Quick trip to SF

Sofia's 5th birthday is coming up, and she told us she wanted to go to San Francisco and ride the cable cars. We had a free weekend over Halloween, so decided to go down Saturday, see the city, stay with Mich's Aunt Buttons in Berkeley, and come back Sunday. After Halloween a day early in Carson City, we got up as early as we could and headed out. Got to Berkeley, collected Aunt Buttons, and headed to BART. Here's Julien steppin' out for the day:



Rode the train over to the city, got out at Powell, took a look at the cable car line, and decided to walk up to Chinatown. Had a nice little stroll:



Found the entrance to Chinatown:



Had a lunch of dim sum, did a little shopping, and continued walking across the city down to the water. Our eventual destination was Ghiradelli Square for some dessert, but it sure took us a while to find it. Sofia had some shoulder rides before we go there. Perked right up after an ice cream, though, as I'm sure you can see in these pictures...









Wow. Sugar high. We mooched around a little in line for the cable cars - Sofia danced to a guitar guy, and Julien outsmarted a card trick guy - and rode back to the BART station. Getting a little tired by this point...



But we managed to get in a little more trick or treating in Berkeley (on actual Halloween,) and a nice little dinner. Up the next morning for a quick breakfast, and back to Reno. Fun little trip, I hope Sofia had a nice birthday celebration. Seems like she did...

Birthday party

Julien's 8th birthday is today, and we celebrated yesterday with a nice little pool party. Just a few pictures -

A whole mess o'kids in the pool:



Blowing out candles:



The sliced Neapolitan birthday cake:



And some wild-eyed present-opening fun:



Happy Birthday Julien!

Lemon curd cake with ginger frosting

I threw this together last night and today for a friend's birthday party, and was asked to take pictures of the construction.

Laying in the lemon curd filling, in between layers of white cake:



Cake assembled and ready to frost:



And on the table, cut into and being enjoyed:



Recipes, for the record:
White Cake from Better Homes and Gardens
Lemon Curd from Joy of Cooking
Fluffy White Frosting from Better Homes and Gardens (using water with ginger soaked in it, then strained out and boiled down to concentrate flavor. Still wasn't hugely noticeable...)

Birthday bangs

Today is Sofia's official 4th birthday. Last night, Mich decided she needed bangs. Cute, happy birthday girl here.

Fancy 4th birthday

We finally had a joint birthday party for Sofia and Lola Tiar, which we've been talking about doing ever since they were born six days apart in 2004. Sorry for the quality of pictures, there seemed to be lots of redeye going on for some reason. I'll just give the highlights:


Lola sitting on the stairs an watching the festivities.


Cake. Lola and Sofia with candle duties. Jackson helping out.


Lola and Reyna enjoying fancy cake.


Fancy ceiling decoration.

Did I mention the theme of the party was "fancy?"

That's about all the pictures that came out well. Fun times...

Lego Birthday Cake

I read a bunch of geek parent and baking blogs, and had seen this meme go by a few times, so I was excited to try it out. I started with a double batch of fudge cake (from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook) baked in two loaf pans. Froze them for a couple of days for ease of working, then leveled them and got ready to go:



Set them up on a tray and started frosting. Red first:



Then blue, then stacked the yellow one on top:



Then figured out how to make the studs on top - marshmallows, cut in half and "finger-frosted" worked perfect.



Then it was just some more studs, and some filling in and smoothing:


(Don't know why that one won't rotate...)

I think it was enjoyed...

Julien's 7th birthday party

We couldn't really decide what to do for Julien's birthday this year - he isn't super excited about any one thing, likes to do a little of everything - and we ended up with the idea of a Lego themed birthday. Invited a few friends, and prepared for a great time. There was trampolining:



Water balloon hijinks:


(Water balloon filling the hard way...)


(Sweet sibling-rivalry revenge)

And dress-up.



Had some great food - a hamburger bar and a couple kinds of salads, with Lego jello for the kids. Moved inside and opened some presents:





And finally, the Lego cake. That'll be another post by itself...



Fun times had by all.

Nanny's 90th

Hosted a little birthday party today for Mich's grandmother's 90th birthday. A bunch of people, including the kids went to see the play "peter Pan" first (nice young at heart movie) then came back for dinner. Here's Great-Nanny with five of her grandchildren:



And a picture of her blowing out her candle (little help from Luther):



Oh, a close-up of the cake. It's the Excessively Espressive Espresso Ecstasy from Marcel Desaulnier's Death By Chocolate Cakes. That pretty much describes it:



And a cute picture of our friend John enjoying his cake at the kiddie table:



Good friends, fun time.

Sofia is 3!

Yep, she's 3. We had a "birthday brunch" for Sofia today. Fritatas, challah (pretty multicultural breakfast, actually), fruit and stuff. Here's Sofia and her friend Pippa enjoying some juice:



Of course, there was cake as well - Sofia had requested a "rainbow cake", and this is what I came up with:



Sofia got to lick one of the candles:



And here she is enjoying (?) the cake itself...



I got to sneak her aside for a daddy/daughter self-portrait a few minutes later:



Here's a couple of present-opening pics:





This rubbery "piggy bank" had to be the hit gift - it oinked when you put a coin in it, and the girls filled it up, then dumped it out over and over again...



And of course, there was some outside playing time after:



All in all, a pretty fun birthday - thanks to everyone involved...