Birthday, Beanie-Baby Bash!

Tonight we celebrated Pamela's TWENTIETH birthday. Pamela requested Spike the Rhinoceros for Baby David and Early the Robin for Baby Alive. To make the celebration extra special, I put the thirty-seven Beanie Babies generously donated by the totally awesome grandmother of the Black Pearl Academy crew (apparently, these stuffed animals are landlubbers). I wrapped twenty-two presents: two for the babies and twenty for each birthday Pamela has had a birthday. To make it extra special, I wrote each calendar year in Roman numbers and included the two-letter abbreviation for the state in which we lived for that birthday year. Pamela LOVED it. We were curious to see if she would open the presents in order, which she did! What made the birthday extra special was her namesake Aunt Pam (whose husband is Randy).





Semi-Respectable GF/CF Cake

Birthday Girl

Daddy's Girl

Oma's Quilt for the Babies

The Gang

Fountain of Youth (No Kids, No Sun)

Southern Comfort

Happy Birthday, Pamela!

Yesterday, we celebrated Pamela's eighteenth birthday by taking the day off from school. Pamela has never done much in the kitchen, mainly because I have not encouraged her. Today, she helped me bake a cake, make the frosting, and decorate her birthday cake. She has never tried an electric mixer before and took to it like she was a natural in the kitchen. I tried to use many of the RDI habits we have been developing, and we had a great time!

I never have to plan "productive uncertainty" because calamities abound in my presence. While making the cake, a pan drying fell and crashed into the sink, and Pamela referenced me wonderfully. We both laughed and she asked if it was magic and I told her that it was gravity. Her brother, the cameraman, said the mixture looked like mud, and she laughed. I asked, “Mud?” She shook her head no. Then when I asked, “Is it batter?” She nodded like a champ. Then I had operator error on my part with setting the timer on the microwave! At one point in making the frosting, I wanted to indirectly hint to her that we needed sugar. I exclaimed, "It's bitter" and tasted the frosting. She thought I made a mistake, and then she tried it and make an awful face. She immediately went for the bag of powdered sugar!

To scaffold decorating the cake, I bought the Cake Mate Candy Decorations, which are gluten-free, casein-free. Her cake turned out beautiful, and it tasted delicious. My dad will usually say something if an ingredient is not just right. This gluten-free, casein-free cake was so good, he could not tell the difference. I will blog my recipes and scaffolded cake decorating ideas in another post.

Her cake turned out absolutely beautiful and much better than my first cake. I forgot the flour, so it boiled in the oven. My family called it the boi-oing cake! Perhaps, that early trauma in the kitchen has caused me to resist teaching Pamela to cook and bake.



We had a small family party and Pamela loved her presents and cake and ice cream. Even though she sat far from her cake, she blew out all eighteen candles in one shot! You would never guess that she could not blow out candles when she was four years old. She looks a bit overstimulated here and does not reference like she has been because of the intense joy she is feeling. You can see her smile very sweetly at the end of the clip.

Pamela loved her gifts so much that, after opening the last one, she had to make a victory lap through the house. She sprints to release excitement (hint: never tell Pamela great news in a parking lot).