Happy Birthday!

Sander had his birthday this past week. I can't say we really had a great chance to celebrate (I love to make a big deal out of family birthdays!) due to the move, but we did the best we could. Sander was exhausted as he was up till 1:30am the night(morning?) before his birthday moving all the final things out of our old house, then had to sit in the 2nd day of a tedious meeting. He finally got home at 7:30 after a few more runs by the old house. Plus, we had the painter that day and he decided he wanted to paint the kitchen right as I was trying to finish the elaborate cake I was making. It was a race against the painter to get it done.

If you're interested in the cake, it is from the cookbook Baked Explorations.  It is the pistachio cake with honey buttercream icing.  The icing is made with a cooked flour and milk mixture that makes the buttercream much more stable and oh so delicious!  Honey and pistachios are both some of Sander's favorite foods, so it was fun to try a new cake.

We had a simple meal since all my time went into the cake, but it was a nice and relaxing end to a busy day for both of us.

Dexter was really into the birthday this year since he just had his.  He wanted to open all the presents himself and blow out Sander's candle.  I ended up wrapping one of his current toys in a bag and that did the trick -- he was thrilled and thought he had his own present!

My first three layer cake.  It wouldn't fit under the cake saver so we had to smush a little...oh well.  Still tastes great!

Jumping in and enjoying all the post-present wrapping paper.