30something

The dear wife had her birthday two weekends ago -- the last of the calendar year in our family.

The day started well with Carson's last tee-ball game. Val works Saturdays but does try to get to one game per kid sport season, and the combination of her last chance, her birthday, and that she'd been working very hard (and late, and on off days) over the previous two weeks granted perfect alignment for taking a morning off.

The game went well, trophies were handed out at our GattiTown pizza party, and she took her leave to put in a half-day at the office. The kids and I returned home and baked a cake; easy enough. Then we made the traditional buttercream frosting; also easy. Divvied the frosting into four bowls because, of course, food coloring comes in four colors -- blue, green, red, and yellow. We mixed up four small batches of each. I then carefully spread it on, taking care not to get cake crumbs swept up as with cakes past. The cake turned out pretty good, roughly quartered with different colors. And not a spoon nor spatula went unlicked.

Val arrived home and, even more than usual, was rushed by the kids. They had not only to welcome her, but show her the cake AND help her find the scattered presents. With two eager, young assistants (who knew where every gift was lurking), this took but moments.

The haul: a pound of organic coffee, a bar of hand-crafted soap (also coffee; better than it sounds), hand-drawn cards from the kids, a jar of caramel corn-and-sunflower-seeds (a bit disappointing; not bad, but not great), a bottle of wine (wrapped in ribbon, which is a lot more difficult than I'd expected), a bar of white chocolate, a DVD movie (Chocolat), and maybe one or two other small things I've forgotten. The kids helped unwrap everything, like always.

And then we ate cake. Well... some of us ate cake. Smaller people ate frosting by the fingerful. The cake was soon plowed into rows and ready for planting. Oh dear; well, the purpose was served. Another fine birthday celebration.