9 Wonderful Things...

About my son, who turns 9 today.

You were this little gentleman, and then I blinked.

Daniel,

1. You are generous. You go to school with handfuls of toys and come home with a smile, saying that you gave them all away to your friends.

2. You are gentle. Babies love you, because despite all your antics and prat falls, they feel safe in your arms.

3. You are funny. You crack me up, even when I'm in a fuming, irritated, Monday-morning mood. Telling jokes was one of the first things you learned to do in English.

4. You are linguistically gifted.  From the very beginning of our family, at 5 years old, you strove to learn how to communicate. You used every tool you had, gestures, Amharic and English words, little phrases, and you made sure you communicated. You constantly asked "what's this? what's that?" and you still do. I rarely have to tell you a new word twice.  Makes sense, as you share this birthday with Shakespeare, also a master of language.

5. You are a great big brother. Your sister is always under your protection, whether she likes it or not. She is the first person you look for and the first person you want to be with. She is your little shadow, and boy, is she lucky to have you!

6. You are strong. You were a tough little 5 year old boy, and now you are a larger than life, growing out-of-everything 9 year old. Very soon, you'll be taller than I am.

7. You love to eat! You are willing to try almost anything. You love salsa, spice and flavor. You love to make your own snacks and eat with gusto.

8.  You are resilient. You've had some tough days, and some challenges even adults haven't faced, but you still laugh, love life and love your family.

9. You are loved. By so many people. And you love others. You are a true friend, will be a stalwart partner to some lucky person (and there are a few girls in your 3rd grade class who've been scribbling your name in their notebooks...), and are a wonderful, amazing son.

Happy Birthday Daniel.

5 Awesome Things About My Daughter on the Day She Turns 5.

You were this tiny. And then, I blinked. 

Lily. You are awesome.

We are in awe of you.

You are turning 5 years old today, which makes my eyes fill with tears and my heart fill with Love. I'm going to be giving you lots of extra hugs and kisses today. One for me, and all the others for your Ethiopia family who cannot reach you right now. 

Five Things That Are Awesome About Lily.

1. Your love of life. You have this amazing, strong spirit that brings so much energy and joy to everyone around you. When you smile and laugh and sing and spin around in joy, everyone who can see you lights up. I hope you always bring this much joy into every room you enter.

2. You are so smart! Your little brain works so quickly! You are constantly noticing things and making connections. You love reading and learning and figuring things out... which often gets you into a bit of trouble, but this curiousity and love of learning will take you far.

3. You are fierce! You have a strong will and a stubborn determination which is amazing to behold. When you really want to do something, you don't believe anything (anyone) should stand in your way! You are ready to take the world by storm! 

4. You are a star! You love to entertain. You were born for the stage, and you know it! You love an audience, a spotlight, a place to show off your God-given talents. It is amazing to watch how you joyfully belt out the songs you know, and how you expect nothing but applause for your efforts.

5. You are strong. Life has given you many physical challenges so far: hunger, illness, deprivation, hearing loss... and you have battled them all and won. You are freakishly strong for a small child; you can pick up kids your own age! You run faster, climb higher, and ride anything on wheels better than most 5 year olds I know. You are fearless!


Happy Birthday, darling girl.

I made an "Elsa" cake, and so can you!

Remember last year, when Lily turned 4 and I made this cake?

Apparently this is thing now in our family. 'Cause guess what Lily wanted for her 5th birthday cake? 

An Elsa cake, of course.

So, even though I had kind of sworn off the whole "doll in the cake thing". I did it. Cause I love her and she's turning 5 which is turning me into a sappy hot mess.

Thankfully, the cake didn't turn out a hot mess!

So... here we go! Your handy-dandy easy-peasy "doll in the cake dress" How To!

Step One: Make a double recipe of a cake. Any kind. Since this was an "Elsa" cake, we went with blue velvet, which is basically red velvet with blue food coloring. In the photos this cake looks chocolate, but really, it's blue. Ish. I used Martha Stewart's red velvet recipe, because of course I did.

I baked 1/4 of the batter in a round bowl, which didn't come out all that good. I think I have the wrong kind of bowl. Anyway, I ended up with 2 rounds and a small bowl-like shape (1/4 of the cake batter went to make cupcakes for another event.)

Step Two: Cut the layers of cake in half. I froze the cake after making it, which makes it much easier to slice. 

Step Three: Start layering the cake with icing. Cut a small round hole in each layer. Don't worry about the icing reaching the edge of the cake layer after the first one. It will be trimmed off later.

Step Four: Put your bowl-shape piece on top. Try not to fret too much about how crispy it is on the outside and gooey on the inside. Our doll is really tall, and wearing high heels (which I crazy glued to her feet because I am so sick of looking for doll shoes.) So I ended up adding a few stray pieces to the very top of the cake so the doll's bum would be covered up.

Step Five: Carefully trim around the cake sides so you have a "dress" shape. Then ice with your first layer of icing, helpfully called the "crumb layer".  I used simple butter cream (butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, a splash of milk.) Cream cheese icing works really well too. By the end I used three sticks of butter and about 1 1/2 lbs of powered sugar to make enough icing. 

Step Six: Stick the doll in! Position her like she's singing "Let It Go." This is very important, obviously.

Step Seven: Apply the final layer of icing, hopefully crumb free.

Step Eight: Decorate with sprinkles, cut out snowflakes, etc. A professional would have used marzipan snowflakes and had a tiny Olaf, but we're not professionals, are we?

Step Nine: Very carefully wrap your cake in plastic wrap and hide it in the fridge. Or lock the fridge, or whatever you need to do to keep your birthday girl from seeing the cake, or from anyone from ruining your hard work.

Step Ten: Log on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc to brag about how you made an Elsa cake. This step is the most important, obviously.

Happy Baking!