I'm Dreaming of a Cupcake-y Celebration

My birthday is coming up quite soon and, while turning 41 is not what I've always dreamed of, I DO indeed love a good birthday celebration. I'm one of those grown-ups who would still throw a birthday party for myself (with costumes and games and little blow-horns) every year if I could get away with it...and, you know what? I often do! :-)

This year my birthday is smack-dab in the middle of an incredibly busy week. So busy, in fact, that I'm not sure when we're going to get to celebrate it. Gary will be coming home tomorrow from a weeklong trip to Dallas and we will go full throttle into McKenna's first high school game on Friday night, Delaney's first softball tournament of the Fall on Saturday, practices on Sunday, and volleyball matches on Monday. My birthday--on Monday--seems to just be sorta inconvenient this year.

But, never fear, we will find a way to celebrate! We will carve out a few hours with my parents, and Gary and the girls and I will manage to somehow get in our annual birthday bowling extravaganza (this became a tradition five or six years ago for some reason, and now we all look forward to it) and some good food somewhere (you know I'm gonna find that!).

Gary wrapped a gift for me last week (a full TEN days before my birthday) and wrote the nice little note, "Enjoy the wait!" on its gift tag. I've stared at a lot, shook it some, but have resisted the temptation to bust into it and rewrap it while he's been out of town. And the girls will treat me fantastically (as they always do on my birthday) and it will end up being a wonderful week-long celebration!

But, what I really wanted to mention...those like last four paragraphs just poured out of me and I didn't mean for them to (that's what you get when a very verbose--i.e., talkative--person writes a blog!)... was all the cupcakes, and cakes, and assorted baked goodness that I've found online and am now seriously craving, and will seriously be making and indulging in within the next week (both for my birthday, and for other various reasons. Because, really, do you have to have a birthday to enjoy a cupcake?)

First off, I found these Rainbow Bright Cupcakes on one of my favorite blog (Cupcakes Take the Cake) and I WILL be making these very soon. They will either make an appearance Monday for my birthday or I will make them for my middle school girls group at church on Wednesday. How adorable are these?...

And then, I am absolutley going to try my hand at baking my first-ever homemade Red Velvet Cake. I've made one from a mix before, but after catching Cake Man Raven on "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" about a week ago, I decided I had to try his recipe. How perfect will this be for my party the following weekend to celebrate Alabama's first football game of the season? (I may call it Crimson Velvet Cake just for the occasion)...

But since those delicious creations seem a little too far off, I believe I will be trying these Banana Cupcakes tonight. I found them at Bakerella, which is my very favorite dessert blog. They look delicious and I'm thinking that I can get away with calling them breakfast since they are made with bananas (although there is also a lot of confectionery sugar and butter and cream cheese in that frosting, but that's neither here nor there)...

(By the way, the recipes for each of these cupcakes/cakes are on the links highlighted in the paragraphs above.)

Yumm, yummm. I can't wait for all the creamy confections to come!

And remember always...

Life is a celebration every single day.
And you don't need an excuse to smile, laugh, or lick frosting off your fingers!