First Day, Chocolate Cake, and Thank You

* Well, Giovanni's first day was kind of stressful.

My husband wrote about it in detail on our family blog.  I felt sorry for Giovanni and for his teacher.  There were several times yesterday when he was frustrated because he couldn't communicate with her, and I'm sure she felt the same.  She knew a few English words, so every now and then she would say, "come on" trying to encourage him to participate.  I was afraid that after yesterday he would have a completely negative attitude about school, but this morning Garrett asked him about going back to class and he said "OK."  So we'll see....


*  Last week was really, really busy and tiring.  It included:  returning from vacation, kids starting school, buying school supplies, uniforms, and books (with what was left in the monthly budget ! yikes!), helping friends with marriage difficulties, taking an expectant mother to the hospital and staying for 12 hours while she was in labor - and other things that I can't even remember right now.  Anyway, after a tough week like that, we all needed to chill a little.  So we decided to rent a family movie, make some pizza and have a family night.

As a special treat, Carys and I decided to make a chocolate cake from the cookbook that she got for Christmas from her grandparents.  Here is the cake we chose:

It is called Hershey's Kisses Birthday Cake.

Here is our cake:

Pretty much the same thing, right?  I mean except for the Hershey's Kisses on top, which we can't get in Brazil.  But besides that, it looks the same.

I'm happy to report that it tasted much better than it looked.  It was gobbled up quickly.  Apparently kids don't really care about looks when it comes to chocolate cake.


*  My parents and my in-laws gave me some money for my birthday with the instructions to buy something that made me feel special.  So, on a rainy day during our vacation we went to a big department store that has lots of bargains.
I cheerfully spent all of my birthday money there on stuff that I really like and makes me happy.  Stuff I wouldn't have ordinarily bought because I don't usually spend money on myself.
So, thanks Mama and Daddy, Gary and Marie for my new dishes......

my rainbow serving plate.....

and my new funky tea kettle.

I love my birthday presents! Thank you!