how to make a birthday cake with your family

Making a chocolate cake as a family activity is good fun (not clean fun, but good fun). Here's how to do it.

First, find a recipe that you can actually make with the ingredients you have in your house. Or plan ahead. We did the former.

Sit at the computer in a comfy chair while you name ingredients and quantities to your daughter and husband, and watch them assemble it. Very entertaining. Show them where the blender and baking ingredients are, when necessary.

Hand everything that is dripping with chocolate batter to the two year old. Also good entertainment.

Remember not to clear the timer on the microwave, so you actually know how long the cake has been baking in the oven. (In our case, it got a little dried out. Oops.)

After all small people are in bed and you've enjoyed a good movie (the kind that makes you laugh and cry alternatively), ice the two layer cake with much more icing than required. Yum.

The next day, after your toddler has shared her excitement about having cake for lunch with most everyone at church, invite your husband to assemble candles on top of the cake. Thank him for putting on far less than the required number. (Ignore the fact that there weren't that many candles in the house, and assume he's done it as an act of love.) Blowing out candles alone is not nearly as fun as inviting a toddler to join you, so make that a family event too. Teach your toddler an important life skill: how to lick off the chocolate on the bottom of the candles without getting any wax.

With each bite, count your blessings.

I have more than I can count today.

Thanks to so many of you for your lovely birthday greetings and thoughts. It's been a great day.