Happy Birthday, Klenda?

So, her actual birthday was... a while ago.

But she turned 22, and had a great time!

 Leena helped make the cake, and I helped decorate it.

She got one of the most fun presents I've ever seen for a young adult!

It was a a package of a ton of different candies from Japan, another package with a variety of savory snacks, and a third package of a variety of Japanese drinks. 

Watching her open things and try to translate them, and try different things was a hoot!

22 Great Things About Klenda

1. She is learning Japanese.
2. She has amazing art skills!
3. She stands up for what she thinks is right.
3. She plays the piano a bit and guitar a lot.
4. She loves to read great books.
4. She has the same birthday as the Fourth Doctor.
5. She is a loving and supportive sister.
5. She loves to learn.
6. She seems to be able to teach herself pretty much anything. 7. She has a great sense of style.
7. She's a careful driver.
8. She sees more colors than I do!
9. She sees beauty everywhere.
10. She's a fun dancer.
10. She's a careful observer.
11. She's a very supportive and compassionate friend.
12. She's an integral part of Team Valtapaz.
13. Her chocolate buttercream pie is swoon-worthy.
14.  She's a talented and creative cook.
14. She's an excellent baker.
15.  She's got a green thumb.
16. She's always up for an adventure.
16. She always does more than the minimum.
17. She's an out of the box thinker.
18. She makes great mixtapes.
19. She's always willing to lend a hand.
19. She's very good at puzzles.
20. Her critical thinking is the key to her success.
21. She's Ultra cool.
21. She shines in multiple fandoms.
22. She loves to support other artists.
22. Her love of God shines.

Last of the October Birthdays

 

The last two birthdays were Pop's (my dear FIL) and the redoubtable Bill's.

I forgot to get a picture of Bill's cake, but we used this awesome diabetic safe Died and Gone to Heaven Chocolate Cake recipe.

This is Pop's cake, which is made of... meat.

Pop is the grandfather that does not live with us, and he has been locked down very tightly since March.  We miss our weekly dinner visits!

We have been calling every week, but it's not the same, of course.  Anyway, on his birthday, we all went over and sang happy birthday outside of his house and left him this fine cake.

It turns out that his doctor has him completely off sugar.

 

Fortunately, I knew he loves meatloaf!

If meatloaf is just meat shaped into a loaf shape, then surely the same meat shaped into a cake must be meatcake...

Which is easy enough to frost with mashed potatoes...

And decorate with chives and pepper flakes!

I guess we also had Fr. Mark's birthday and Leena's Godmother's birthday in there too, but since they are in New Orleans and Baltimore, respectively, I did not end up making cake for either of them.  

But Happy Birthday to all!

Happy Birthday to the Emperor

 

Happy Birthday to The Emperor!

Honestly, The Emperor and Zorg both had birthdays last month (weeks apart), but it's been pretty crazy.

But they both had great birthdays!

This is actually a pear upside down cake (with gingerbread as the cake part).  

 

 

 

This is the Emperor's favorite cake, and this was my favorite rendition of it.  I used a little apple butter mixed into the caramel part. Yum!

Happy Birthday, Zorg!

Zorg is TWENTY!

Congratulations and happy pandemic birthday!

It was just the ten of us celebrating (plus distanced well wishes from friends and extended family), but we had a great time!

To me, the 20th birthday is a more definitive adulthood marker, maybe because you aren't a teenager anymore.

•  20 Great Things About Zorg
• 
  
• 1. He is an Eagle Scout!
• 2. He sings beautifully.
• 3. He's really good at gaming.
• 3. He's a loyal friend.
• 4. He's always willing to lend a hand.
• 5. He's very honest.
• 5. He's really good at math and logic puzzles.
• 6. He's always up for some fun!
• 7. He can climb pretty much anything.
• 7. He's very good at probability.
• 8. He tells great stories.
• 9. He is always overflowing with ideas.
• 10. He really cares about other people.
• 11. He supports his family and friends in whatever they are trying to do.
  
