You wish it was your birthday so you could party too!

There is a tradition in my family that when we sing "Happy Birthday" to someone, we don't just sing "Happy Birthday." Oh no. We sing EVERY SINGLE birthday song ANY of us knows. This includes primary songs, songs we learned at school, songs they sing at scout camp, etc. So long as it's a birthday song. And the finale is always the upbeat version of "Happy Happy Birthday from All of Us to You!" from The Emperor's New Groove. Always. And we're banging our hands on the table while we sing it.

Well, there are several birthdays in the middle of July. So we have plenty of opportunity to exercise our cake-plate-shattering vocal skills. Beginning . . . with KATIE!!!!

July 14th is Bastille Day (kind of the French Independence Day. Kind of.) but this year it was also Katie's 6 month birthday! Which means I made some extremely delicious dark chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. And we sang half of each of our birthday songs to her. It was a little confusing and hilarious.

And then she had a carrot or some pears or something while the rest of us ate chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. I promised her that I would make her some delicious cupcakes for her real birthday in January and that she could eat one then. Because she'll be a big kid.

But not yet.

Well, as soon as Katie's birthday was done, we had another birthday. Mine! on Sunday. But I'm a grown-up, so it's not quite the same. Except that the triple chocolate pound cake with a chocolate drizzle that my sister made for me nearly set the house on fire.

And because this post is about the two of us, I guess I'll put up a picture of both of us. Grudgingly.

For Katie's birthday, she got . . . a carrot. Yeah, she gets presents all the time just for being cute, so it's not particularly exciting to have a birthday.

But I had quite an enjoyable day. I think the fact that my little inner Brittany desperately desires to be a baker has leaked. Because I got cake pans, mixing bowls, the book Hello Cupcake! and little glasses that really need to be filled with a dessert and taken a picture of for this blog. Yeah . . . I think they've figured it out. And I also think I should open a bakery or something as soon as Katie's big enough.

And because 1) this post is very much food themed, 2) birthdays are all about food, 3) my sister Emma and Mike's sister Amy are both having birthdays this week, and 4) I just want to make you all hungry, we're going to finish with pictures of the semisweet and white chocolate torte Sarah and I made a couple weeks ago. And also some pictures from my photo shoot entitled "The Many Faces of Katie Lou."

Because she's adorable.

Happy Birthday!