Grandpapa's Birthday

Yesterday was Jerry's birthday (I won't tell you how old he is!). After dinner, we gave the kids quick showers, then took them over to Faye and Jerry's in their jammies. We brought one of the apple pies I made the day before for a birthday dessert.

Here's Grandpapa with all his grandkids, who are quite the "Happy Birthday" singers.

Berkleigh loves her Grandpapa, and it looks like the feeling is mutual!

Merlyn has her sights set on that pie. Bryan had just moved it away from Berkleigh, who was sneaking samples (the camera caught her licking the evidence off her fingers).

For those of you who wondered about my apple baking products: this pie is all gone, and the other three are in the freezer. The kids gobbled up a whole quart of applesauce the night I made it. The other two quarts are safe in the freezer. I made two more quarts yesterday: one we had with mac and cheese tonight, and the other I froze. I divided two dozen cookies and a dozen muffins to send to my brother and one of my friends, who I won't name because I don't want to spoil a surprise.

That leaves a dozen muffins (in the freezer) and two dozen cookies. If I don't freeze things, they won't last long in our house. Those two dozen cookies disappeared quickly. My four kids and five daycare kids ate the last of them for afternoon snack on Wednesday. Normally we eat healthy snacks, but I figured they were apple, so they were okay for a treat.

Aleesa, who is four, has been coming to my house for over three years now. When she bit into her first cookie, she said to Merlyn, "Your mom makes the best cookies ever". I looked over at her and she said, "Carrie, you make the best cookies ever." I made a big deal out of hugging her and saying thank you (it was really cute) so of course Merlyn had to get in on it. She said, "Mommy, you make the best cookies in the whole world." I know she only said it because Aleesa's comment made such an impact, but it was still a nice feel-good moment!