Happy Birthday Carolyn

Carolyn Margaret is eight. She helped design and make her cake. Her love of the summer has been "rainbow magic fairy" books. There are a bunch and she has read every one, putting requests in at the library for those hard to get ones like "the giunea pig fairy". Therefore, I wasn't surprised that she wanted to make a fairy cake. Luckily, (sometimes) she is easy to please - so we printed off 2 of her favorite book covers from the internet. Of course the pictures needed to be removed before any candles were lit, so that the cake didn't go up in flames.
Carolyn and her crew!

Carolyn wanted a DS game (Kirby) and a cookbook. I thought the DS game was an interesting choice because she only played DS a handful of times this summer, chosing instead to spend her "screen time" watching a TV program. (Unlike the boys who would give blood to play DS.) We already have several "kid" cookbooks and she has checked out 10 others from the library, so I got her a cookbook she could use for her whole life. Plus, I decided if she was going to cook all the time, she may as well make something that will keep us healthy! It has a fun happy style to the recipes.

On the Sunday before her birthday, Carolyn took her best buddy Lauren (our neighbor), Joel and Daddy out to eat and to a movie. (Ponyo - they loved it.) After the movie, Ken picked up Anna and Matthew and they all went to Kaleidoscoop for ice-cream.Carolyn got a card from her teacher today in the mail with a dollar bill in it. She thought that was pretty sweet. "she remembered my birthday and she's not even family"

I think she had a pretty good birthday - including her favorite meal (Mrs. Hansen's party casserole.....Mrs. Hansen is a friend's neighbor and our friend made us this meal one day when we baby-sat her kiddos. Today was the first time I actually made it.) Carolyn and all the kids loved it. I am excited because it made a big batch, so we can have leftovers too, it also was easy to make healthier by adding some stir fried veggies (just to Matthew's plate and mine - I figure the other kids were eating corn for their veggie - I just wanted to stretch my meal, since it was a bit creamy :) When Carolyn saw me cooking the veggies, she said, "I didn't want veggies for my birthday meal." It kinda cracked me up.

Here is the recipe, if you are interested......(might make a good "new mother meal" since ALL my kids love it and it is pretty easy- but try it first)

1 lb hamburger

1/2 cup onion (browned w/ hamburger)

1/2 box pasta (cooked)

3/4 cup milk - I may have forgotten this ingredient

1 bag of cheese

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of corn (I used fresh off the cob!)

After cooking the hamburger, onion and pasta...mix everything together and bake for 30 min at 350. I had my first helping while everyone else's dinner was still cooking - it is THAT yummy.