Have Nerf guns....will party!

Thirteen officially turned 13 on Memorial Day but we celebrated today with some neighborhood and home school friends.  It has been an end-of-the-school-year-recital-laden couple of weeks and so a day at home hanging out with the boys (and Ten) has been a nice change of pace.  It's amazing the glee that a cache of Nerf guns and bags of those spongy, Nerf bullets can bring in the hands of pre-teen and newly teen boys!

I share a birthday with my twin AND with Christmas.  My birthday is December 26 and each year it is celebrated with extended family and Italian Cream Cake.  A dear friend of my parents brings a homemade Italian Cream Cake at the holidays each year and over time it has become the birthday cake my twin and I share.  This year, Thirteen wanted Italian Cream Cake for his birthday.   The sweet kid got the recipe from Mrs. Fabuloso-Cook (not her real name) who was thrilled with the inquiry.  Despite the recital-laden-end-of-the-year craziness I managed to get the thing made (while mourning for the previous years of Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker Ready To Spread frosting).  I must say, it was a bit of a philosophical experience.  Questions swirled in my head like, 'What would happen if I didn't cream the eggs and butter together before adding the flour?  What if I didn't alternate the two cups of flour with the one cup of buttermilk?  What would happen if I didn't separate the five eggs but just cracked them in together?  What would happen if I didn't beat the egg whites until they were stiff and then fold them in, but just added the egg whites?'  I didn't rebel too much on the rules though, and the cake did turn out to be pretty tasty.  A few modifications--I gave the flour sifter to Goodwill a long time ago so whisking the flour had to suffice and the 'maple flavoring' in the frosting recipe had to be found in the large puddle of Mrs. Butterworth's I dumped in.  (The frosting was a little runny--Oh well).   I think Mrs. Fabuloso-Cook will be thrilled to see her cake somewhat successfully created here and graced with Indiana Jones!