And before we took this one, some fun stuff happened. Zack had his birthday! His first birthday as a married man. We had everyone over to the house for cajun curry chicken and birthday cake. Zack asked for a white cake with burnt almond frosting, which is a family specialty. I've never heard of anyone but us eating it. Not everyone likes it. I've had grown friends of mine scrape it off their tongues ala Tom Hanks in Big. We're never offended; the fewer people who like it just means more for those of us who do!
I think the burnt almond frosting was invented by my Mom's mom, who was a single mom trying to raise a houseful of kids after her deadbeat husband abandoned them all. I can just see Nana, toasting some almonds and getting distracted by Pat and Bruce, probably fighting, or Mickey coming in to tell her some long, entertaining story...and the almonds got burnt black. Well, those almonds were hard to come by and they weren't free, so Nana wasn't about to not use them. So she threw them into the frosting for the cake and invented my Mom's favorite dessert ever. I can hear Nana telling her kids "this is the fanciest, most delicious dessert you'll ever eat!" and they believed her. Because she was right.
I also had a tub of chocolate cookie dough in the fridge because I didn't think the little kids would like the cake. Burnt almond frosting is an acquired taste. Megan, Xena and Babalouie had previous plans so they couldn't come in for the party but Ty brought Kitten and Katie brought BoopityBoop so we had a full house. Zack, Sara, Josie and her beau, Ty, Katie and their kids made for a crowded table. Grandma Punkin joined us too. We squeezed everyone in around the dining room table and put the three little girls at the kitchen table, two feet away. It was loud and festive.
BoopityBoop had arrived early in the afternoon and actually helped me burn the almonds and frost the cake. They are very good helpers in the kitchen and were fascinated by the blackened almonds. They helped me grind them up and mix them into the frosting. Naturally they both needed a taste. They're very adventurous when it comes to food. After dinner, I asked them if they'd prefer cookies to the cake.
They both got very conspiratorial and told me that what they'd really like, if I had the fixin's, were root beer floats.
"Yes!" Kitten agreed loudly. "root beer float! root beer float!"
So I went to check the back fridge and sure enough! I had one can of rootbeer left from summer time and just enough ice cream for the three little girls. The all continued chanting "root beer float! root beer float!" as I got three cups down, placed them on the tale and scooped ice cream into each. The chanting got more excited as I popped the top on the root beer.
"Root Beer Float! Root Beer Float!"
I poured the root beer over the ice cream and BoopityBoop dug in with their spoons. Kitten peered into her cup, which was now filled with root beer and screamed "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY ICE CREAM??!"
Clearly she did not get the concept of a root beer float and she wasn't having my lame ass explanation. Her dudgeon did not lower until I poured the root beer from her cup into those of her cousin's so she could see the ice cream she'd been so excited about.
BoopitBoop didn't mind. They were more than happy to drink Kitten's root beer.
Happiness reigned.
Until BoopitBoop said they'd love a small piece of cake, too, if I didn't mind scraping off the frosting. It seems they had decided against the burnt almonds. I did not mind. I cut three small pieces of cake, scraped off the frosting and handed one to each of the little girls. BoopityBoop happily took their white cake and began eating. Kitten stared, appalled, at her denuded chunk of cake. Then she picked it up in her angry little fist and shook it at me, crying "NO, NO, NO!!!"
She could not believe I'd given her a piece of cake with no frosting. The angry shouting continued until I'd put all the frosting back on her piece of cake. Which she ate, with steam coming out of her ears.
Everyone else had a terrific time at Zack's birthday party. Kitten eventually forgave me for trying to destroy her ice cream and her cake.
Dessert is not the only thing about which Kitten has very strong opinions.
A week later, Ty and Megan had several of their friends over with their kids to ride horses. Megan had brought home her brother's pony; Gus. Gus is a sweet little thing and Kitten immediately declared him to be hers. Xena and Babalouie don't mind, they have Sadie, Wally, Pancho and Lefty. The older kids helped Megan get the horses all saddled up and then Babalouie hopped on Gus, just to ride him from the barn to the pasture so the kids could begin.
