Life with Meredith and Jillian: Happy 32nd Daddy!

What fun celebrating a birthday in a house with a 4 year old! Meredith ahs been planning Neal's birthday probably since last year, I am not kidding. She picked a car cake for him last year, but immediately after, she decided that this year, he would want a baseball cake...and she stuck to it! It worked out really nicely because his birthday night was also Ranger's game! So, we picked out Baseball plates and napkins for his "party" (which our Sunday School teacher told us she invited all of her friends to the day before!). She kept talking about a "party" and I think Neal started to wonder if there was a surprise under way - and I really think she had a much grander vision of the night than I had up my sleeve, so I had to prepare them both that our "party" was just us! Luckily, they both ended up being thrilled with the idea (Meredith really was the only one who needed convincing!)

We started off his birthday with what is becoming a birthday tradition at our house - donuts! Then the girls and I went shopping for his present. To stick with the theme, we headed to pick out a Rangers shirt. As soon as Meredith saw the one with the "claw" on the front she was very excited because she knew from watching the games that it had a "reindeer" on the back! That night, we went and got Neal Buffalo Wild Wings to bring home so we could watch the game at home. So everything was pretty low-key but really fun.

Of course, we had to fulfill the cake designer's dream as well. I liked the idea of a baseball cake because I thought it would be easy. But as we started to decorate it, Meredith started telling me her vision of a man batting that we should draw on the cake with icing. She almost started crying when I tried to convince her to go with my vision, but then I told her that "Daddy really just wants it to look like a ball" and she was sold! The best part of the cake, though, was that a few days before, as we were talking about the cake, she had a "great idea" to put chocolate chips in the middle. I really think this girl might have a future in baking with all these ideas! She was super proud of telling daddy about her "great idea" - and it was pretty tasty! :)