in case you were wondering...

I'm ashamed to admit that when the girls were young I often felt as if they happened to me. Um...let's see, how do I explain this...I felt that some people did it the right way-they fell in love (probably at college), got married, bought a house, had kids. But me? Well, I just was playing the cards I'd been dealt. Of course I loved them, they are my girls, but this single mom thing wasn't in my plans for life - it just happened.

While they were still itty bitty I went back to school with dreams of becoming an attorney. When I imagined myself at my current age I pictured a new car, a three bedroom house, nice clothes, and extra spending money. I tried to push away any thoughts of 60+ hour weeks, late nights working on cases, and leaving sick kids at home by themselves because I have no choice but to be in court in the morning.



Not in a million years did I picture that I'd be working with runaway teens making less than my pre-college days (but how much fun and a flexible schedule), driving the same car (and praying it keeps running), and living with a room mate and her son in a rented three bedroom duplex.

In a perfect world I'd be able to shower my girls with gifts for no reason and spend unlimited amounts of time with them. Unfortunately, that's not an option at this point in my life. I have to choose. Do I give my children my presence or my presents? They can't have both.

While some people opt for financial stability, I am opting for time with my children. No, I don't expect them to live at home with me forever. It's just that I am unwilling to sacrifice the lives God entrusted me with so that I can chase the proverbial American dream. Call me crazy, but I'll take my flexible yet low paying job over a high paying time sucking one for as long as my girls need me. Sure, more money would be nice, but I wouldn't miss this loud and crazy time in life for anything.

There will be another stage in my life when my house will be clean and quiet and I'll want to avoid it's monotony by working long hours and saving for retirement - or maybe I'll finally buy that new car...



Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
~Proverbs 23:4-5

He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor. ~Proverbs 21:21

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ~2 Peter 1:3

Maggie's dad had somewhere he had to be this weekend. So he left Maggie at home - and brought her sister Cecelia over. So I have the giggle triplets for the l-o-n-g weekend.

Cecelia and Gracy are only 4 months apart, so let's just say there's a lot of pre-teen in the house. I must have said "yes" (temporary insanity?) when they asked if the neighbor could sleep over, because she's here in her pajamas with make-up on and her hair straightened (all the typical signs that a sleepover is underway).

Maggie is currently in the shower singing loudly in a beautiful opera style. The other girls are gathering pillows and blankets and talking about watching Camp Rock and High School Musical 2. They want pizza, ice cream, popcorn, cookies, kool-aid, and popsicles. I anticipate smelling nail polish and hairspray any moment.

They are dancing in the kitchen (I asked what they were doing and they said, "the skit, or skat, or mashed potato, or something like that". Followed by whispers). The giggling...one is giggling at all times. They take turns so that it never stops.

Someday my house will be clean and I'm going to miss this.

Someday.

@->--Having a garden makes me feel like a hippy. I'm raising my own food (well...sort of...), using grass clippings as mulch, fallen branches as stakes for tomatoes, trying to be all organic, and taking kitchen scraps to the compost bin - and I'm doing all this fabulous gardening in my bare feet (don't look, Mom!) while enjoying the sun on my face, the breeze in my hair, and the sounds of the little critters in the woods.

@->--Patience is a virtue. Allthough I consider myself to be virtuous, I lack this one.

@->--One should not make more work than necissary by watering daily, or one not only will realize the importance of an outdoor water spicket, but also will wear a path in the grass between the house and the garden.

@->--Morning Glories grow like weeds. And if you have some friendly new neighbors who offer to mow your lawn for you (thank you, thank you, and thank you again) they may think the morning glories you planted (next to the enormous electrical tower in an attempt to cover up all the ugliness with pretty stuff) are weeds and chop them down with a weed wacker. Thankfully, they grow like weeds and will make a comeback three times if need be. If you tie them to said electrical tower it will be obvious you put them there on purpose.

@->--Seed packets come with instructions. Use them. The spacing they suggest is based on someone's experience & expertise. Randomly plopping an enourmous amount of seeds and plants into a tiny area will yeild lots of laughter from people who know better.

@->--If you plant a garden next to a wooded area, the deer will find it. Even if you've never seen a single deer in the 2 years you've lived there. The deer will find the food. They think you've planted it for them.

@->--Naming vegetables is fun, however it's also creepy when it comes time to eat them.

