Birthday in the midst of moving

Little B, the poor little thing, seems to have chosen the least suitable month to be born in, as it seems we always have to do something on her birthday, like travel or getting ready to travel. She should have chosen wiser, but it wasnt meant to be and we just roll with the punches of time.

The house is below any level of acceptability for a roof for festivities, and despite that, I just could not pile a huge party on top of all the things that need to be done around here. So simple it was.

Gifts, though, gifts you cant just ignore. So, what does a parent give a little girl that would not require storage, would not cost the earth, would, if possible, disappear in a few days, would be substantial enough, impressive enough to lift that birthday girl off the ground in a spasm of happy jumps at the sight of it?

As a bonus, some squealing and clenched fists would be even better…

Food baskets, of course!

One with fruits, just for her, because she just loves the things and I could never buy enough for the house, it seems.
Another with chocolates, crackers, nuts and other sweet/savory yumminess.

Present – accepted.

Now to the food and party. That had to be uncomplicated, so the guest list was limited to only her favorite kids. She ordered nachos and sushi for her lunch. I added a few little things to spice up the table and the guests brought a few nibbles as gifts, because if they had come with big presents, I might have pretended we are not home.

Food went ok, except the kids didnt eat much, as usual. The nachos were saved for left overs, as a lot of the food that was laying patiently on that table.

The birthday girl had ordered ice-cream cake. In the dig out of the house, we had found a cake/jelly form and that is how the plan was hatched to make the cake. The execution went something like this – 2 tubs of our favorite vanilla ice cream. One layer of that went on the bottom. Next layer was mixed with honeycomb. Then I made the chocolate wafers from Christmas again and after bashing them with the rolling pin, they became the dry layer and made the cookie and cream bottom of the cake.

This is my first ice-cream cake and I can say that it was fun to make. The pulling out of the form was a bit tricky, but the result was worth it.  Sprinkled with bright green crushed pistachios. Yum.

I believe there was a comment that flew to me through the air and went something like, This is the best cake ever. I dont know about that, but it was pretty delicious, especially on a hot muggy day, in the midst of a dirty, messy house.

The cake didnt last long..

After some playing, running around, constant eating from baskets that were carried around like golden eggs, the day passed and the night took over. Not before we stuffed ourselves on pizza, made to order of the special little-big girl.

Hopefully next year we will be somewhere more exciting and far away from here for her birthday. Maybe getting authentic nachos from somewhere in the Americas….