I love my birthday!

Yesterday I turned 29!
Wow, I'm an old lady.
Okay, not really. Somebody told me I looked like I was 10 the other day.
I thought that was a little bit of a stretch.

After a relaxing day (Nate made breakfast, and came home early from work - yay Nate!!) we went to Hank's Place for dinner.
My friend Jenna and her family love it - so we went!

This is my type of restaurant. Home cookin'.
I'm not a fancy restaurant type of person. I also am not into expensive jewelry.
These are just two reasons why Nate loves my birthday as much as I do.


Maryland crabcake sandwich. It was so delicious. I love the perks of living on the East coast!

Then we came home and had cake! (Don't you love what's happening in this picture?!) Svea had been waiting for cake and talking about it for days. As soon as Nate's birthday came to an end, she immediately started focusing on the next opportunity for birthday dessert.

Here's the cake story:

Nate went to a bakery after work to get cake. According to him, the selection was:

Carrot cake, some Phillies-themed cakes, and then - that cake. He asked the lady what flavor it was. She said, "Red Velvet." Nate had no idea what that was, but he bought the cake anyway.

I can't believe Nate has lived on this earth for 32 years and had no idea what Red Velvet cake was. White chocolate!! And lots of red! I said, "Did you know there's an entire bottle of red food coloring in the batter?" Nate had no idea.

But we loved it! What a treat!

Confession: I've actually eaten five pieces since yesterday. I'm telling you that cake is delicious. I might have some more as soon as I'm done here. I was trying to have a piece while Svea was supposed to be napping today, and it ended up in the closet because she kept wandering out of her room to check on me.

I was fine.

I just wanted to eat cake in peace.

That didn't really happen, so I suppose I'll have to make up for it now.

My birthday people!

Sweet Elin. I think she looks so much like Viggo in this picture!

Thank you so much for all the birthday cards and gifts :) Yes, that's JRR Tolkien!

A favorite birthday gift: this cutting board from Nate and Viggo. They MADE it! Nate has been making some incredible kitchen things lately and I'm test-driving them. So far everything is functional and beautiful. Thank you, Nate and Viggo!

My other favorite gift: a beautiful drawing from Svea. She enjoyed working on this and let me (and everybody else!) know it was just for me.

It's perfect - thank you, Svea!

My beautiful girls

Elin is four months old today.
When did that happen?! She and Svea bring so much happiness to my life. I never thought I'd have two girls. Having girls was never even on my radar.
I always thought I would have 7 boys or something.
Thank goodness God knew better than I did!
I love my sweet girls and I am so thankful for them!

Hot cocoa with my guy

It was cold and really wet yesterday. And I had a coupon for a free kid-size hot cocoa and a small cookie at Barnes. The perfect thing for a rainy day!

We had fun taking pictures of each other.

Viggo was nice enough to share the cookie - as long as I let him take a goofy picture of me.

Well I'd do just about anything for a cookie. But I wouldn't take a goofy picture.

This is what I look like normally.

Viggo was trying to feel the raindrops on his belly. He was being so silly!

Thanks for the fun afternoon, V-man!

Halloween Sneak Peek!

Meet the Farmer and the Daisy!

I brought the kids to Lowe's to trick-or-treat late this afternoon. From what I could tell, every other little girl there was a fairy and every other little boy was a Star Wars character or a pirate.

But not our kids!

Aren't they cute? And Svea kept her daisy headdress on the whole time!

What's a farmer without a tractor?

Svea got in on the tractor action too. In fact, she sat on every tractor outside of Lowe's.

Elin was a pea-in-a-pod but by the time I got my camera out, I had taken her out of the bunting. But don't worry; I'll be sure to get a picture of her too.

In the kitchen for Nate's birthday: Gooey Chocolate-Caramel Fantasy

I've made this for the past 3 or 4 years for Nate's birthday, and it also makes an appearance on Father's day at times:

There is so much sugar in it.
Just looking at the recipe practically puts me into a diabetic coma.
So I thought I'd share it with the world. It's from Kavanaugh's. I've never been there (it's in Brainerd, MN) but I feel like I could make this dessert blindfolded by this point, so maybe I can get a job there.

Crushed chocolate wafers. Because I'm so super-frugal (or just cheap!), I skipped buying the plain "Famous" chocolate wafers ($5), and bought generic Target oreos instead ($2). I opened each oreo and cut out the frosting. I used about 2/3 of the package to get 2 cups of crushed oreos. I put all the little white middles into a bowl and they're sitting on the counter, but they've been disappearing.

Then there's vanilla caramels and caramel ice cream topping.

Because apparently just one kind of caramel isn't enough.

There's pecans, and then lots of chocolate.

Yep. There it is!

Gooey Chocolate-Caramel Fantasy

2 C crushed chocolate wafers

1/3 C melted butter

30 vanilla caramels, unwrapped

1/2 C caramel ice cream topping

1/4 C heavy cream

2 C chopped pecans

3/4 C chocolate chips

1/4 C heavy cream

Combine wafers and melted butter; press into 9" springform pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Let cool a bit.

Melt caramels and ice cream topping in a pot over medium heat, stirring every so often. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 heavy cream until well-combined. Stir in pecans. Pour over crust. Refrigerate for an hour.

Melt chips and the other 1/4 C of heavy cream in a small pot over medium heat, being careful not to scorch the chocolate. Pour over pecan mixture. Refrigerate another hour or until serving. Store any leftovers in fridge.

This recipe allegedly serves 12 but I'd say it could serve even more; it is so incredibly rich.

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Nate is now 32 years old! I'm so blessed to have spent the past decade with him! He is one special guy and we were excited to celebrate his birthday, which usually is all about food.

Svea was so excited about the jelly beans for Nate that she spoiled the surprise! Well, a huge jar of them is very exciting!

Viggo's card reads, "Dear Viggo, For Dad. Thes coins r for u to spend."

Isn't that sweet?

Don't spend it all in one place!

We ventured into Amish country . . .

We stopped at an Amish farm to get some pumpkins. There was a little box to put money in; payment was via the honor system. Although I did see the farmer and said thank you. We got two pumpkins for $3. (The nicer ones were $2, so we got a nice one and one only a mother could love.)

It was fun driving through Lancaster County and even though it was raining we saw plenty of livestock out and about. Viggo said the sheep were his favorite: "I like their big bottoms!" (Big-bottomed sheep not pictured.)

Here we are at our dinner destination, Shady Maple. I get such a kick out of this place!

They had pumpkins there too, but they were 3/$10. What a rip-off! :)

Svea had to smell them.

Standing in line to be seated.

Svea is wrinkling up her nose at something, but it wasn't the food. She ate her weight in grape tomatoes.

Elin woke up and was being extra cute for Nate's birthday :)

In honor of my dad, I took a picture of my food. Carrots, potatoes, stuffing, raspberry bread, a Swiss Mocha cappuccino, and a big pile of roast beef.

I'm trying to gain a few pounds.

After this I had salmon and a salad.

Viggo and his pile of ice cream. I'm not quite sure why it is glowing in this picture. He put oreos, chocolate chips, little chocolates, whipped cream and two cherries on top.

There it is! Oh, and marshmallow topping - lots of it!

Svea takes a big bite of ice cream.

After Nate opened his presents he watched the St. Cloud State hockey game. Elin cheered on the Huskies too.

It was a good birthday.

We were so full we decided to save Nate's birthday dessert for the next day. Stay tuned for that!

Splish splash

Elin loves bath time.

A place for everything

A couple weird things I noticed the other day:

No, Elin doesn't really drink coffee.

And we definitely won't be using these sprinkles on Christmas cookies.