Saturday, May 14th was Elaine's birthday. At this time last year, we were relaxing at Spa Terra in Napa... Hopefully we'll make it back there someday! Anyway, I offered a few weeks ago to bring Sozo's take out (her favorite Japanese restaurant) to her place to celebrate. Luckily Eric had the day off so he could join us and help take care of Natalie while I wrapped up her gift and made my first attemp at making ice-cream cakes! Then we stopped by the Asian market to pick up some fancy drinks to have with dinner before we picked up the food and made our way over to Elaine and Andrew's place. We all ate dinner around the table- Natalie sat in Stacie's high chair while Stacie napped in her swing. Natalie was so happy in the high chair! I gave her a few toys to play with and she happily grunted and squealed all through dinner. We all agreed that this age is just the greatest! She's so much fun :)
Here's Elaine and I posing for a shot with the babies! Notice Natalie is gnawing on a Ramune (Japanese soda) bottle- she loves to explore whatever is in my hands!
After dinner, Elaine opened a few gifts. She had a small helium balloon bouquet in her living room and Natalie thought it was just the greatest. I held them near her hands and she had fun bopping them around and playing with the ribbons.
I bugged Elaine to get me a birthday list for weeks before her actual birthday! I love shopping for Elaine, and could have picked out something I'm sure she would like, but I wanted to get her something she might need. Finally, a few days beforehand, she tells me that she needs some nursing tops. It's ridiculous that there aren't more options out there for nursing wear- considering the fact that most women nurse their babies for a year or so, there are hardly any places that sell nursing apparel (nor is it terribly fashionable). Anyway, I went over to Destination Maternity and luckily they have a small Pea in the Pod nursing section. I managed to find two cute shirts that were actually flattering when I tried them on, so I was confident that Elaine would like them too. Now Elaine has a few more options other than a nursing cami paired with a cardigan (which I too wear all the time)! Stacie was quite happy hanging out on Mommy's lap while she opened gifts.
I made two different ice-cream cakes and they turned out pretty well! One was chocolate cake with peanut-butter ice-cream and the other was chocolate cake with mint-chocolate-chip ice-cream. I found that a mixture of Cool Whip and plain vanilla ice-cream made for a nice frosting. The four of us all tried a little of each. Notice the "Happy 29" in quotations- we were forgetting the fact that this was a big birthday for Elaine this year! Since they turned out so well, I decided that I will forgoe the $40 Cold Stone cakes from now on, in favor of my homemade varieties!
We left shortly after we had cake, since Natalie was getting restless and fussy. Below, she is fast asleep in her carseat. I dressed her in her Gap "jogging outfit" that day (as we call it) since it was unusually cold out for the middle of May. I'm sad that it actually fits her well now- I just love the bear ears on the hood!! This outfit is definitely a keeper.
It was really nice to spend a birthday with both babies- there will be many more to come and soon enough they can join in on the cake and ice-cream eating. Happy Birthday Elaine!
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