  
  
• 11. He has gotten into role playing games in a big way.
• 12. He makes great mix tapes.
• 13. He's rocking the mustache!
• 13. He's doing great with (distance) college.
• 14. He's really funny, he's always making people smile and laugh!
• 15. He's having fun with college.
• 15. He's great at Tough Goals, or Dank Moles, or whatever that game is.
• 16. He's very friendly, as in makes friends everywhere, all the time.
• 17. He's interested in being a priest.
• 17. He always tries to do the right thing.
• 18. He's a very loving son!
• 18. He loves philosophy.
• 19. He has a very solid grounding in logic and ethics.
• 19. He's an AMAZING GM/DM!
  
• 20. He explains difficult concepts clearly and simply.
  
• 20.He loves God!

Happy Birthday, Mxyl!

 

 

Yes, it's another pandemic birthday:  Mxyl is 23! 

 

Another smaller than usual gathering, but still a lot of fun and a lot of love for our first born!

23 Great Things About Mxyl

1. He's a college graduate!

2. His second movie, Abydos: Incursion is almost ready to come out! 
2. He's a professional web designer.
3. He's a great older brother who has a lot of fun with his younger siblings.
4.  According to those siblings, "He's amazing!"
4. He graduated Summa cum Laude.
5. He knows an astonishing amount about tokusatsu.  
6. He loves the sacraments.  
7. He's got a great sense of humor!  
7. He's a deadly punster. 
8. He looks cool in sunglasses.  
9. He never gives spoilers.  
10. He's passionate about his projects.  
10. He has an amazing ability to learn complex things.
11. He always tries to make things better.
12. He's great with little kids.  

12. He makes beautiful intuitive websites.
13. He always sees things through.  
14. He fan subs Japanese movies.  
14. He loves to help people. 
15. He does a posh British accent.  
16. He's my in house computer support guy.  
17. He's my out of the house errand guy.
17. He's a big supporter of all his siblings crazy schemes.  
18 He has an eye for creating beautiful photographs.  
18.He enjoys really good artistic movies.
19. He enjoys really bad (artistically speaking) movies.  
20. He's teaching himself Python.

20. He watches out for others.

21.  He's helps without being asked.

22. He's good  at the whole adulting thing.
22. He's still supporting the scouts, especially his siblings.  
23. He's a very loving son and grandson!

Happy Birthday, Choclo!

 Choclo is 15!

He had a great quarantine birthday, including this great ice cream cake.

We Face Timed his grandfather for present opening, and, of course, the other nine of us were all there to help him celebrate in person!





15 Great Things About Choclo

1. He is an admin on the Fire and Ice (Minecraft Betweenlands) wiki!
2. He is reading Harry Potter to Oob, just because they like his rendition.
3. He loves to create interesting games.
3. He has a great sense of humor.
4. He loves babies.
5. He makes great paper airplanes.
6. He knows a lot about sharks.
6. He knows even more about penguins!
7. He can build pretty much anything out of Legos.
8. He has lots of great story ideas.
8. He's a second class Boy Scout.
9. He's an angelic altar server!
9. He's a Duck fan.
11. He really likes garlic and hot sauce.
11. He's into role playing games.
12. He's a sweet and loving brother and son.
13. He likes to play games with "smash" in the title, and he's a good sport
13. He cooks amazing soups.
14. He has a fantastic imagination.
14. He loves listening to music and drawing.
15. His artwork is amazing!
15. He's interested in everything!

More Birthdays!

 Last week was huge! 

I turned 50, my mom turned 75, and Mxyl graduated college!

My sweet sister had planned out a fancy tea party themed party (from all the way back in North Dakota).

She also sent me 50 things she loves about me and a slew of great books to read, and a fancy hat (she knows me so well!).

The emperor and the Zoomlians also gave me tons of great stuff, and Klenda and Leena baked and decorated this fabulous tea themed cake!

