Nadine's Birthday

My actual birthday was quiet, if cold, but also beautiful. I also gave myself a birthday party with lots of friends from church, neighborhood, and moms from Nica's preschool.

Moonset through the trees in our backyard. Yep, it is still winter in March.

Nica was excited that it was almost warm enough to be outside for a bit. She was jumping on the back deck.

I am trying to take at least one good picture of me on my birthday every year.

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 Sadly, I didn't get a picture of all my friends who were able to come to my birthday party. I had 18 ladies here. My favorite part was having good people around me. But I also loved the $1 gift swap: each lady brought a gift they only spent $1 on (wrapped up) and we had a select from the pile or steal one opened. It was a lot of fun! And, of course, I also loved the cakes. I made three kinds: gluten-free chocolate tort with raspberry sauce, a chocolate-chocolate-chocolate cake (chocolate chips in chocolate cake with chocolate frosting; "Darn Good Chocolate Cake" recipe in the Cake Mix Doctor book), and a silver white cake (made from scratch with buttermilk). I had fun using my cake-decorating skills.

The three cakes I made. And the flowers Travis found me for my birthday; my favorite gift on my birthday is always the little daffodils- they give me hope that Spring really is coming!

It was a great birthday (on my birthday- I had SUSHI!!) and a great birthday party.