@->--Grass has an amazing ability to grow in places it didn't exist before, and a special way of dying in the lawn where it is supposed to be.

@->--A compost bin brings to light how much I throw in the trash on a regular basis. It's embarrassing, really.

@->--I may have ADD. Just two short months ago I was wishing I lived somewhere that had a longer gardening season so I could keep this up longer. I was having a blast, reading gardening books, gardening blogs, talking to people about gardening, starting new plants WAY too late just to see what would happen. Now I'm a bit bored of it all. It may have something to do with the ferns getting all yellow and brown behind the garden, and the trees starting to turn yellow and red...or the realization that I really could've done a better job if I had done it right the first time...Ever since I realized I will not be having enough tomatoes to make salsa and sauce I've been a bit discouraged-but there's always next year!

@->--Nine cherry tomato plants is just enough to keep Maggie happily eating tomatoes all summer. Nothing else. If I want more than tomatoes to feed Mags, I need more plants. It also takes WAY more than I had anticipated of every other plant to come up with a decent amount of food. I was really surprised by this.

@->--I'm cheap. OK, I knew this before, but...I refused to spend the $15 on a trellis on clearance (which is nothing compared to the springtime price of $75!). I can make one of those out of bamboo and string I declared! Worked out well if I do say so myself.

Today was one of those days where I realized: Aw, my baby is getting all grown up!

It was Gracy's first official night at youth group. Last week was parent's night so it didn't really count (just ask Gracy). But tonight...with the super soaker & bonfire party to celebrate the end of summer going on, now that's a real youth group night.

She was a bit giddy when I dropped her off. I felt a little weird. I cannot recall many occasions where I have simply dropped her off without going in to-I dunno-what exactly is it that we moms DO when we drop off our children? Look around, make sure there are adults present, smile at the other kids, give our kids the look that says, "You'd better not make shame for the family name"? I'm not sure exactly what it is I've been doing all this time, but whatever it is I felt weird not doing it. But this is YOUTH GROUP. Moms are not supposed to go (according to Gracy).

Maggie & I watched a movie at the budget theater with friends until it was time to go pick our big girl back up. The movie was horrible. Indiana Jones. I'd never seen one of "his" movies. I could easily live the rest of my life not seeing anymore. And so could Maggie. We thought it was B-A-D. But an experience none the less.

Picking up Gracy was a big treat. She was all gushy like only a girl her age can be. She hasn't told me much. "I am officially friends with, like, every person in the youth group now." was one of her few reporting sentences. The tone of her voice reminded me of the time she declared, "I'm a big girl now, Mommy!"-which gave us both a laugh.

I'm so happy for her. She's been really nervous about not having friends now that we've decided to homeschool. And I've been praying for her to make some good Christian friends. And did I mention that I can't believe my little girl is actually in youth group all ready!

Update:
Very shortly after I finished this post, Gracy sat down next to me to tell me ALL about youth group tonight. All the fantastic people she met, all their names, how friendly and funny everyone was. "It was way better than school where you sit and look at everybody for three weeks before you are bored enough to start talking. We just started having fun and talking right away!" She's so cute. And then she slipped in the, "Oh, I was sure you wouldn't mind, so I signed up for the youth group's worship team. I'll be singing. So--I'll have to get to youth group an hour early every week." And then, "I can't wait until next Wednesday! Maybe I'll bring __________(a friend from school)."

This weekend flew past in a big swirly blur.

Friday after our bit of work & chores were finished we did some funky art projects, made some mini pizzas with fresh tomatoes instead of sauce and a salad from our garden and farmer's market finds, made more of Maggie's home-made butter, followed by a family movie night.

Saturday we had much needed lazy morning. We spent the afternoon and evening with friends at Art Street. The girls particularly enjoyed the dancers. We saw two different local dance studios put on productions, a tiny bit of the traditional Native American dancers, and some of the traditional Mexican dancers. We looked at a bunch of fun art, some fancy art, and some art that was a little strange (for example the paintings of different dogs all in martini glasses). But I think our hands down favorite part was the edible art (read Indian tacos, shish-kabobs, nachos, & funnel cake).

We got pretty excited about all of the inspiration the artists provided us, and rushed off to the craft store. When we got there we were a little sad about the crazy prices, but figured we can shop around. We don't have to make impulse choices. There are cheaper places to buy these items! Not to mention there are always sales. I love a good sale! We made a few small purchases, but left the bigger ticket items for another day.

