Birthday Party Fun

I am plumb wore out.  Beginning on Thursday and ending at 2:00pm on Saturday, I was on a 3 day cleaning and cooking bonanza that culminated with Deladis having the best birthday party she has ever had. 🙂

Thursday and much of Friday was spent cleaning every room of the house.  Cleaning puts me in the most horrible mood.  I love the results of my efforts, but the process makes me an angst filled wreck.  I so wish I could enjoy cleaning.  I know people who clean to relax, but I just can’t seem to find the joy in it until after it is over.  During this time, I was preparing the menu as well.  Cooking is something I thoroughly love.

Deladis’s Traditional/Whole Foods B-day Menu:

• Salad (from our garden with vinegar and oil)
• whole-wheat pizza (completely homemade)
• sesame buffalo wings w/ dipping sauce
• french fries (also from our garden)
• popcorn
• honey-molasses cookies
• fresh squeezed lemonade
• carrot cake with cream cheese icing

This took days of planning and preparing.  All the grains were soaked.  The meat marinated, and the veggies cut.  My hands are sore from squeezing so many lemons and oranges for the lemonade and the lacto-fermented punch I’m making for later in the week.

I decorated the cake with wildflowers from around the cabin.  Deladis picked out the number 4 candle on our shopping trip Thursday.  I was pleased with the way it turned out.

Saturday morning John took Deladis and my nephew to breakfast in town, which gave me a few hours to finish things up.  Deladis was so excited and could hardly wait for people to come to her house.  It means a great deal to her to have people come to her house to see her instead of her venturing out.  With everything the way I wanted it, our guests started arriving before I had the chance to shower or even brush my hair. 🙂

Both mine and John’s grandmothers were visiting our house for the first time.  We had a packed house and it was a little warm because the oven had been going all day.  Despite the temperature everyone ate.  It was a hit!  I got many compliments on the food, which made me feel wonderful – especially when folks who have been cooking much longer than I have say my food is good.  John’s grandmother said, “I’ve never ate with you before, it’s good.”  Which means… I’ve never ate your cooking before, it’s good. 🙂

We ate and let the children play both outside and in Deladis’s room.  They had a big time.  Then, it was time for Deladis to see her cake and blow out the candle.

Deladis loved the flowers on her cake.  As soon as we started singing, her thumb went in her mouth and she smiled the little shy smile that she gives when she is super excited.  She blew out the candle in one puff, and we ate again.

It made my heart warm to see her so happy.  Everything was the way she had hoped it would be, and I was abundantly happy for her.

Then, she opened her presents, which were few and simple.  Everyone put much thought in the gifts and they were all things that will be appreciated by her for a long time.  I enjoyed watching her open her super heroes and sweet little lamb so much.  They were even more beautiful than they had looked online.

It absolutely was a perfect day.  I’m so glad for her.  Now, when the real day of her birth comes up this week, we can celebrate again, just the four of us.  The lacto-fermented raspberry punch will be ready then.  She also got some money from her great-Granny that we might use to take her to see a movie on the silver screen.

It’s going to take us a few days to recover.  I don’t want to pick up or do anything of the sort for at least a day.  I believe we’ll try to do some fall planting instead.  All the rain we’ve had has put us behind.