Cooking Diva

We don't do birthday parties each year in our family. We've chosen a few ages that we think are significant for different reasons and those are the years that our kids will get to have parties with friends and family. I tend to go a tad overboard with party plans, way overboard, and this is a way for us to manage to spread out that mania evenly amongst the children. I don't want to burn out on the first one or two and then not doing anything with the others. So on the off year, it's mush and water on their birthdays.

This year was an "off year" for Sunshine, so four grandparents gave her a special gift - a week of cooking lessons! She got to wear a special apron with her name embroidered on the front and spend a few hours each day making exotic dishes like paninis, Shamrock milkshakes, and ranch dressing from scratch. And because Sunshine adores anything that allows her to make a mess in the name of creativity, she had a blast. She came home each day with a booklet of recipes they had made and a few goodies to share with us. It was really a lot of fun. You can see on her face the remnants of the chocolate cake they made in the shape of a shamrock on St. Patrick's Day.

So, thanks Grammas and Grampas!!!!!!!