Boys and Birthday Girls

Yesterday we drove out to Topaz to deliver Ant and celebrate Elaine's birthday. She said all she wanted was a cake baked by Ant, so I had him decide what he'd like to make. He decided on a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and strawberries on top. We ran many errands this weekend and ended up at the store shopping for ingredients at 10 o'clock Saturday night. At home, Ant was a trooper and we carefully measured out our cake mix from scratch. We followed that recipe exactly, but something went wrong and the cake overflowed from the pans and onto the oven coil, which made for the most delightful aroma. I had to pull the cake out early and it looked doomed- sunk in the middle and burned around the edges.

"Jenny, WHAT are we going to DO!?!?" wailed Ant from behind me. "Grandma's cake is RUINED! She is going to HATE me!"

I turned around with a baffled "Calm yourself" look and found that Ant has moved on from crying catastrophes to the golden age of sarcasm.

"So what are we going to do?" he asked.

"Buy Grandma a cake."

When I went to pick up Chris, I told him the cake was lost, but he didn't seem to think so as he gobbled up the edges. He coaxed the cakes out of their pans and started carving them up.

"Where's the frosting?'

There we were, finishing the cake at four in the morning. Chris chopped the strawberries, helped me whip up the frosting, and totally salvaged that cake. We had already spent a significant amount of time at the library on Saturday trying to find good pictures to print out for Elaine because grandmas need photos and I really wanted to give her more for her birthday. Ant and I picked up the pictures and he helped me arrange them until he could hold his head up no more.

I'm sitting here at work trying to finish this blog on my phone when it occurs to me that I can just publish it and edit with an actual keyboard.  Ohhhh.

So Jennyway, I had all these plans figured out- we're going to go pick out pictures as a family, upload them to Walgreen's, find a photo album, bake a cake... but the computer at the library slowed down more and more until I was ready to throw it through the window.  Chris lost his attention span early on and starting pinching Ant, who had to work hard to refrain from making a racket in the library.  It took probably two hours to get this done and that's why we ended up with a bacon sundae at Burger King afterwards.

This is where I would post the picture if I could upgrade the browser on this computer enough to have all the Blogger options.  Sigh.

And by the way, on Saturday when I was shooing Ant through the last errands, he said that I wear them both out by trying to do too much. I pointed out that nobody had done dammit to prepare for the birthday girl but me, and they were welcome to pitch in on the plans anytime. He immediately agreed and apologized, and spent the trip at Wal-Mart being very involved in cake decisions. Then he worked hard on the cake. Then he helped me with the album until he passed out. Then Chris comes home that night after a VERY long day and performs cake surgery. I was quite relieved and grateful.

So by the time Sunday rolls around I've had very little sleep, but the cake and photo album are done.  I herded the boys through a couple more stops and we got Elaine her card, a balloon, and some sunflowers.  We had a lovely time when we finally got out there.  I called her before I left to ask a very important question: "Have I been in the lake yet this year?"

I thought Sunday would be my annual dip, but it just wasn't that hot outside and I was much happier sitting on the dock with Chris and Elaine watching Ant dive and the dogs swim after sticks.  And Riley trying to bite splashes, of course.  We had perfect burgers for dinner and while the cake did not belong on the cover of a magazine, it did not look like it died a painful death in the oven either.  And it tasted fine.

With Ant camped out in Topaz and the dogs passed out in the car, we were on the way home when Chris said thanks.  I asked him for what and he said "Today. You were the backbone."

Thanks, baby. And thanks for saving that cake.

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