugh's face and then showed him the photo. Realization is starting to sink in.

After having ice cream cake, we took the boys outside for birthday gifts - tricycles and lawnmowers. We got them each their own, to eliminate as much discontent as possible between the two boys.

A big happy birthday to my little Hugh! He is such a spunky little guy, with enviable dance moves and the most adorable raspy voice. He brings a contagious joy to our family and I feel so blessed and lucky to be his Mama.