Happy Hippo Birthday T!

Last weekend we celebrated T's second birthday in the backyard with lots of friends, lots of food, lots of mimosas and bloody mary's and one lumpy, collapsed blue cake!  My birthday party (and I guess party in general) specialty here is brunch since I can make almost everything in advance and just heat things up in the morning and because it is much easier to serve just bloody mary's and mimosas along with some coffee and juice than to operate a full bar.  Also, my children become evil, grumpy, nasty little monsters after about 5pm so evening gatherings aren't really their strong suit.

I was a bit concerned about planning poor little T's party after the unicorn and dragon extravaganza that was K's last birthday party.  I was struggling to come up with a theme when T herself provided one during our last trip to Lower Zambezi.  The girl is obsessed with hippos!  She got so excited ever time we saw any that it seemed like the obvious choice for the birthday theme.  

So, we committed to hippos, brunch, and a date and proceeded full speed ahead.  I ordered lots of hippo plates, and a pinata, and cute little napkins and a nifty little hippo cake topper... or I thought I had ordered a nifty little hippo cake topper which I planned to put in a perfectly lovely round blue cake (a river, obviously).  Except two nights before the party I finally got around to opening the giant box of hippo paraphernalia and no cake topper.  Not because the company forgot to include it.  Oh no!  because I forgot to order it!  I looked at it, I decided I wanted it, but I left off that crucial step of actually clicking on it and putting it into my cart and purchasing it.  Whoops!  Not a problem thought as we have lots of little colorful stone hippos from the local junk market.  Not exactly the look I was going for but it would be fine.  Just fine!  Blue cake (red velvet cake with blue food coloring instead of red).  Not just any cake, mind you, but the same recipe I have been using successfully since 2002.  I have probably made this same cake twenty or thirty times.  Indeed, it is the cake I dyed green earlier this year and cut into the shape of a dragon!  And all I wanted to do this time was color it blue and have a basic two tiered round cake.  Simple!  But then, this happened:

It's a caketastropy!!!

The first layer seemed a bit unstable but I was able to get icing on it.  The second layer was causing a bit of concern and then, at the first spoonful of icing, utter and complete collapse.  I kept adding more icing in hopes I could sort of glue it all back together but it rapidly became apparent that it was just making things worse.  So, I did what any responsible parent would do 15 hours out from a party with a debacle of a cake on her hands.  I stuck it in the fridge, poured myself a glass of wine, and decided to deal with it in the morning!

Once it chilled a bit in the fridge I was able to add a bit more icing and while it was still a lumpy mess we decided it looked rather lie a river in which hippos might live so good enough!  And, not surprisingly, no two-year olds minded one bit that the cake was wonky.  They were all too excited about their blue tongues to care at all.

Victory (or close enough)!

The party was great with a bunch of awesome people.  We had a pinata with pull strings, rather than the traditional whack it with a stick model because I was still a bit emotionally scarred by the stick wielding children from K's party.  This was much safer!  Perhaps slightly less exciting, but so much less stressful.  The kids drew all over the playhouse with chalk, overfed the bunnies (apparently they like banana bread, who knew!), generally ran amuck in the yard, and overall had a ton of fun.  Perhaps I am recalling the morning with mimosa goggles, but I don't really remember a singly screaming fit or fight.  A birthday miracle!

Sting pinata- all the candy without the horrible fear of someone getting hit with a stick!

T got a baby stroller of her own, which she loves, and an awesome piggy pillow.  So cute!

Happy sisters!  Super cute dresses courtesy of grandparents, of course!

Whoops...

Did anyone else totally and completely misplace the months of August and September?  I know October just snuck up on me leaving me feeling a bit confused and discombobulated.  Not that anything drastic or terribly dramatic happened over the past two months.  Just getting into the new normal of our daily routine with K back in school (which she loves) and me starting a new job (which I love) has thrown things off kilter enough to make life feel hectic and rushed.  But, the good news is, I think we are really finally hitting our stride and that October should be awesome!

While the majority of you are starting to enjoy varying degrees of crisp fall weather , things are starting to really heat up here.  We even had one almost 100 degree day, which was a bit brutal.  We are still a few weeks away from rain, as evidenced by the thin layer of red dust that covers everything outside.  I can't wait for the first big rain to come and clean everything up.  It really is quite odd thinking that we haven't had rain since sometime way back in May.  Of course, the rain is going to create some logistical problems with the pet bunnies (which are holding at a total of seven, though I am currently suspicious that there are babies in the burrow again).  We are going to have to create some sort of rain shelter to keep the poor things from being perpetually soaked.

Two of my cousins were in country for a couple of weeks.  It sounded like they had an amazing trip and we were lucky enough to get to spend one small leg of it with them at one of our favorite lodges on the Lower Zambezi.  The elephants were out in force.  On one river cruise we must have seen close to forty of them!  We even got to see a group crossing the river.  Plus lots of crocs and, of course, the omnipresent hippos.  And the adults all had to jump out and push the boat at one point when we got stuck on a sandbank (the Kafue dam had unexpectedly shut a couple of its gates and teh water level dropped a good meter or more overnight).  The girls both had a great time and T especially enjoyed all the hippos.  I am starting to hope just a little that maybe she will actually remember some of this adventure after all, especially if we keep showing her photos and talking to her about all the amazing things she has seen in Africa.  After all, she does turn two tomorrow!

The closes thing we have to a family photo in which all of us look nice.  Poor K, just cannot smile for a photograph, she always ends up looking pained or angry, when in fact she really has a lovely, lovely smile.

One of the big groups of elephants we saw.  Almost certainly all bachelor males hanging out together.  This bunch was very playful and relaxed as they came down for an afternoon drink.  Coincidentally, I was also having an afternoon drink on the water!  Gin and tonic, of course, as it is important to take all necessary precautions against malaria.

We came around a bend in the river just in time to see a group of four elephants crossing at a shallow spot.  We just drifted closer and closer and they totally ignored us and went on their merry way.  It was really neat and the girls were fascinated.

One of the many medium sized crocs we saw on this trip.  We have seen bigger in the past, but these guys were less shy and would let the boat float right up to them without scurrying off.

Finally!  The classic hippo shot!

Its a rough life, but someone has to do it.

I liked how this guy was staring us down from the grass trying to decide what he thought about us.  I also like his little passenger.

And that is all for now!  More soon, I hope!