Karis’ 2nd birthday was the Wednesday after Hurricane Ike hit.  (I know.  Happy Birthday to her, right?)  We had already decided long before Ike that we were going to have a low-key celebration with just our family and maybe an additional small playdate at a local park with a few friends.  So, Ike just confirmed those plans for us.

One of the traditions I like for my kids’ birthdays is to make a cake or cupcakes or cookies for them for their big day.  (Not because I’m good at it - I did NOT get the baking genes passed down from my grandma and mom - but just because it’s something special that I don’t normally do throughout the year.) With the entire city out of dairy products, though, that was going to be impossible.  Every cake mix requires eggs or milk or both.  Since I was already having a little bit of a difficult time accepting my baby becoming a toddler (I wouldn’t allow Shawn to even use the word toddler around me during that last week.), this just added to the emotion for me.

Somehow, my sweet mother-in-law found about my little breakdown and went to a store 20 minutes away that had dairy.  She bought me a cake mix, eggs, milk, and even the icing for on top.  That has to be one of the most thought-full things someone has done for me in a long time.  I made the cake with great thankfulness and didn’t even get upset when it broke a little coming out of the pan.  I iced it and then decorated it with mini-marshmallows from my pantry that I then colored with food coloring.

It was not the most beautiful cake I’ve ever made.  But, it was definitely filled with the most love.  Karis will probably not even remember anything about this birthday, but I will remember that someone special paid attention to the smallest of details to make it memorable for me.

Thank you, Brenda.  :)