Old Friends, Heavy-Duty Lycra, & Birthday Cake

This has been an action-packed weekend to say the least. On Friday, the boys and I went to visit our friends Darby and Hailey. I originally met Darby back in 2003, on the internet, of all places. We were both members on a pregnancy "due in June" website, and when we (along with two other women) realized we were all in Idaho, met for lunch one day, before we had our babies. Then, a few weeks after we'd had our babies, we got together again. Here's a picture from that meeting:

That's Hailey on the far left, and Camden, looking like he's about to explode, in the white onesie. Here is a picture of Camden and Hailey on Friday:

They had a great time playing together, and I really enjoyed visiting with Darby. She had her second child, a very sweet little boy named Cameron, about five weeks before I had Griffin, so we have plenty to talk about!

Steve returned from his trip to Maryland, late Friday night, and we sure were happy to have him home!

Saturday was my 35th birthday so Camden and Steve made me my annual "ghost cake". I do believe this will become a tradition. Many (MANY) years ago, my Aunt Jean gave me a Betty Crocker cookbook for kids, and I use to love to pour over the pages of that book. I recall in particular, a recipe for root beer cookies that I use to make quite often. I still have the book, and Camden loves to look at it now, just as much as I did back then. He has always been infatuated with a recipe for a Halloween ghost cake, and last year for my birthday, he wanted to make that cake. So of course, Camden's very patient and loving father helped him make it. When Steve told him it was my birthday again, of course the first thing he wanted to do was make a ghost cake. Here we are last night:

It is hard to tell by the picture, but the ghost's eyes are two eggshell halves, which each have a sugar cube soaked in lemon extract, sitting inside. Upon serving, you can light the sugar cubes and the eyeballs flame. As you can imagine, this was the piece de resistance as far as Camden was concerned.

Earlier in the day, my sister-in-law Kasey and I went shopping, in an attempt to find suitable evening gowns for an upcoming military ball we'll be attending with our husbands. Since having just given birth 4 months ago, I made sure to take along a heavy-duty lycra body shaper - - I want to look nice next weekend and figured I could use all the help I could get, since I'm still a good 10 lbs. heavier than I should be. Anyhow, as I'm standing in the 3-way mirror, admiring myself in a lovely gown, the sales clerk said to me, "You will probably want to wear a lycra body shaper under that," to which I replied, "I am wearing a body shaper." Somehow I managed to scrape together what little self-esteem I had left after that comment, and purchased the dress anyway. Okay so I am being a little dramatic, but I'm sure you get the picture!

Today was very relaxing - - the weather was lovely and we all got outside for some exercise and fresh air. Steve has tomorrow off, so we'll head into town for some appointments and to take Camden to gymnastics. Steve has some travel later in the week, and then drill this coming weekend.