Joanie's Family Journal: Kylee's Birthday (and mine too)

I would really like to get caught up! Not only for my peace of mind, but because there are things happening now that I would like to talk about. Let’s get moving.

Kylee turned 9!

Kylee’s birthday last year was big and I knew I didn’t want to do another big party. I thought it would be fun to take her and a couple friends out to dinner just us. She also wanted a sleepover, but I told her that her friends would probably not be able to sleep over. She had planned on inviting her two friends from school Sydni and Kayla, but there’s been a lot of drama and hurt feelings between them this last couple of months and I suggested she invite Lexi instead. She loves Lexi. They get along really well. They hang out at gym and in the car on the way to gym. Kylee asks to play with Lexi pretty much every free minute she has. So we invited Lexi and asked if she could spend the night here. Luckily her mom allowed it and the girls were thrilled.

My mom was able to make a trip out for Kylee’s birthday. Technically it was for all of our birthdays, but Kylee thinks it’s pretty special when she is there for Kylee’s birthday.

So we invited Grandma to dinner with us too.

I like to make cakes for the kids, though this last year I didn’t do as well being pregnant. And I’m not thrilled about doing bright colored cakes anymore with all the dyes. So I asked Kylee if she would want something different for her cake and I showed her a couple things on Pinterest and she wanted this double layer peanut butter chocolate one.

I spent the day making the cake. It was really yummy! I followed the recipe so it was all from scratch. It’s a dark chocolate cake with a rich chocolate frosting in between the layers and piped around the edges on top (that frosting was a bit rich for my taste, but there wasn’t much of it.) And then it’s covered with peanut butter frosting that was delicious. And of course it’s topped with a bunch of peanut butter cups. I thought it turned out well!

Let’s just say that NONE of my kids could finish their pieces. It was really rich. I even got some ice cream to mellow it out. It was really hard to cut a small piece, though so that might be why they didn’t finish. It was just too much. I think I will use this cake recipe and PB frosting to make cupcakes sometime. It was really good!

Anyway, my mom and I picked up the girls from gymnastics and headed to Johnny Carino’s. I convinced the girls to get the Spicy Chicken and Shrimp dish instead of a lame dish off the kids menu. They shared it and they loved it. It was really spicy that night so it’s a good thing Lexi is as tough as Kylee! They had fun and were really cute.

We had thought about trying to go see Cinderella, but we decided to come home and do presents and cake instead. Kylee had already gotten one of her presents. She asked for a motor scooter and was hoping to ride it to school on her bday. I had tried to down-play it and act like she wasn’t going to get it so it would be more of a surprise instead of an expectation. I think she was a little surprised that it was all charged and ready for her that morning. She was happy!

Here’s the thing about surprises and why I don’t like them. Everything leading up to the surprise is mean! It’s your birthday and you want to be treated special, but instead you feel like people are just leaving you out or being mean. That’s especially true for a surprise party, but even for this little surprise. She asked if she could open one present before school. I had to say no, because she was getting her big present before school. She asked if she could ride her rollerblades to school with Lexi. I had to say no and when she asked why I didn’t have any good reason for her. It just seemed like I was being mean. Seriously, I don’t know if surprises are worth it.

So she had a few more presents to open at home, but not too many. My mom took her shopping to find something, and she got money from Grandpa Goodsell to spend later. And she didn’t get her present from Ryan’s parents then because they were coming home from AZ a week later and giving her the present then.

These girls are so cute together.

Cake time.

Then they went downstairs to hang out and eventually fell asleep around 11 or so.

In the morning I had planned on making brownie waffles, but we were all so chocolated out! I made crepes instead- Kylee’s favorite! That was a pleasant surprise for her. Some surprises work out!

Then the girls hung out for a couple hours before we sent Lexi home and got ready to go to the movie with the girls (and Kaden). Grandma stayed in town just long enough to see the movie with us, which was fun.

We love having Grandma in town and always miss her as soon as she leaves.

My mom and I had sushi one afternoon to celebrate our birthdays while she was here. Then we had Ryan’s family over on my birthday to celebrate Kylee’s birthday since that’s when his parents got into town. I made a different cake since his brother can’t be around peanut butter. Plus, I was waiting for a special occasion to make this cake. It turned out well!

But it was also very rich. Especially the crust. I want to make it again but leave the crust off and put the mousse in individual bowls. Mmm.

Ryan let me have the Saturday before my birthday to myself as a present. It was wonderful! I went on a bike ride that was really nice. I planted the first section of my garden. And Ryan and I went out for sushi (again? I know, right. I just love it.)

Kaden came to dinner too. He even tried to drink my water and knocked the whole thing over. Stinker.

I also got T25 in the mail just before my birthday.

My mom has been doing it for awhile and I did a workout with her while she was here and decided it would be good strength training for me and also something I can do at home while Kaden sleeps. I hadn’t really thought it through as far as starting a whole 10-15 week program, but decided to just jump right in. I have REALLY liked it! As much as I resist Beachbody products because I despise the Multi-Level-Marketing, it really is a great product. And I’m sure most of their products are, but it’s just more and more ways to make you spend money. But T25 is great because it is only 25 minutes which means I have time to run a few miles or bike along with the videos. Or on days when I don’t have the opportunity (or the energy) to bike or run, I still get a workout in. And they are pretty good workouts too! That first week I did it I was starving, which means I was burning a lot. And I was SO SORE. But enough about that.

I had a great birthday weekend. I even got a few pictures with my kids.