Pink and Plump and Perfect

Yesterday I turned 29.  I guess if I stop to think about it, that does make me feel a bit old.  Last night before bed Ian asked me if there's anything I want to accomplish before the big 3-0 next year.  Well, I'll have had 3 kids, so I think I can cross that one off the list.

It's true really.  The 20s have been so change filled and bursting with newness.  I must say, as much as I'm looking forward to this next year, welcoming our new baby soon, a summer filled with cabins and lakes and pools, a fall with two big girls in preschool and a tiny little one all to myself most mornings, I am also really looking forward to my 30s.  Because those years?  Well, I see them as years of relative stability and family rituals, years where we're finally put down permanent roots somewhere, KNOW what those next years bring, not just guess and ponder.  Ah 29, I'm happy to see you, but I don't know that I'll be sad to see you go.

My actual birth day was great.  The one real irony being that I had JUST commited to a few new coffee accessories with leftover Christmas money and the precise day they arrived was the day I had to give up coffee thanks to late pregnancy intolerance.  At least Ian's enjoying and extra good cup of Joe in the morning.  Ainsley tries a sip nearly every time, desperate to like it, HATING it underneath. It's great.

We had a relatively normal morning.  Ian had been sent hoe from work the day before because his cold was so bad and was instructed to come in later the next morning to rest a bit a sleep in.  Well, he woke up feeling much better so we capitalized on a bit of extra family time.  He dropped Ainsely off at school which THRILLED her and then met Louise and I at my favorite breakfast cafe for a mug of tea and delicious breakfast.  I wasn't hungry until I woke up from our glorious birthday nap at 3pm.  Yum!

In between delicious breakfast and glorious birthday nap was a bit of grocery shopping and puzzle doing with Louise.  I took the below photos of my big girl putting together Ainsley's body puzzle all by herself.  They aren't so stellar of me, but I just had to post what with Louise's sweet cheeks and raw runny nose.  Yuk mama!  I do it ALL by myself.  And see?  Here's all the naked pieces, and the boney pieces and the organ pieces. My girls sure do love their anatomy.

After nap came the real fun.  Earlier in the week Ian had hinted that there was a surpirse for my birthday night.  That I need only have the girls ready with a bit of food and he'd take care of the rest.  I pressed a bit further and discovered he'd wanted to leave the girls with Sonya and take me downtown for an extravagant meal.  Ah, I love my boy, but midweek, 7 months pregnant, after we've all had terrible colds, I wasn't feeling the downtown adventure.  So he of course obliged my request for a quiet night at home and he and Ainsley got set to scheming.

LONG story short, their plan was a cake.  Not any cake but Mrs. Peter's Birthday Cake from our all time favorite book The Seven Silly Eaters.  It had been Ainsley's idea.  She'd wanted that pink and plump and perfect cake for her mama for her birthday.  Ian found the recipe (made up by the poet laureate herself!) and starting asking questions.  So, how would one warm milk to precisely 70 degrees?  What's a tube pan?  What does cream, the verb, mean? I smiled at my boy's good intentions, asked him if it'd be easier if I made the cake with the girls.  Of course it would be.  That cake wouldn't have been ready until 10 pm if he'd had to make it after work.  So we spent the afternoon measuring and sifting, mixing and dumping.  Ainsley knows that book so well that she was a bit distressed that the "pink lemonade" in the book was diminished to lemon juice in milk (buttermilk) in the real recipe, and that instead of baking it in a large dutch oven we poured ours in a bundt pan.  But pink and plump and perfect it was, with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.  This cake is surely a new favorite.  And it meant so much that my big girl thought of it all by herself.  She was so proud carrying that cake out with Ian.

Ah, sweet birthday memories.

And other precious moments?  Well, the one where the girls EXPLODED with joy when they woke up wanting me to open every single present immediately.  Louise chiming in Mama! You get so many toys!  Don't you want your toys?!?!?!?  And once the present opening wrapped up Ainsley was so desperate for more that she kept wrapping things from around the house to give me.

So as much fun as a night on the town would be, for now a not so quiet night at home with our family is my perfect gift.  I think I heard Happy Birthday Mama!  at least 100 times yesterday, was sung to over and over and given extra special kisses hugs and love snuggles from the ones I cherish most.

Ah so the big 2-9, it was a good one.  Now?  I can't wait for that next birth day coming.  We sure like birthdays around here.