Mother's Day May 12, 2013

This year Mother's day was the day after my birthday.  Totally awesome that I get 2 days in a row to be pampered. =)  I wanted to drag my birthday out longer, so I told Matt that I wanted to open my present on Mother's day, and have my cake on Mother's day.  He was okay with doing that, he just really wanted to give me my present.  Matt loves to give gifts.  I just like to make things last, and stick with the tradition of opening presents after you blow out your birthday candles.

I was able to sleep in.  So nice!  Matt asked me what I wanted for breakfast.  I told him a mix of granola, cheerios, and life, or oatmeal squares would do nicely.  I wasn't terribly hungry.  I was still sort of full from the day before.  Go figure!  Matt brought me my bowl of cereal and one for him as well, and we ate it together in bed.  It was nice!  The only things missing were my children.  It was Mother's day after all.  They were downstairs watching a movie.  I had to call down to them to have them come upstairs.  Little stinkers!  They knew it was Mother's day.  They have both been wanting to give me their little gifts they made for me at school.  Maddie had been asking me every day for the last week if I was excited to see my gift.  They just got side tracked with technology.

I gave them a hug and a kiss and told them that I was grateful that I could be their Mother.  They just smiled.  I told them that I would open their gifts after I got ready for the day.  Then they ran off.  I got ready for the day, and so did everyone else, and then I opened my gifts from the girls, and my birthday gift from Matt.  I opened Kenzie's first and this is what it was:

Kenzie is such a sweet girl!  She did a good job.

This is what Maddie gave me:

Maddie is so sweet too!  She did a good job.  They were both so happy to see the smile on my face, and see that I was happy with them.  I gave them both hugs and kisses, and said Thank you!  They beamed and ran off to play.

I told Matt that I wouldn't make him suffer anymore and that I would open his Mother's day/birthday present to me up.  He went and got it.  I kind of knew what it was before opening it.  I saw a charge on the bank account, and it added up to what  the kindle fire we had been talking about.  I still wasn't sure though, I had to see with my own eyes.  So I opened it, and yep it was a Kindle Fire!
I had to get a picture of it along with our tickets to the piano guys for memories.:

Matt got everything set up on the kindle fire while I got all of my lesson stuff together, and finished getting ready for church.  Church was nice.  The primary sang a couple of songs for all of the Mother's.  They did a very good job.  An added bonus was that my Mom came to our sacrament meeting with us.  I love being able to spend time with my Mom, especially on Mother's day.  The activity in primary sharing time was to make cards and sucker flower bouquets for the mom's.

These were the ones McKenzie and Madisynn gave to me:

I also got a rose from the ward, and a cup full of pansies from McKenzie.  The carnation was from Reams.  They were handing them out over the weekend.  They gave me one as we were leaving the store from buying our doughnuts.  So very sweet!:

I also received a birthday card in the mail from my Aunt Ellen.  I love my Aunt Ellen!  She sends a birthday card every year.  She makes me feel so special.  This was the card she sent me:

After Church I finished making my birthday cake.  I wanted to make a Strawberry Shortcake Triffle.  I had no problem making my birthday cake.  I love to bake!  It's just not fun when I have a time limit.  Anyways I had been thinking about making this for the past few weeks.  I wanted to make it with my Grandma Zollinger's cream cheese filling from her strawberry and peach pies that she always made.  They are the best pies ever!  It just sounded so good.  This is how it turned out:

 I think I did a pretty darn good job!  I couldn't wait to try it that night at my Mom's house.  We were celebrating my birthday and mother's day together.  She was making dinner for us.  Quinn was going to be their too.  I was excited to get over there and spend time with everyone.

Dinner was fabulous.  The conversation was fabulous.  We watched a movie, but I can't remember what one.  I really should blog about it while everything is fresh on my mind.  That teaches me a lesson once again.  It was a fantastic weekend.  Everyone was so sweet and nice, and it was nice to have so many birthday wishes.

Pictures with me, and my Mom and I:

Oh yeah I forgot to say something about the candles on my cake.  Matt put some candles into the grocery cart when we were shopping for ingredients for the cake.  He wouldn't let me see what kind.  I really didn't think much about them again.  I made sure I put them in the bag of stuff to bring to my mom's house.  Matt lit the candles, but we weren't ready to sing.  I wanted pictures of the cake.  It was funny half way through with singing happy birthday the candles started going out and then they lit back up again.  It was funny, but would have been even funnier if we had lit them a little bit later.  I can only imagine them lighting right back up after I had blown them all out and lighting up again.  Too funny!  The Strawberry Shortcake Triffle was delicious, and the added cream cheese layer made it even better.  Next time I make it though I will try using angel food cake in place of the white cake.  the cake crumbled too much and got a little soggy.  It was still good though.

Here is the recipe:

Strawberry Shortcake Triffle:
-White cake mix prepared with ingredients that it calls for on the box.  Or get an angel food cake. crumble it up, or cut up into little squares.  Press firmly on the bottom layer.
- Cool whip 1 large tub
- Strawberry Danish Dessert mix prepared to directions on the box.
- Cream cheese filling: 1 8 oz. block of cream cheese softened.  1 can sweetened condensed milk.  1/3 cup lemon juice.  1 Teaspoon vanilla.  Mix all together.
- Strawberries: cut up and stems removed.

Layer order:
layer 1: crumbled cake
layer 2: cool whip
layer 3: Danish dessert mixed with strawberries
layer 4: Cream cheese layer
Then repeat layers until you get to the top of your bowl ending with the strawberry danish dessert on top.  scoop into bowls and top with cool whip or whip cream.