"NO!" Kitten yelled. "I want to ride Gus; Gus is MY PONY."
"You can ride," Babalouie told her "Come on, we can double up." He scooted back in his saddle, showing her that she could ride over to the pasture with him.
"NO! You get OFF!" she ordered her older brother. He just shrugged and rode Gus over to the pasture gate.
Well, no one was going to let a two year old just ride off on a pony by herself. No matter how loud she yells. This makes Kitten sound like a brat but she's not. Not at all. She's just a third child, who knows enough to speak up for what she wants. Eventually, she got her turn on Gus and she had a blast. We all did.
BoopityBoop had been invited out to ride that day but they couldn't make it. They both really like riding. Boopity just loves hanging out with all the cousins but Boop is in love with the horses, especially Sadie. I'm sure they'd both like Gus! Kitten rode Gus (on a lead line with me and Babalouie) around the pasture twice, then wanted to ride a larger horse. That kid is never satisfied.
A few days later, I got to hang out with BoopityBoop at their house. We watched some Halloween movies together. It's very hard to scare those two. We had a lot of fun.
The second road trip in a month was a surprise. Since last May, Josie, Katie and Megan have been training for a half marathon. The Bemidji Blue Ox run featured a full and half marathon as well as a 26K run around Lake Bemidji. The girls have been training like mad for five months. In the end, Megan bailed, as she had an opportunity to go to the Bahamas this weekend. I don't know...if I'd been training that long and hard....Of course I'd go to the Bahamas!! You'd have to be a lunatic not to go. She's going to run in another half marathon in a couple of weeks; she just bailed on the Blue Ox.
But Katie and Josie were primed and ready. Josie's beau, Nick, drove them up to Bemidji (a lovely little college town in Northern Minnesota the night before. His job was to drive ahead of them on the course to make sure they had water, protein bars or whatever they needed.
It just so happens that the Lovely Mr. Curry has a cabin on the shores of beautiful lake Bemidji that he wasn't going to be using this weekend, so Jay and I drove up and surprised the girls. They had no idea that we were coming. We made posters and our plan was to surprise them somewhere on the course. It couldn't have worked out better! Turns out, the half marathon start was literally at the end of the street on which the cabin is located. The race started at 8:00 a.m. Jay and I had chairs and posters in the back of the car and our first stop was at the one mile mark. We kept our eyes peeled for a tall blond and tiny brunette. Josie and Katie spotted us at the same moment we spotted them. We waved our posters and cheered like crazy people. They laughed, pumped their arms and didn't break stride. As soon as we could, we tossed our stuff back in the car and took off along the course. We stopped at three or four different points along the course, which wound all the way around the lake. Each time, we got there about five minutes before the girls ran by. At one point in the morning, Jay and I took an hour off to go eat some breakfast.
We found a delightful little cafe that brews their own coffee and gives it away to first responders. Their breakfast is fabulous, too! After stuffing ourselves with avacado toast and a bacon and egg sandwich (on an everything bagel) Jay and I waddled over to the race course again. Before we could even get our chairs out of the car, I spotted our girls coming down the lane. We waved our posters and screamed some more. Katie and Josie ran like automatons; they hadn't slowed at all since they started.
After that, we hurried to the finish so we could see them cross the line. It was all very exciting! There was a big arch for them to run beneath, a clock showing the time and an anouncer who called out the names and towns of the runners as they finished ("Josie Pivec, of Minneapolis!)
The girls ran nearly the entire race side by side but during the last mile, Katie's legs no longer wanted to cooperate. I'm just impressed that she kept pace with her much taller sister that long! Josie tried to stay with Katie but the slower pace hurt more than speeding up, so she sped up. She finished about 2 minutes ahead of Kate. They had set the goal of finishing in 3 hours and they both crushed that time.
After the race, they showered up and we all went out for lunch together before packing up and heading home.
It's been a fun three weeks.