Kayley, my baby sister but often the most adult one in the house, decided to use the money that would have been used on her birthday presents to instead hold a bake sale in support of Bible Orphan Ministries. She does love to bake, and this strawberry angel food cake just so happens to be her first angel food cake- and the first time we've ever used the angel food cake pan Momma's had for like 14 years. Momma frosted it with 7 Minute Frosting; I'd never heard of that before, but it's just sugar, cream of tartar (I think), and whipped egg whites cooked in a double boiler. Like a meringue frosting. Delicious, especially with extra strawberry pulp mixed in.
We had a mishmash of little dishes for supper- a couple different kinds of sushi, egg rolls, fish sticks, wild rice, red bell pepper slices, and sautéed spinach. We played a game of Nerts, which I just learned for the first time. It's like solitaire, but for a group. You can play your cards on anyone's aces, and it's like a race to see who can play the most cards the fastest. No taking turns!
I got the idea to make a birthday stocking for my sisters. I wanted to give Kayley some little gifts that I had lying around already or that I made myself, the sorts of things that might be stocking stuffers if it were Christmas. Originally I was going to make it a stocking shape, but that seemed too seasonal, and I went with a triangular shape in the end. It has straps to tie it to the birthday girl's chair, and glittery tulle and ribbon for pizzazz. I gave her the bracelet I made in the photo above (using a variety of old craft supplies I already had- the spiral wire pieces are really scrapbooking supplies, held together with jump rings and spiced up with seed beads). The other things in her birthday stocking were a packet of Tee Chia cereal and a journal. She told me later with a smile that she was "actually surprised" by it.