Sunday after church we had a picnic at the leaf racing park. We had fun, as usual. The girls still insist this is their favorite park. It's quiet, empty, and full of nature. This time we noticed someone had dumped a pile of scraps of wood near the woods. We checked it out. All of it was clean and dry. It must have just been left. We boxed it up and brought it home. We have a wood burning tool kit, paint, glue, nails and lots of imagination. If nothing else, it's free wood to burn in our fire pit.

After our park adventure, we cleaned the garage (serious family fun) and crammed my car FULL of stuff to donate & made the drop off. Apparently everyone in the neighborhood had the same idea because the drop off site looked like a flea market without any vendors. It was a dumpster diver's heaven!

We finished off the night by eating pizza, watching a classic Veggie Tales movie, and playing Risk. It was the world's longest game of Risk EVER. At 1 AM we finally agreed that our family had conquered the world, and that was going to be good enough. :)

OK, I'm driving myself nuts again.

I've been scouring the World Wide Web in search of fun things to do, traditions if you will, for the first day of the homeschool year. I'm looking for ideas to make the first day of school special. I am finding thousands of ideas for traditional school first days...breakfast with the neighbors at the bus stop, busting through crepe paper banners in the front door after school, pictures in the new outfit holding a sign indicating the year. No, I've never done any of these fabulous ideas when the girls went to "regular" school. I wish I had. It's one of my disorders you know...wanting to be super mom...

But seriously, I've been thinking about how Gracy is excited about homeschool, but not...(she's a 6th grader. I think they are required to have multiple views on every single topic that comes up AND feel strongly enough to cry about either opposing view.) And Maggie is excited but, dare I say, cautious. (Being a visual learner she requested if we could just go to different museums every day instead of working in a traditional format) I want to start something, preferably simple, that makes the first day of homeschool special. Something that makes them look forward to it as much as one can look forward to school. I have a ga-jillion ideas for during the year, which, God willing I'll follow through on and post about. But I can't seem to find something that strikes me as a "YES" for our first day. I'm running out of time and trying not to freak out completely about it. All I've come up with so far is letting them stay in their pajamas all day. Maggie has suggested going to a movie, and Gracy has suggested skipping all work that day...ummmm...that would be starting school the next day, right?

If anyone has any ideas please, please, please leave a comment or call me or email me or send me a postcard...anything! Please!

Gracy has been avoiding the garden this summer. She says "no thank you" when I ask if she wants to come see if anything is ripe. She's not been very excited about the new developments or the experiments. I've been trying to figure out whether she thinks that gardening is for little kids and old people or just plain boring. A couple times a week she pokes around and asks questions, but tries to be on the sly - make it seem like she's not all that interested. So I was beginning to think she just thought she was in the wrong age category for gardening (and half of the projects and things we've always done together, but that's a different post!) This morning it was confirmed. I went downstairs this morning to discover BOTH of the girls in the garden looking around WITHOUT ME!

And now...the garden update...

Maggie runs out to the garden each morning to see if there are more red tomatoes. She sometimes can't wait long enough and eats them orange. She agrees that they are better when they are red, but who can wait? Gracy kept her word. She tried out a red tomato. Her face was priceless. I'm quite certain she won't be trying tomatoes ever again.


Here's an update picture of "Skinny Larry". See his baby picture here.


The Great Green Bean Experiment continues... (to see them as lil sprouts click here)


Eggplant flowers are gorgeous! I fear these flowers are the peak of these eggplants. My dreams of eggplant parmasian may be limited to the farmers market!


Dear Cantelope, I wonder if you will fall prey to the watermelon-napers.


Peppers....mmmmm....salsa....


More from The Great Grocery Store Experiment. These onions (click here for thier early beginnings) seem to be doing fine. They are still green and strong. Still experiementing!


Chubby Bob! (click here to see his start) He's almost ready to be eaten! Yippy!


This poor sunflower! It's trying so hard to make me smile. It's just pathetic though!


This pepper is going to be in my salad at supper time. I can't wait!


The watermelons were making a comeback...but this is what we found this morning...


Yummy! I can't wait to much on this one! And just think, I almost yanked these out of the garden because I was sick of watering plants that just kept growing leaves!

