Birthday Cuties, patio gazes and pigtails galore

Armando turned 42 this week. And Anika and I baked a chocolate cake together. From scratch. With home made buttercream frosting.

And it was actually edible.

Miracles do happen, people!

Here are my loves, blowing out the candles (Anika wanted to poke the whole cake through with an entire box of candles, but we stopped at four-plus-two, which she very proudly counted and then pushed into the cake, leaving me to fish them out and place them, wobbling, at the top of the huge holes she created in the cake. She sure was proud). Usually, at other people's birthday parties, we are NOT allowed to help blow out the candles. This is a discussion we have to have before every birthday party that we attend.

This time, however, was an exception - one she was all-too-pleased about. Reni wanted in on the action, but he a) just wanted to touch the candles, because he likes to do all things that hold a potential ER visit; and b) isn't nearly as excited as his sister is about the prospect of chocolate cake.

And, randomly, here are some other shots that were on my camera - I think from January - of the kids looking out the patio doors.

And, lastly, Anika has suddenly become enamored of pigtails. Watching Strawberry Shortcake videos on Netflix the other day, she wanted to have her hair like one of the characters on the show. Then, this ridiculously cute hairdo happened:

Remember when she was bald? Me neither.