My Baby Boy Turns 23

My son Blake turned 23 yesterday.  I'm waxing nostalgic today, as I always do around my children's birthdays and other milestones in their lives.  Where do the years go?  I know it doesn't serve me well to live with regrets, and I try to avoid doing so when possible, but if I had it to do all over again there are a few things I would do differently.

For one thing, I would slow down and spend more time playing with my children and just enjoying them.  Yesterday, at Blake's birthday party, my granddaughter Kaia asked me to dance with her, and I did of course, but I think sometimes as "Mom" I was too busy to "dance".  If I could go back, I wouldn't be too busy.  It reminds me of the poem 'Babies Don't Keep'

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
Empty the dustpan, shoo out the moth,
Hang out the washing and make up a bed.
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Oh where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

This is Blake with one of his older sisters 20 years ago.  He's a cutie!

Blake wanted to get together at my parents for dinner and have pizza.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to order the Vegan Medley Pizza from One World Pizza that I'd recently heard about.

The pizza was delicious.  Unfortunately it wasn't as warm as I would have liked by the time I ate it, but that was more my fault I think then One World's.  I will definitely order this again.  While all of the pizza ordered wasn't vegan, all three of my daughters tried the vegan pizza and liked it.  My oldest daughter didn't even eat any of the non vegan pizza, and my middle and youngest daughter, after trying it, said they would eat it in the future with no problem.  :)  Yay vegan pizza!

I made the Banana Cupcakes with Lemon Icing out of Chloe's Kitchen for dessert.  The banana cupcakes are moist, delicious little gems.  The lemon icing is really more of a glaze then a frosting, so I actually made a lemon frosting to go on top of the glaze.  The lemon and banana is an interesting flavor combination, it's good, and definitely lighter than say a peanut butter frosting or chocolate ganache topping would be.  I have to admit though that I want to make these cupcakes again and try either peanut butter or chocolate on top.  :)

Here's Blake and Kaia after blowing out his candle.  Kaia sure loves her Uncle Blake.

I am blessed to have such wonderful children and such a wonderful family!