Bowllup!

That's Mimese for "blow up" which in this instance means "blow out" as in candles.
Please note the three layer Butter-Pecan birthday cake on the right. Yes, I did actually make a cake and some icing from scratch. Not a boxed cake mix in sight. Don't expect it to ever happen again, but it did this week. We ate our cake at Great-Grandma K's house, and Mim's cousin wanted in on the action. They're so cute together. (If I do say so myself.)

Mim did end up with a kitchen for her birthday after all. I hadn't looked at our local W'ville Walmart because I was sure I had never seen any there. I just happened to check, though, on Saturday, and found the perfect little kitchen. She's been having lots of fun with it, and so has Zaya. They have yet to grasp the finer points of organization and clean-up, but I can hardly fault them for something I, myself, have yet to completely put in to practice.



Mim also got dishes and play food to go with her kitchen, as well as a doll stroller and bed. She and Zaya have had a grand old time playing house, and I hope they continue to do so. (I do realize that it would be totally normal for them to never look at the thing again, though, so no foolish optimisim here.)


On a different note...Thanks for the encouragement and advice about our dryer issues. Part of the problem with our dryer is its age. It's really very old. I'm sure there is still a lot to be done with it, but we're planning to buy a new one sometime soon, so we're having a hard time summoning the will-power. Hubby has looked at it already, and he said it blew part of its breaker. It was still running, but not heating. He switched the breaker back, but we're using it on the low setting so that it won't flip it again. I'm not sure if that's a dryer problem or an electrical problem. Either way, yes, Sunny, I probably did spend too much on gas and machines. I'm really a terrible spendthrift.