Best birthday ever!

Then Mumpy turned 75, and my sweet sister in law sent tons of cool presents.  Our favorite was this extremely cool sketch of a photo from shortly after Mumpy and Pa got married!

And we all had a great time showering her with presents and affection. 

My sister sent her 75 things she loved about her (how great a gift is that?!).

All in all it was Mumpy's best birthday ever, too!

Pa doesn't look pleased about the cake in the picture, but he actually liked it a lot!

Happy Birthday, Oob!

Oob is a teenager!  He's also grown three inches in the last 6 months...

That means I have four teen children (and an equal number of adult children)!

13 Great Things About Oob

1. He is crazy about birds!

2. He loves to go biking and hiking.
2. He's a Minecraft master.
3. He is always willing to help out.
4. He's a very loving brother and son.
4. He likes to build contraptions.
5. He's a job thief!
5. He's a quick punster.
6. He's always up for an adventure.
6. He's a Lego master builder.
7. He's a good Scout!
8. He likes to cook.
8. He loves taking care of cute furry things.
9. He's really good at drawing complicated things.
9. He knows a LOT about birds. Like a crazy amount.
10. Like, definitely more than you think.
10. He has an eye for detail.
11. He tells great stories.
11. He likes to explore physically and intellectually.
12. He takes great care of Mike, and Mike loves him!
13. He is a great storyteller.
13. He loves God very much!

Happy 18th Birthday Leena!

 Leena Beana is an adult!

And I'm really behind on my blogging because her birthday was last month!














18 Awesome Things About Leena:

1. She's always willing to help out.
2. She's great at audio and video editing!
3. She tells horribly hilarious jokes and puns.
3. She is a gerbil whisperer.
4. She runs two hilarious Twitter accounts!
5. She plays piano in the basement or the reading nook, and the whole house sounds great!
5. She really cares about other people.
6. She has a beautiful singing voice.
7. She's on the honor roll for her college classes.
7. She likes to have adventures.
8. She has over a thousand subscribers on her You Tube channel!
9. She's a sweet and loving sister.
9. She draws amazingly well.
10.  She can have fun with people much older than she is.
12. She can have fun with people much younger than she is.
12. She has dozens of music compositions on her Sound Cloud Channel!
13. She and I are in charge of the flowers for our parish!
13. She makes great baked beans.
14. She writes scripts, short stories, and novellas.
15. She's always up for crazy ideas.
15. She knows a LOT about G2 Bionicle.
16. She's a wonderful voice actress.
17. She gets paid to write music, do art, and voice act!
17. She is ridiculously musically talented.
18. She's a sweet, thoughtful and loving person.

Guest blog by Oob: Say happy 7th birthday to this amazing catfish

He is 7 (equivalently 156) years old. He was supposed to live to 3 years, which would be about 72.

He is ridiculous, how did he live this long?


He is 1 inch and a half!


His species we do not know.

We don't know how he lived this long, but he is still breathing, and he is very alive.


Happy birthday, unnamed catfish.





(DISCLAIMER: We do not actually know if it is his birthday...)

Happy Birthday, Zorg!

 Zorg is 19!

Pop took us out for Indian food to celebrate, and then we came back for chocolate cherry cake. Yum and yum!


19 Great Things About Zorg

1. He is an Eagle Scout!
2. He sings beautifully.
3. He's really good at gaming.
3. He's a loyal friend.
4. He's always willing to lend a hand.
5. He's very honest.
5. He's really good at math.
6. He's always up for some fun!
7. He can climb pretty much anything.
7. He's very good at puzzles.
8. He tells great stories.
9. He is always overflowing with ideas.
10. He really cares about other people.
11. He supports his family and friends in whatever they are trying to do.
11. He has gotten into role playing games in a big way.
12. He makes great mix tapes.
13. He's rocking the mustache!
13. He's in his first year of full time college, but he's already on the Dean's List.
14. He's really funny, he's always making people smile and laugh!
15. He's having fun with college.
15. He's great at Paladins.
16. He's very friendly, as in makes friends everywhere, all the time.
17. He's interested in being a priest.
17. He always tries to do the right thing.
18. He's a very loving son!
18. He loves philosophy.
19. He loves God!

