Happy Birthday Mom!

The cake didn't turn out half bad. Of course, that could be because my daughter ended up making most of it. I am really proud of her.

Here it is:

I was thinking today about how nice it was that my daughter and I were making a cake for my Mom's birthday. I wondered how long it would be that my daughter would want to make cakes with me. She is a teenager but still seems pretty okay with hanging out with me. She has no choice on the schooling part but the rest of the time that she has a choice still seems as though she is happy to be there.

I was thinking about the birthday cakes my Mom used to make for me. As kids, we all had our favorite. Mine was a pink cake with pink icing. Every year for as long as I could remember I would request a pink cake with pink icing. All of my presents were wrapped in pink wrapping paper. Luckily it was a nice pastel pink and didn't look like someone vomited Pepto Bismol all over my birthday. I am not sure how my Mom managed each year facing the pink cake with pink icing. It wasn't strawberry - I just wanted a cake dyed pink. In later years, as I became a teenager and an adult, I would on occasion get a pink cake with pink icing as a humorous nod to my younger fascination with the color pink.

My daughter started out all in pink as it is one of my favorite colors. She is now the anti-pink and prefers blue. I guess I should be thankful she has never asked me to dye a cake blue. I am not sure I could handle that.

Today is National Yo-Yo Day! It is in honor of the birthday of Donald Duncan Sr. The worlds largest yo-yo weighed in at a whopping 256 pounds. Even as a kid, I couldn't get a yo-yo to work well for me but I do remember swinging it around like a lasso. I guess I am lucky I survived to have another pink cake with pink icing.

Today is also National Gardening Exercise Day - get out there and excercise with your plants! No, you don't have to weight lift bags of manure. It is just a day to celebrate the benefits of gardening.

Our Girl Scout troop started a community garden a couple of months ago. As I started it I was hoping for a few things to grow so I felt like my effort was worth it. In the 2 months since we planted the garden, I felt like it has exploded. As being new to gardening, no one told me to only plant one zuchinni plant. I planted two. I have more zuchinni then I can use. Some has gone to the girls in the troop and some will now go to the local food bank. We also have cucumbers and beets. The tomatoes are now coming in and the strawberries are taking over the garden. My daughter wanted a pumpkin plant. I did not believe that you needed 8 feet. I was wrong. Overall, I couldn't be more pleased with the garden. Some days though I feel that at any time, an Audrey II will come forth.

The garden about 2 weeks after we started it. Check out the zuchinni, cucumbers and tomatoes to the right in the foreground.

 Same plants exactly 31 days later:

The pumpkin that is taking over the garden about 2 weeks after being planted:

And the strawberries and peas in the garden. The peas were grown from seeds and I was not aware that I planted them to late in the season. The packet said May and I have now been informed that May is for back East. So we shall see what happens to them. They are now taller then the trellis and all over the place.

Make sure you spend today baking something with a loved one, learning a new trick with a yo-yo or doing some exercise with your plants. It will make you smile.