We're wrapping up the summer. Our homeschool year officially is starting on Sept 2. We've been testing out curriculum and keeping our skills sharp by working a little bit every day throughout the summer. The following pictures are more for me to look at when they get loud. I want to document the fact that they do study independently and on occasion are silent. I'm sure there will be days this will be forgotten.

This is hilarious!

We've been robbed! All the baby watermelons were gently plucked away during the night. Since nothing else was disturbed, I'm guessing it was a deer. Stink. And the biggest one, Chubby McChubb-Chub, was about 4 inches all ready!

We've been busy! Here are the fronts and backs of the bags we decorated. We're planning on using them for trips to the library. Lately we've all been checking out more than we can comfortably carry-AND reading them! So hopefully this will be a nice solution. The only thing I think would make them better is if they had a little pouch of some sort inside of them to hold a library card. If anyone has any ideas on how to put one in, please let me know!












As some of you know, when we tested Maggie she was only at the 2nd grade level in both Science and Social Studies. We've been working hard all summer long to get caught up. She finished the entire year of 2nd grade and just started on the 3rd grade stuff. She's pretty excited. And it's fun to see her getting excited and understanding subjects that used to make her cry. This is an experiment from her latest book. She's growing bean seeds in wet cotton (or scraps of my old Grateful Dead shirt-whatever) for a couple weeks. Checking and charting the progress each day. Of course this sounded like so much fun that Ben and Gracy had to join in on the action!

So I got a flat tire on the way to church this morning. Not just a small leak or a slight wobble. A full-out-that-used-to-be-a-tire kind of flat - on the highway. God was good to us. Regardless of the fact that it was one of my front tires and we were going 65ish in the left lane, I was able to maintain control and pull off to the right side safely.

My mom was wonderful enough to pick us up and bring us the rest of the way to church & pick us up when it was over. While we were waiting to get picked up we wandered over to the fountain and the girls kicked off their shoes & jumped in.

And THANK YOU SO MUCH to Keith & Gerald for coming out to my car with a jack to swap my blown tire with my cute little doughnut. (My jack is rusted shut and Mom's seems to be MIA). They changed it in like 3 minutes! They could be in a pit crew! You guys are awesome!

ROCK #1: The girls found a rock in the pond that they insisted had fools gold on it and crystals inside of it. So Maggie went to work on busting apart the rock to get the treasures out of it. She spent an hour and a half on this! So long the other girls came looking for her! In the end she made some progress, but never did crack it in half. Maybe tomorrow...





ROCK #2: During the sleepover of the night, the girls came down and declared themselves "The Goth Girls". Those pirate pants keep haunting me! But who can get rid of them with all the use they get?!

As if I haven't experimented and botched the garden enough this summer, I thought I'd try yet another experiment: garlic and onions from the grocery store.

I read (in my post planting research) that garlic should be planted in the fall for a better harvest in the spring time. But they advised not planting bulbs from the grocery store since they may have been sprayed to prevent sprouting (which sort of grosses me out). Not wanting to spend money, I considered asking my friend for a couple bulbs from her homegrown garlic. She gave me some last year, but we ate it, even though she told me to shove it into the ground pointy side up (but it was delicious). Then I'm doing my grocery shopping and what do I see? Garlic sprouting in the produce section! All proud of myself I come home and Google how deep to plant these things and how far apart they are supposed to be. I'm learning--I'm researching before I put something into the ground.

And then it occurs to me...apparently I forgot it's not fall...It's August.

So I planted them anyway. The sprouts are too big to ignore. I can't just eat them without painstakingly plucking the sprout out of each clove. And let's face it, that's probably not going to happen. So this morning Maggie yanked the onions out of their little dirt homes. This evening the garlic went in its place.

In the same trip to the store as the Great Garlic Purchase, I bought some green onions. Those onions I bought at the nursery earlier this year looked an awful lot like the green onions hanging out at the grocery store. I took them home and stuck them in a jar filled with water for a couple of days until the roots grew a bit longer. I was about to call myself foolish and throw them out when I noticed today that the green part was starting to have some new growth. So right before I planted the garlic I plunked them into the ground where the spinach didn't come up for the third time. I figured it was time to let go - I'm not getting spinach. But why not use the space for some experimental onions?

