Jonapalooza

Last Saturday began Jonapalooza... 4 days of celebrating Jon's Birthday. It started with the Mandarin with my family where we ate far too much of course but it was very delicious! Sunday night I slaved all day trying to make the perfect cake... I used tiered cakes pans and bought a fancy platter- my cake however was a disaster as it cooked tilted in the oven and was lopsided. My second attempt was a fool proof Betty crocker in circular pans that I have made dozens of times. This time however I was a little sleep deprived and could not follow the simple instructions. What turned out was a crumbly, stuck to the pan mess. I displayed my pathetic efforts at Jon's "friends" birthday party that night as exhibit A and B of why we have an ice cream cake. I enjoyed most of that PCP (pop-chip-parent) party however feel asleep upstairs a couple hours into it and woke up to an empty house! Oh well, our friends understand. Monday night we went to Jon's parents for his traditional Mac and cheese, ham birthday dinner complete with his Mother's Score bar cake that as always turned out perfectly and Martha Stewart herself would envy. Today is Jon's REAL birthday....and the worse one- he and I are both home sick with the flu and a baby who is on a sleep strike. Not that much fun at all really, I don't think I will bake another cake...