Happy Birthday Connie!

Connie had her 7th birthday last week - Happy Birthday, Connie! The kids loved her because she selected pizza for her birthday dinner. The adults were less than thrilled because ordering the pizza became an epic ordeal. We ordered online. This is where the problem began. Mom selected 2 cheese pizzas on line. When she called to rectify the order the Pizza Hut folks began talking about charging her twice because she made a mistake. They were saying crazy things like "The order on line must be paid for, it can't be cancelled or changed. If it is changed, then we will charge you for the initial order and charge you again for the updated order." I thought poor Mama's head was going to explode. I don't know what she finally told those idiotic thieves at the Pizza Hut, but we wound up with Little Caesar's for dinner. You see her here holding up some books. WELL - the Coterie is running Andrew Clements' Frindle through the end of May. It just so happened that Mr. Clements was in town promoting his new book and the Coterie presented a selection from Frindle. We had the opportunity to meet Mr. Clements, get books signed etc. As you can see here, Ms. Connie is holding up 3 autographed books by Mr. Clements.

In addition to letting Connie pick out the pizza, we let her pick the birthday dessert as well. She picked donuts. What kid picks donuts for birthday dessert?

I spent a lot of time with my cousin Jenny when we were growing up and I remember making donuts and how much fun that was. I decided we would make Connie's birthday donuts because there just didn't seem to be any birthday build up/fun to a box of Lamar donuts so I found a simple recipe online.

Connie's Birthday Donuts

*Powdered sugar
*Sugar
*Cinnamon
*Raw buttermilk biscuits (refrigerator type)
*3 c. vegetable oil

1. Boil oil in a pot or wok.
2. Separate biscuits and place in oil carefully.
3. Don't go ANYWHERE cuz these guys cook FAST! When the bottom side is light brown, turn over and brown other side.
4. Remove and let cool on paper towel.
5. Sprinkle on a lot of powdered sugar, cinnamon, sugar etc.
6. Eat them up, yum!

We had a great birthday party day/dinner. John grilled chicken legs and hot dogs. The kids played outisde on the swingset. Mel, Devon and I stood around eating and talking like ya do with your sisters. It was a really nice day. Then came dinner - and Noah thought it was hysterical to eat his ketchup covered hotdog horizontally which involved simply pressing his face down into the ketchup. The kids thought this was funny, which made Noah do it again - oh he was a hot mess...

The more I thought about Connie's donut choice, the more it made sense to me that she selected something other than cake for her actual birthday dinner dessert. She had already asked Aunt Melanie to make her a pink heart cake for her birthday party. And as you can see, Aunt Melanie filled the bill with a beautiful and delicious red velvet cake with the yummiest icing I have ever had.

Love and Blessings,
The Owenland Park Gang