Happy Birthday, Eric!

I've organized a birthday party for Eric every year since 2008, and last night was the 5th annual get-together. For the happy occasion, I made a really fun cake*. I need to work on my cake writing skills. Writing with frosting is HARD. But even with the messy handwriting, it came out really well! Everybody seemed to like it, and when I cut it everybody said "WOW," so I must have done something right!

our friend's birthday is next weekend, so i included her name on the cake, too!

surprise! rainbow cake!

here are some action shots of making the cake

Everybody brought appetizers and drinks, and we served lasagna and salad (and cake + ice cream). I'm still stuffed. After we ate, we all played a fun game that our friend brought. We laughed until we couldn't breathe, and had so much fun. We have great friends, so getting everybody together in one place is the best. 

Many thanks to our guests for making it a night to remember. And a very, very happy birthday (tomorrow) to Eric!

*If you want to make one of these cakes, here are the directions I used as a reference. I didn't follow the Weight Watcher's diet guidelines at all - I just followed the directions on the box of cake mix. Since I'm not a baker and making a cake is scary, I decided a box mix was safest (Betty knows what she's doing), but you can definitely do this with any white cake recipe if you're a confident baker. And you're not afraid of a lot of food coloring gel. 

Snow, Finally!

I was so happy to wake up this morning to some REAL snow. It's flurried a little this winter, but nothing that really stuck around. After work today, there was still snow on the ground. YAY!

I'm a winter girl, through and through. The blanket of white make me so happy. It's just so beautiful and quiet somehow.

Paperwhites

Eric's mom gave us paperwhite bulbs. I finally got around to taking them out of the bag last week, and they're thriving in our freezing cold dining room. I put four of them in some gravel, but the last one wouldn't fit in that little terrarium so I just thought I'd see if treating it like an avocado would work. Yep. It sure did! Look at those hearty roots!

I love watching things grow. Isn't it amazing.

Shirley Temple

I'm enjoying a shirley temple while I get some work done tonight.

I suggest you make your own (or have your husband make one for you):

• ginger ale
• a dash of grenadine
• as many maraschino cherries as you want

Enjoy!

Honeymoon

We went on our honeymoon in December, and we took a lot of photos. Here are the highlights!



What's the best vacation you've been on?

Saturday Silver Dollar Pancakes

For Christmas, Eric's brother and his girlfriend, Sarah, sent us a beautiful assortment of homemade treats. There was a ton of stuff: rosemary spiced nuts, cranberry orange bread, steak rub, granola, caramel popcorn, and flapjack mix. There may have been more, but we already ate it so I can't remember! Why didn't we take a picture of the whole package?

This morning, we finally gave the flapjack mix a try. Eric made silver dollar pancakes, and it was the perfect way to start our weekend.

Many thanks to Drew and Sarah for the thoughtful and super yummy gifts.

Roses On A Thursday

Eric brought these home for me today.



He just wanted to let me know that he's proud of all that I've been doing. Yep, he's a keeper. xo

P.S. So 2011 happened. Hello 2012!

Cupcake Stickers

This week, I mailed a few birthday surprises. Lately, I've been terrible about birthdays (as in failing to get gifts for the people I love), but this reminded me how awesome they are. It's fun to choose a prize and it's also exciting to find that a gift is well-received.

I included teeny notes with the presents, and I stuck these super cool cupcake stickers to the envelopes. They really looked pretty wonderful, if I do say so myself.

{another cell phone photo}

Autumn 2011

Autumn is here, for real. Halloween has come and gone (yay candy!), and now it's dark when I leave work in the evening. Thank goodness for my new key chain flashlight, since I can't see our doorknob without it!



Today was quite lovely, but we've have several cold days and a whole lotta rain. Even some snow here in Belmont (much more to the west).

How's autumn treating you?

{cell phone photo; 27 October 2011}

Two Weeks Ago

Two weeks ago, we attended Eric's 10 year high school reunion. It was a beautiful weekend, and we picked pumpkins with a few of his former classmates and went for a hike on a trail near our apartment.

road to the pumpkin patch

pumpkin parch at westward orchard in harvard, ma

autumn mushrooms in belmont, ma

dried fall flowers

Lovely, lovely fall.