Ten

My daughter's 10th birthday is today.  How the heck did that happen?  I swear we just came home from the hospital.  I'm pretty sure all I did was blink once and ten years flew by.  Can I go back in time to when she was a baby and stare at her a little more?

I would like to see her first smile again.  Her toothless grin between two enormous cheeks.  She was a chunky baby.  Really chunky.  Perfectly chunky.  I would like to watch her wobble down the edge of my Mom's driveway and behead all the daisies.  I think that's the first thing she did when she started walking.  I want to see the little baby I had fall asleep in my arms again.  I want to watch her little stretches she'd do in her sleep.  She slept a LOT.  She was the best baby. 

Yes, reliving her babyhood would be nice.  I miss it a lot, but now I have this wonderful little girl who is almost too old to be called little.  She's brilliant, funny, sweet, and has the perfect amount of freckles on her little nose and cheeks.  She's a voracious reader and doesn't like it when she doesn't have homework.  She's compassionate and generous.  She's got the best laugh in the whole world.  She's the best kid.

   

So, happy birthday, Grace.  You're always going to be my baby.

I DID IT!

I finally made a cake and it turned out exactly like it was supposed to!  I'm so excited and proud of myself.  This has never happened before.  Now I can't wait to make cakes for the many birthdays that are coming up in the next month and a half!

The batter looked curdled when I added the buttermilk, just like the recipe said it would.  I didn't believe it though.

 

The cakes came out of the pans just fine without me accidentally breaking them in half or the middle sticking to the pan.

 

The strawberry filling thickened to the perfect thickness that I wanted.

 

 

The buttercream frosting came together perfectly, even though I halved the recipe and ended up with only enough frosting to cover the top of the cake.

 

 

 

Most of all, it tasted good!  It looked pretty good, too.  My Mom said it was heavenly, and one of my coworkers devoured a large piece in no time.

 

 

 

I would really like to be home with a fork and the rest of the cake and eat the whole thing myself...but I'd have to scrape off the frosting because I'm not much into frosting.  That would be a waste though so I think I should just share the cake.