Party, Party, Party

This past weekend was the weekend for parties!  First, I spent an entire 24 HOURS (that's overnight people) away from my kids.  I'm only willing to make that kind of sacrifice for a few people, and Sarah, my cousin, is one of those people.  So, off I went to Chicago to help her celebrate for her Bachelorette party.  It was tons of fun and a nice way to ease into spending time away from my babies.  Especially since I just bought tickets to spend FIVE days away from them at the end of July. 

Before I left, I whipped up a yummy cake for Grace's next 1st birthday party with Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Pam.  They drove in to babysit the kiddos while I was away and Bret was at work.  I think both kids really enjoyed spending some quality time with them...especially Evan!  He was VERY sad to see them leave.  For the carrot cake, I don't know that I have really made a cake 100% from scratch, and since this one was a very good for you cake (no added sugar and jammed with fruit and veggies), I was a bit nervous.  I don't know about anyone else, but this is one "cake" that I didn't really mind letting E have after dinner and/or lunch.  Grace even had a few bites this week too!

First tastes of the 2nd 1st birthday cake!  This was was a slice, so she found that method intriguing



overall nice texture...good crumbling



after eating a bit of the cake, she started shoving it down through a hole in her tray as if to say, "yeah, i don't know, this healthy version might be better for tillie".

then on to presents!  evan was fired up to help her unwrap each one

peering over one present to see what he was unwrapping next

reading the instructions...she felt the packaging was a little much just like grandpa jeff did.