March Birthdays Celebration

I have many friends who also share the same month of their birth. Ironically, many of my friends children actually share the same birthday in my church (three: a now 7-year-old girl, 5-year-old girl, and a 4-year-old boy).

I wanted to do something fun to celebrate all of our birthdays. So I threw us a birthday party. We had a variety of cakes, one of which my friend made that was gluten- and sugar-free. One of the Birthday Girls can't eat gluten, and another friend was on a sugar-free diet. It was rather decent tasting- different in texture, but still palatable, even yummy! I made the heavy-loaded cakes: a White cake made with buttermilk that is lightly dense with lots of soft flavor and texture and Fiddler on the Roof cake with almond flavor in a chocolate-yellow cake marble. The frosting was butter cream (made with real butter, not shortening) flavored with a little bit of almond extract. Both cakes were covered with fondant, but the double tiered cake also had decorative butter cream (this time made with shortening).

We visited with friends, discussing many different topics. We had some ladies there as young as early twenties on through ladies that are my mother's age.

Our gift exchange was a little varied: everybody brought a gift that cost $1 (before tax). We then let each person select a gift and unwrap it. The next person could take that gift or open a new one. The hot ticket items were some window gel sticker cards and a kitchen towel. Other gifts included candy, jewelry (hand-made of jade beads! I almost stole that one), books, and stamps. It's amazing what you can do with only $1.

I made a "Date in a Box". I got a DVD at the dollar store that was only $0.25, then added two juice boxes (4/$1) and a package of microwave popcorn (4 in a box for $1). I also had a few extra gifts (in case somebody forgot) and one was some body spray.

It was a great evening, and I'm so glad that I was surrounded by friends, and was able to celebrate our birthdays, our sisterhood, and friendship.

Thank you, ladies!!!