Happy Birthday, Choclo!

 Can Choclo really be 14?!

And 5'8"?!!!

He's both!

And he had a very nice birthday

 He asked me to surprise him with his cake, so he got a mango raspberry swirl cake with chocolate chips!





14 Great Things About Choclo

1. He is a Minecraft master!
2. He took his dad to Disneyland!
3. He loves to create interesting games.
3. He has a great sense of humor.
4. He loves babies.
5. He makes great paper airplanes.
5. He likes to cook special snacks with lots of hot sauce!
6. He knows a lot about sharks.
6. He knows even more about penguins!
6. Actually, he knows a lot about Ancient Egypt, too.
7. He can build pretty much anything out of Legos.
8. He has lots of great story ideas.
8. He's a Tenderfoot Boy Scout.
9. He's an angelic altar server!
9. He's a fan of The Hobbit (the book).
10. He's a Duck fan.
10. He has dissected almost everything in the science catalog.
11. He really likes garlic.
11. More garlic than you're thinking of.
12. He's a sweet and loving brother and son.
13. He likes to play games with "smash" in the title, and he's a good sport
13. He cooks amazing soups.
14. He has a fantastic imagination.
14. He's interested in everything!

Wordless Wednesday: New Jersey, Mothers Day and Birthdays

Happy Birthday, Oob!

 Oob is 12!

We went out to dinner at Hunan Treasure with Pop, then came back for a "fudgy chocolate" cake.

Mmmmmmm.




Also, Oob got a great new camera to bird with- it has a 60x zoom!






12 Great Things About Oob

1. He is crazy about birds!

2. He loves to go biking.
2. He's a Minecraft master.
3. He is always willing to help out.
4. He's a very loving brother and son.
4. He likes to build contraptions.
5. He's a job thief!
5. He tells funny jokes.
6. He's always up for an adventure.
6. He's a Lego master builder.
7. He's a good Scout!
8. He likes to cook.
8. He loves taking care of cute furry things.
9. He's really good at drawing complicated things.
9. He knows a LOT about birds. Like a crazy amount. 
10. Like, definitely more than you think.
10. He has an eye for detail.
11. He tells great stories.
11. He likes to explore physically and intellectually.
12. He takes great care of Mike, and Mike loves him!
12. He loves God very much!

Happy Birthday, Klenda!

It was Klenda's golden birthday!




 She got a ton of gold themed presents.




And we decorated with loads of gold, too!

And golden candles on her cake

We all had a wonderful time!!

And we'll do it again with extended family when we are all healthy again!

20 Wonderful Things About Our Golden  Klenda
1. She wears really cool boots.
2. She has amazing art skills!
3. She stands up for what she thinks is right.
3. She plays the piano a bit and guitar a lot.
4. She loves to read great books.
4. She has the same birthday as the Fourth Doctor.
5. She is a loving and supportive sister.
5. She loves to learn.
6. She seems to be able to teach herself pretty much anything. 7. She has a great sense of style.
7. She's a careful driver.
8. She sees more colors than I do!
9. She sees beauty everywhere.
10. She's a fun dancer.
10. She's never overslept and missed her train!
11. She's part of the BCC Crew.
12. She's an integral part of Team Valtapaz.
13. Her chocolate buttercream pie is swoon-worthy.
14.  She's a talented and creative cook.
14. She's an excellent baker.
15.  She's got a green thumb.
16. She's always up for an adventure.
16. She always does more than the minimum.
17. She's an out of the box thinker.
18. She makes great mixtapes.
19. She's always willing to lend a hand.
19. She's very good at puzzles.
20. Her critical thinking is the key to her success.
20. Her love of God shines.