Happy 7th Birthday, Megan!

Megan turned 7 years old last month. I can still remember the morning she was born. Keith's mom flew up to Alaska to watch Joshua, since we knew I would be having a scheduled C-section. When we arrived at the hospital for check-in, I wasn't feeling that great and when the amazing nurse Aida put the transducer on my abdomen, she came back in with one of the doctors, who promptly told me it's a good thing we are doing this today, since I am actually in the early stages of labor. Off to the OR we went and I was greeted by more amazing nurses. Funny how in Kodiak, everybody knows everybody. It's even worse when you are one of the few nurses in Kodiak. I remember joking with my friend Amy (who has now moved on and become an amazing midwife, and pesters me every chance she gets about why I haven't become a Nurse Practitioner yet!) anyhow, I remember Amy was checking my abdomen with the doppler for the baby's heart rate, and I said to her, "I hadn't really thought about this up until now, but I'm slightly uncomfortable being strapped to a table without any clothes on, surrounded by a bunch of co-workers!". We all had a good laugh. One of the other things I remember about the operating room was that one of the physicians (who also owned the practice I was working for at the time) came in and said, "let's get moving, ComFish is starting in a little bit". ComFish is a big fishing convention, and I never did look, but I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a pair of Xtra Tuffs under the shoe covers he was wearing!

We weren't completely certain the gender of the baby we were having. My doctor did an in-office ultrasound, but he wasn't confident on his findings. Or maybe he was just afraid he'd be wrong and he'd have to hear me rub it in the rest of the time I worked for him! We were thinking "girl", but didn't want to plan for one, just in case. I remember the doctor passing the baby off to the baby doctor in the room and saying "it's a girl! what's her name" and me yelling back, "I don't know!". At that point, the fishing doctor joked, "I think you should pick something else, that's going to be hard to spell". I was so blessed to have THREE amazing doctors in the operating room with me.

We rode to the hospital equipped with a list of boy names and a list of girl names, and in the end did not choose anything on our list. Megan is certainly a Megan and I can't imagine her being anything else.

The day we brought her home from the hospital, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground, and she now loves to see those pictures, especially since here in Florida, Megan's birthday is right around the start of when the pool is warm enough to swim in!

Here she is enjoying her white spaghetti with white sauce that she requested for her birthday dinner at Carmella's.

Joshua made her a birthday hat!

I've noticed that most parents bring cupcakes and goodie bags and a whole lot of stuff to school on the day of their child's birthday. It is just my opinion, but I think the teacher is busy enough without having to put together a mini-birthday party for each child in the room. I talked to Megan's teacher and asked about bringing in a snack that day. The kids were doing a fun run that day (1 mile) and so I offered to bring some grapes and watermelon for after the run. Then Megan was feeling bad because someone else had a birthday earlier in the week and brought cupcakes and so Megan wanted to bring cupcakes, too. Now, I'm sure I could have been a good parent and talked about not keeping up with the Jones's or the benefits of eating healthy foods. But, eh, you only turn 7 once! I have great memories of birthday parties at McDonald's (you know, back when it was a treat to go there and not an all the time thing like it is for today's kids!). I also used to have awesome birthday parties at home with regular games like duck-duck-goose, or musical chairs, or pin the tail on the donkey. I remember how special my birthdays always felt. So Megan and I got to looking at some pictures of cupcakes and I told her when I was little, I remember eating cupcakes out of ice cream cones. Keith thought I was crazy, so I set out to recreate my childhood...

They were a huge hit with the kids! I baked the cake right in the cone. Only fill the cone up half way, so that the cake is backed level with the top of the cone (which gives each child a smaller portion of cake, instead of those mammoth size cupcakes that are now so popular!). Then I used my fancy icing set to swirl a small amount of icing on the top and *insert magic mommy wand here* - you have cupcakes fit for a princess!

I've included a pre-cone-filling picture of the cones poked through aluminum foil so that if anyone tries this at home, you'll know how to keep your cones upright while cooking. Really, super-fun for appearances, but also, no messy hands trying to unwrap cupcake wrappers.