Beautiful birthday

We celebrated my 36th birthday on Friday night, a bit early, to take advantage of having Nana with us for the party. While I was out running errands, HF made up some cream cheese frosting to top the carrot cake the kids and I had made. Our cheapo hand-mixer is in the process of burning out, but not to worry. The cordless drill makes a fine substitute (if you ever find yourself in this dilemma). See?

The kids, notably Monkey, were very keen to ensure that I get my favorite animal - which happens to be a monkey - put on top of the cake. Dad took care of this too:

It was fantastic to be sharing a delicious meal - takeout burritos - with four of my very favorite people on earth (the mouse was already in bed). To make matters better, my mom took me out for lunch that day, and HF and I had a date night the previous evening. Three great meals out of four in just over 24 hours, none of which I prepared! Now that's what I call a good birthday for a mother of four young kids...