So I attempted to garden this summer. I really don't know what I'm doing. As evidence, I offer you my garden plot. It's "L" shaped, about 5 feet long on the two sides, about a foot thick. I was originally going to make it a square, but I got tired and decided an "L" would be perfect for moving around in.

Soil prep? Yeah. I bought a shovel and some seed packets one day, bought some plants and dug up the grass the next. I plopped the plants and seeds into the ground the same day that I flung the grass into the woods. I did not fertilize. I did not add compost. I barely made the soil loose. It was hot and muggy. And again...no clue. I'm experimenting here!

What did I plant? Well, on the front side of the "L" I put in onions, chives, 3 kinds of lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, 2 egg plants, 2 brussel sprout plants, 2 large tomato plants and 6 cherry tomato plants. On the other side of the "L" I added 6 broccoli plants, 6 green pepper plants, 1 red pepper plant, 2 jalapeno pepper plants, radishes, kohlrabi, 6 cauliflower plants, cantaloupe, and watermelon. Oh, is that all do you say? Of course not! I pulled up the radishes when the went to seed and recently replanted them. The kohlrabi got eaten by the dumb bunny. The lettuce didn't work out so hot (also went to seed pretty quickly), so I planted bush beans where it used to be. I tried lettuce and spinach again in a different location. I've noticed people's eyes get big when I tell them what I've planted in such a small space. Once again...no clue. When I was planting I kept thinking I could still add to it. There was plenty of room. However, it is starting to appear on the full side these days.

Water. Yeah. I didn't bother to think about how I was going to water this fabulous experiment. We don't have an outdoor water faucet. So I have to lug the water by hand. Once again I don't know what I'm doing, so I water every day. A few days ago I skipped a day of watering. We had gotten a decent rain and I figured the plants were pretty well established. So I only drizzled some water on the seedlings. The next day EVERYTHING was droopy. I thought the experiment had ended. It was in sad shape. So I made the girls help me haul about 40 gallons of water to the garden to try to revive it. God was laughing at me as I told the girls "This is our last trip" and it began to pour. After the rain ended the plants were perky as usual. I began to research. (Something I usually do BEFORE experiments, but not so much in the case of the garden for some reason) Turns out that if you water your garden every day the plants keep their roots near the surface. They then wilt if you skip a day of watering in the hot summer. Great. So I've made more work for myself than needed!

I did start checking out gardening books at the library last week. I can't believe how complicated this can be! Plant carrots with tomatoes, don't plant broccoli where the cabbage was last year, compost, mulch, grass clippings, weeding, spacing...ugh!

But I can feel myself getting hooked...I didn't expect it, but it's happening. I actually caught myself thinking about what I'm going to plant next year! And I think I even said out loud that I'd like to start up a compost pile. Is there a 12 step group for this?!

Isn't this just the cutiest green pepper you ever saw?

The broccoli has been doing great. We've eaten most of it raw.

"Chubby Bob" was the first tomato to show his shiny self in the garden. Maggie checks every day to see if he's turning red yet. She can't wait to eat him like an apple. ***Thanks Cassy for coming up with such a great name!***


We can't wait for these cherry tomatoes to turn red. Gracy has even agreed to give them a try. God was good to Maggie. For her birthday we had only one red cherry tomato. The first to come out of the garden. And right on her birthday! None of the others have even started to turn yet!


Here's one of our first cucumbers. I'm hoping to have a ton of these. The girls LOVE cukes. And I want to have a cucumber race in the creek where we sometimes race leaves and sticks. I read about it in a magazine and I've been waiting impatiently ever since! I also read that if you put a bottle around the cucumber at about this size, it will grow to fill the bottle. You get a cucumber in a bottle!

Bean Sprout! I just planted the bush beans. I'm hoping they get beans before the cold and yucky weather comes...it's an experiment inside of my experimental garden. Everyone keeps talking about how they are one of the first things to produce, so I figured if mine had a late start, perhaps they would still produce. We'll see.


This is the biggest watermelon we have so far. There are others...this is the biggest. It reminds me of those fruit shaped gumballs you can get at the mall.



Eggplant. I have no idea what I'm doing here. I just like eggplants & thought if I was experimenting, I should try the things I like to eat. It looks sort of like an alien.


