Mom's Birthday

My mother's birthday is February 24. We celebrated it, as well as my nephew's half-birthday, on Saturday. That was the reason I baked this cake.

Mom is very hard to get things for. I don't even know her favorite food. When I asked her what she wanted for Christmas, all she wanted was for us to all be together and happy. So planning a surprise birthday was both easy and difficult. The one thing I know she likes is watermelon. So I got her a real watermelon, and made her a watermelon cake.

It is really a strawberry cake with normal buttercream icing, and the cake was a box mix and the icing was store bought (I have not had much success with making icing and now the thought of making it sends shivers down my back and gives me a headache.)  But I decorated it.

There is a reason why people don't usually icing the inside of cakes. It is very crummy. So after four pieces of being incredibly annoyed and ready to give up, I decided to try freezing the rest of the pieces and finish in the morning.  It worked! I also figured out that by icing the sides and bottom of the piece before setting in the tray sped up the process and kept the pieces separate. The seeds are chocolate chips.

The cake turning out OK made me very happy, but it was nothing compared to my surprise once I got out to the parents. But the funniest part was that I had premonitions of the surprise and had talked myself out of it.

Thursday I talked to my sister and told her about this cake and how I would take pictures of it to show her if it looked good. Friday, my brother's wife called to make some last minute plans and in the course of conversation, I mentioned that I had made eggrolls and had tons of them, and would she like to have some. She said that would be great and make her evening easier. Later she mentioned that a Camp friend was stopping by, and that she had a secret that she would tell me the next day.

That evening, they stopped by to pick up the eggrolls. As Keith left the house, I suddenly thought a very random thing, "They are on their way to pick up Kate. I should have warmed those up, in case they want to eat them on the way." Immediately I began telling myself this was silly because a Camp friend was coming, but the thought still stuck in my brain.

All the next morning, while I was finishing the cake and getting ready to go out to my parent to surprise them for Mom's birthday, I kept pushing the idea out of my head, telling myself not to get my hopes up,  but there was something that kept saying that she was going to be there. When we got there, I took the cake in and Mom met at the door. After greetings, she said, "Do you want to hang up your coat?" Again, the idea that Kate was there hiding in the closet, flashed through my brain. I wanted to put the cake down first, so I again, pushed the thought from my mind.

But when I opened the closet door, who should be there but my sister! You can imagine how happy I was to see her. I had the fun of expectations, and the beauty of surprise! It completely made my day. And seeing her across the table and going on a walk with her and giving her hugs and talking to her and just having her around was wonderful. Good job to Keith and Katlyn for planning the perfect surprise for our family. Mommy got watermelons and her baby girl home for the weekend, and she got to see the surprise for Daddy and me too! Of course we weren't all there; my younger brother couldn't make it. We will look forward to Kate's spring break to be all together again.

Thomas and I took Kate back to the train station on Sunday night. I walked up on the train platform with her. For a moment I felt like the little sister who was in an unfamiliar place and didn't know what to do. Then we hugged good-bye, and I watched her get on the train from our car. How is it that she makes me feel so old and so young at the same time?