happy (belated) 13th birthday

Yes, its a bit late... a day late, actually. But since we finished our grand vacation on Punk's birthday, I had to celebrate with a cake tonight. And its not ALL bad considering that he has spent three of his last four birthdays on a grand vacation. I think that its becoming a bit of a trend for us. 

celebrating becoming a teenager

We arrived back home from Kentucky at about 2am. Late enough to send the kids to bed and not worry too much about unpacking/cleaning/organizing. I see many, many, many days of all those in my immediate future. Hubby got a bonus day off so we used today wisely on grocery shopping, meal planning, SLEEPING....

Punk got to select his favorite dinner for his birthday, a tradition that I adore. He picked quiche... something that I have not attempted since Pork's birth. I will say though, I am really glad that he suggested it. I found out that I could make a passable dairy-free quiche. I am not a huge fan of the veggie cheese in it but eh, I can learn to deal. The rest of the family loved every last piece of all three "pies".

As for the cake.... Punk picked chocolate on chocolate. Boring! So I had the grand idea to spice it up a bit and create my own chocolate cherry cake. I made a chocolate cake, a cherry/almond frosting and then added maraschino cherries all over it. It turned out heavenly! My only fault was that I should have waited longer to frost the cake because by the time that the candles were blown out, the poor cake was melting everywhere!

Tonight was too short of notice for the family to attend but we plan on hosting a party for Punk as soon as my sister comes back from her honeymoon and things settle back down for us all. After ten days of vacation, I think that we are all ready for a little routine in our lives again.