Teddy Bear's Birthday

In Teddy Bear years, Teddy is aging very, very well. He seems to have a birthday every week and sometimes twice a week. Big N will announce that today or tomorrow is Teddy's birthday and we need to have a party. Teddy is typically pretty happy with a Lego cake, but I thought Big N might like a real cupcake party.

I came across a fantastic vanilla cupcake recipe and had the bright idea that 9PM on a Tuesday evening was cupcake baking time. Especially since my alarm would go off at 4AM to head to Seattle the next morning. Yes, this was obviously very well thought out.

The cupcake texture was fantastic and the butter cream was very light. I did not have a vanilla bean on hand. To compensate, I increased the vanilla extract added to the batter to 2 teaspoons.



I asked Pete to host Teddy's birthday party since I was on the west side of the mountain. Big N was pretty excited. He did inform me that Teddy is more of a chocolate guy, kind of like him. Funny how that works. Little N made sure I was aware that she truly appreciated the vanilla. She would be very happy to have vanilla cupcakes at her birthday party.

Big N just informed me that Teddy will have ANOTHER birthday tomorrow.

The Grass is always Greener...

They say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but in some cases perhaps what they should say is you just need to invest in a good sprinkler and run through it a few times on a sunny day. In that case, you wouldn't have to look over the fence.


Our front yard

Puppies go swimming

The lake has gone to the dogs. Lucy is much more of a fan of jumping into the water than Max, but Max is not shy about stealing her toy once she does get close to the water's edge.