Watermelon with a view :)

This bunny is dumb. That's why we starting calling it "Dumb Bunny". Someone didn't bother to tell the bunny that bunnies are not supposed to be in our garden. And if they are in the garden they certainly shouldn't be eating the marigolds and onions! Seriously. Dumb bunny.


Onions...Aren't the tops supposed to be green? You can't tell the greatest in this picture but Dumb Bunny actually tried to take a bite of ths onion!


At least Dumb Bunny is only eating one of the cauliflower plants...Amazingly, it started sprouting white stuff today!

So we planted marigolds around the garden to keep the bunnies out...But Dumb Bunny eats them anyway!

Cindy made this look so easy last year. I posted the awesome sunflowers she grew last year here, here, here, here, and here. Mine are...well...I tried...The birds ate the seeds Maggie planted. So I bought plants. A month in our flower garden and this is what we get. And no, it's not that the pictures didn't turn out!

Broccoli is one of Maggie's favorite veggies (right next to cherry tomatoes). Here she is happily holding up a strong piece she cut out of our backyard garden.

We are trying something new this school year. Homeschool. Feelings are mixed at this point. Most of the time Maggie is thrilled. She can't think of many reasons she wants to go back to regular school. She knows she'll miss her friends but knows she can see them outside of school hours doing fun things instead of during the day. Gracy is SO social. She misses her friends 5 seconds after hanging up the phone with one of them...I think it comes with being a "middle schooler". I am of course thrilled to have the opportunity to let Gracy move ahead as she has the ability. Maggie will have the chance to learn in a way which is easiest for her. With her dyslexia shinning particularly brightly this past year, I've had the chance to research the different ways she will learn best. Reading out loud, and lots of hands on visual learning will help her out.

In the beginning of summer I was trying to explain that homeschool does not have to look like traditional school. Learning can be done in many different ways besides only reading books and taking tests. That yes, books and tests will be part of homeschool, but it's not the only thing we'll be doing. I talked about field trips and experiments, and I'm sure I rambled on way too long because Gracy started reading her book. Maggie's interest were peaked. She asked to go to the Waterfowl Preserve. When I said yes, she jumped up and down and said, "And can I bring my notebook?!"

I'm telling you, it was HARD to not laugh out loud! This new way of learning is so exciting for her. She was running around making notes, drawing pictures, and asking questions. I think Gracy was inspired...she brought her notebook as well, and enjoyed jotting down notes and filling in the worksheet the Preserve provided.

It was fabulous!

As a side note, please read this post by Kelly. It's amazing!

Maggie's happy 10th birthday was today. I'm happy to report it went much better than last year!

She insisted that she didn't know what she wanted for her gift - seriously! Have you ever met a 10 year old that has no wish list? So we went to the craft store this morning where she showed me all the things she couldn't live without. Then Gracy and Maggie wandered around the store while I decided which items would be stashed into the trunk until present time.

Of course one of her favorite gifts came from Ben & Cherie - a box full of puzzles. She immediately put one of them together in about 10 minutes (100 pc). and started another. I'm sure it will lay around on the coffee table all weekend (while she's at her dad's) getting bumped and shoved, but she'll be thrilled to see it's still waiting for her when she gets home. Maggie is awesome at puzzles. She loves them. She could spend hours putting them together, and she's quick. Gracy and I don't seem to have that talent. We stare a the pieces for about 10 minutes, slide them around, possibly put together 3 or 4 and then we're done. We're bored. We are amazed at Maggie's mad puzzle skills. Gracy keeps saying Maggie is going to win a gold medal for putting puzzles together!

She was also pretty thrilled with the pair of earrings Mimi & Pop Pop sent her. They are the first pair of earrings she's gotten to wear besides her starters...and they are gorgeous!

Maggie's other wish was to have shish-kabobs for supper....problem being we don't have a grill... So I cut up and marinated some pork, peppers, onions and potatoes and basically stir fried them in small batches, letting them stick to the pan and get that fun brown color. I stuck a bunch of skewers in the bowl of the cooked ingredients and let everyone stick their all ready cooked kabobs. This seemed to satisfy the birthday girl. Who proclaimed it was the best birthday dinner ever! I made a two layer 8" cake topped with chocolate frosting. We split it into 6 pieces (one for each of us and the neighbor that ate over). Maggie was pretty excited that we got to eat the whole cake at once. You'd think she won a prize! And to think I spent a small fortune buying store bought pretty cakes in the past!