Tom's Birthday (slightly out of order)

I forgot a really cute thing that Emmy did on Tom's birthday.

Let me start by explaining my (and Tom's) philosophy about birthdays.  We don't really care about surprise parties (well, one of us doesn't... ahem, Tom), what we care about is cake.  Birthdays are the only time that no one makes you feel guilty about cake.  I've always loved cake, especially the frosting part.

When I graduated from high school, mom and I bought cakes from every grocery store bakery to decide which (frosting) tasted the best.  I believe, at that point, Walmart won.  That's because we didn't have a Publix in 2001. 

So, anyway, for Tom's birthday, he requested a cheesecake, which Susan made for us. (Using her recipe, instead of mine, which makes the cake much taller than the one my mom taught me to make-- New York style, I think?)

And I made a gluten free cake (my favorite S'more cake), mostly so that I would have cake to eat.  And, on top of that, I ordered a cake from Publix-- Tom's favorite, vanilla cake, raspberry filling, and buttercream icing.

So, on the night of Tom's birthday, we took him out to eat, which was a disaster.  We tried several restaurants, which each had almost an hour long wait, and ended up at Tom's LEAST favorite restaurant (Cracker Barrel), which had NO wait.  (Apparently, it's everyone's least favorite).

But, this was all okay,  because waiting for us at home, we had THREE cakes to eat.  So, when we got home I set them all out on the kitchen table, one candle in each (one for each decade) and sang Happy Birthday.

While Emmy waited for someone to cut the cake, she pointed at the Publix cake and said, "That's Emmy's."  Then she pointed at the gluten free cake, and said, "That's mommy's."  Last, she pointed at the cheesecake, and said, "That's Daddy's."

We all stopped and goggled at her for a moment.  Then I asked her if Grandma could have a cake.  Sadly, since there were only three, Grandma was left cakeless.  But Emmy was willing to let her have a slice of any of the cakes she wanted.  She pointed out which cake belonged to whom a few more times, then proceeded with eating her slice (she requested the publix cake).