Natalem Octavo*

Piper loves bananas, but we don't buy much fruit, and, even with bananas, she nearly always has to share halfsies with Luci.  Sometimes, I'll tell them they can each have a whole banana, just to enjoy their shocked delight.

In other news, her eighth birthday fell two days after Aidan's second, and because I spent all day trying to start and finish the flowerbeds (and studiously avoiding packing for Long Island, to which we were leaving the following morning), she would have also been birthday-short-changed, were it not for her simple requests.

Birthday breakfast?  Banana pancakes and sausage.

Birthday supper?  Goulash and "something with garlic butter"

Birthday cake?  A layer banana cake with cream cheese frosting (which, because it doesn't lend itself to elaborate decorations, heartened me considerably)

Birthday gift request? A bunch of bananas.

I'm so glad that Piper loves bananas.

Aidan couldn't wrap his head around the fact that someone else could have the birthday glory just two days after him, so he kept stealing all the birthday paraphernalia and singing "Happy Birthday" to himself.

Pretender to the throne.

Here's the real deal.

I decorated her cake after supper while she opened presents from my mother, thanking my stars for her choice of cream cheese frosting the whole time.  (SUCH a good cake.  Recipe here.  We used overripe bananas and increased the frosting to have some for between the layers.)

Were there skunks?  Yes, there were hardworking skunks, as well as a beaver who shirked his banner-holding duties.  (Piper added the animals, can you tell?)

And here she is, our little Nut Berry-Sugarplum on her happy birthday evening.









We love you, Pipsqueak, and are so glad you're ours!






*Nope, I don't know Latin, but doesn't that title make me look smart?