It's Another Half Birthday!

We celebrate half birthdays around here. My mom always celebrated ours when we were kids, and I've continued the tradition. My husband thinks I'm nuts and that I'm making up half birthdays, but that's ok -- we don't have to celebrate his! I remember taking cupcakes to school on my half birthday and other kids doing the same, so someone else must know about this.

For us, the rules of the half birthday are that there are no presents (and my parents broke that one this year, of course), but that the half birthday child gets to choose what we eat for dinner and what kind of cupcakes he or she wants. Yep, cupcakes. Cakes are for birthdays, and cupcakes are for half birthdays. It's our thing.

Today is Little Miss's half birthday. I can't believe she's three and a half already! And sometimes it feels like three and a half going on fifteen and a half.



For dinner, she insisted on her non-dairy cheese pizza. I found vegan cheese recently at the natural foods store, having discovered that soy cheese actually contains milk proteins (umm, hello people!). It's not exactly cheap, but I make homemade pizzas -- crust and sauce included -- for my family at least once a month. Poor Little Miss missed her pizza.

I tried to convince her that I should make something else -- pancakes, homemade chicken tenders, French toast, crock pot pork. Nope. I had made the pizza on Thursday night, and there was NO way I was going to talk her out of having her special pizza again. So pizza it was again.



I made three pizzas. There were six of us. I had one piece. Yep, one single solitary lonely piece. The wee ones each ate over three quarters of a pizza themselves. You'd think I hadn't fed them in a week. Nope, it must be that I'm such a good cook (ha!). Fortunately, I'm able to scrounge for myself fairly well.



I also found a recipe for dairy free banana cupcakes and managed to talk Little Miss into wanting banana cupcakes for her birthday (sucker!). I was a little worried about how they'd turn out, so I tossed in some cinnamon "just in case." They actually turned out pretty well. Mister Man ate three small ones, my dad and husband each ate two and a half of the big ones, and I enjoyed my cupcake, as well.



Little Miss licked the frosting off her cupcake, nibbled once at the top of her cupcake and announced that she didn't like it. Great. These were the cupcakes I had baked that I was planning to freeze so she could have some cake to take to birthday parties instead of having to skip out on the treats there. At least I got a test run in. I guess someone will just have to eat these cupcakes. And I'll have to do more baking. I hate it when that happens....

And yes, my parents totally ignored the no presents rule. Remember that dollhouse we finally opened up on Thursday? Well, it now has a "functioning" kitchen with all the appropriate appliances. That make noises. Wheeee! There would have been more, but the kitchen was the only piece from the set that Toys 'R Us had when my mom went there. Bummer!



Do you like the decorations we used for the cupcakes? They're from the Superheroes Matching Game that Mister Man got for Christmas. The wee ones absolutely love playing the game and even better is playing superheroes with the figures. Gotta love the games that have multiple uses, right? Little Miss was insistent that she wanted Spiderman on her cupcakes to decorate them, and I had the brilliant idea to use these guys. She was thrilled. Phew!

What other family traditions do you have? Do you celebrate half birthdays or anything like them?



PS I finally got the pics to upload. Yay!

Is Your House Like This, Too?

For her birthday, a group of my friends gave Little Miss a dollhouse. I never opened it, thinking that a) she's probably too young for a dollhouse and b) we already have so many toys, we don't really need any more.

On Thursday, my mom opened it up and started putting it together. Those last four words still crack me up. My mom isn't exactly the most mechanically inclined person I know. She can't read a map, and the way children's toys provide instructions work about as well for her. It was rather entertaining to watch her try to put it together -- or rather to hear her, since I was working while she was doing this.

It finally all came together, and this has been the favorited toy for both the wee ones ever since. What, you say her birthday was awhile ago? Well, yeah it's true that her half-birthday is tomorrow. But I really didn't think she'd be interested in it. I was wrong.

It comes with a mom and dad and two babies. They have a swing, a slide, a kitchen table and chairs, and I think that's it. After the wee ones had been playing with it for awhile, my mom turned to me and asked, "Do you suppose they might make any furniture or anything for this dollhouse?"

I'm a smart alec. "Nope, this is it. They decided they didn't need to make any more money off this franchise. It's really a shame though, isn't it? They don't even have a bed to sleep on." My mom agreed with me. I sighed and pointed out that it was made by Fisher Price. I probably don't make enough money in a year to buy the acessories the company provides.

Regardless, the wee ones are quite content to play with it as is. They have the house completely in order.

This is the kitchen where everyone eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Apparently they don't fear carbon monoxide poisoning, as the gas grill is in the kitchen.


After dinner, the babies go up to their room. It's the nursery, according to Little Miss.



Then, the mommy and daddy walk up the stairs to their bedroom. I've decided the babies must fly to the nursery, as Little Miss didn't need them to walk up any stairs -- not even the set of stairs to the second floor before flying off to bed.


This is the mommy and daddy bedroom. I found it interesting that the mommy and daddy sleep head to toe. In our house, Mommy and Daddy sleep in the same bed with our heads facing the right direction. Eh, she's three.


And this is Sir Topham Hatt's bedroom. He is apparently a boarder in the dollhouse, and he brought some of his friends from the Island of Sodor with him. Ahh, this explains why Harold the helicoptor and friends were around the kitchen table eating with the family!


And this is Snowy's room. Yes, the famous Snowy the bear who wears underwear that Little Miss steals to wear on her head. He is apparently also a boarder who sleeps in the bedroom next to the mommy and daddy. Do you like the Thomas underwear and bowtie? Apparently he takes his socks off for bedtime though, as those aren't on him at the moment.


The rest of the trains sleep in the trailer in teh back yard. Lucky for them, they each have their own compartment (just like those creepy hotels in Japan!) with their names labeled so no one ever gets confused. Gotta love the little bit of hillbilly in Little Miss. It comes from her father's side of the family, just in case you were wondering!


After they'd been playing with the dollhouse for awhile, I asked Little Miss if she had named any of the dolls yet. I was pretty sure she had, and her vehement nod confirmed it. I was expecting more "Snowy, Snowy, Snowy, Snowy." Nope. "This is Michelle X. This is Little Miss. This is Mister Man. And this one is Daddy X." Yep, apparently I have a first and a last name in Little Miss's world, but Daddy... he only has a last name. Awwww, how sweet.

With as much fun as they've been having with the dollhouse, I'm really wondering why I didn't open it before. Then again, ask me next week if they still even notice it sitting in the middle up our upstairs hallway!