Happy Birthday Cash!

We had a super fun birthday weekend around here. Luckily our month straight of rain let up enough that we actually had a fairly decent week and an absolutely perfect day for a beach party. Good friends, good food and no babies! (Had a sitter - like I would attempt bringing them while trying to do anything organized, besides, more attention for Cash. Uh, sorry you missed the party, guys.)
















We did a few games like three-legged races and a water relay. We had a few other things prepared, but really everyone was so happy being at the beach that we didn't really need anything else.


























We had BBQ beef sandwiches (a family recipe that I LOVE - it's all about liquid smoke, I'm telling you), and managed to keep the food fairly sand-free (my big fear, that whole gritty teeth thing drives me crazy).



























And then there was my pride and joy:

My beach bash cupcakes. (You can click on the picture if you want a closer look.) Teddy grahams in swimsuits, sunbathing, surfing, floating in inner tubes, building sand castles; flamingos, fish, octopuses, water, sand, beach umbrellas...I tried to cover it all. It was fun. I probably should have reigned in my ambitions and not made everything from scratch - two kinds of cupcakes, two types of frosting (wow, never made buttercream before - that's a pain, plus I'm pretty sure all that butter will be showing up on the scale this week), and I filled the cupcakes with a cream-type filling. Mmmm. I don't think I'll ever make non-filled cupcakes again. One of the mom's even commented - "Did you do something inside these cupcakes because the kids are eating the whole thing." And I realized, yeah, that's totally true huh? Once you're done eating the part with frosting, the rest of the cupcake just isn't that interesting. The sand was even yummy. (And in case you're wondering - I tried just brown sugar first - just ok. Then crushed graham cracker - still ok. Then I mixed raw sugar and graham cracker - perfect amount of sparkle to the sand with a really yummy kind of crunch to it.) I must say that heat and humidity aren't so great for buttercream frosting, so by the time we ate them they were super soft and said more like HA P P Y B I R --------- C A ------ , but they were still yummy. And thanks to my friend Betsey who came over until late in the evening helping to bail out my ambitiousness. They were a hit.




















Really, couldn't have asked for a better day. Warm, sparkling clear water, Beach Boys playing in the background, great group of friends, and a sting ray even paid a birthday visit (apparently swimming around in labor, we heard later - even more fitting for a birth day, right?)


You are one funny little dude, Cash (I'm going to blame this new high-heel obsession on an absentee father).

He is sweet as can be (and sour at times of course), shy around others, can keep a better poker face than anyone I've ever seen when we're with other people (elated or ticked off - it all looks the same), and he rarely misbehaves in public (thank goodness, because I have two that don't hesitate to), which makes other adults fond of him. A few weeks ago I heard about seven voices screaming in the church nursery so I went and peeked in the window and saw every single kid climbing up on a chair, up onto a table and jumping off...except one (Cash), who was, of course, sitting in the corner quietly by himself playing with his cars. He's pretty dang smart for his age (can spell words, recognize numbers separate from each other, count to 100, and today walked around the parking lot reading off every license plate), and so much fun. A little socially inept and not quite the athlete yet (pretty much turns his head and gets hit in the face anytime we throw a ball to him), but I couldn't be luckier to have such a chill little boy. Especially with what followed. :)