Charlie's Pre-Birthday Party

Someone very important to Charlie is going to be out of town on Charlie's birthday next week, so we did a little pre-celebrating. We think it didn't confuse Charlie too much. We went to Friday's for a birthday dinner, and for the first time in history, Charlie DIDN'T choose the chicken strips from the kids menu. He chose . . .

Pizza! And you can see the sauce on his face. Johnny had to be like brother, so he got pizza, too. Surprised and pleased mom that night because they both actually ate the pizza. We had fun.

Charlie has been asking for a strawberry cake ever since the topic of his upcoming birthday came up months ago. If it was THAT important to him, I figured I'd better find a way to pull it off. So I did.

I know this isn't saying much, but it's the most beautiful cake I've ever made. It has mashed up strawberries between the layers--you can kind of see them under the frosting. Guess who didn't eat any of it? But Jeremy and I liked it. I still have some if you want to swing by for a nice chilled slice.

I don't typically do posts like this, and maybe I should more often. I love my family. Too often I get into the "me against them" mentality with my kids--so my goal this week is to just have as much fun as I can cram in. Try to give them a break from grumpy mean mom (who me?) and also distract us all from the fact that Daddy is gone for the week.