Birthday baking and some Halloween treats

I now have four distinct periods of my life: grade/middle school, high school, college/Kansan and work. I was lucky enough to see people from all four times on Saturday for my birthday. It was an absolute blast, and I saw some people I hadn't in years. There might have been a little drinking involved too, but hey, it was my birthday! Dad and Cathie came to town and then we went out to dinner. Later, it was the customary trip to the Sandbar and Louises. It was great fun. More on that later, though.


I think that once places start displaying their Halloween goods for baking, it's okay for me to start making Halloween treats. Even if that means it's the last week of September. That's what I did last week, at least. They put out lime green candy melts — lime green people! If you know anything about me, you know I had to buy them right then and make the cake pops I'd been wanting to make again. Green with Halloween-ish sprinkles. I tried yellow cake this time. Not too shabby, but red velvet is definitely still my favorite. Now I just have to take that next step and start making shapes out of them...intimidating.


Also, a fun fact about me is that I get suckered in by advertising easily. If I see an ad on TV for some tasty food, I will generally start craving it. And if I walk by a bag of new Halloween Oreos in the grocery store, I'm going to buy them. And make mini Oreo cheesecakes. These are SO good and I forget how much I like them between the times I make them. But I've stocked up on fall-y cupcake liners, so it seemed like a good use for them. I'm going to have to go into cupcake overdrive to use up all those liners though.


Then there was my birthday cake. I debated for a while if I should make my own, but I figured if I could make an ice cream cake for my mom and for my ex-boyfriend, then I could make one for myself. Plus, Kelly helped, so it wasn't totally me! I went for my favorite yellow cake-turned-funfetti layered with cheesecake ice cream from Cold Stone (with more sprinkles and graham crumbs mixed in), fudge and Oreo crumbles. Kelly made the green icing for the cake. Altogether, totally yummy. And I still have some in my freezer up for grabs....

Like I said, it was a great bday weekend. A few snapshots:


My friend Jennifer came all the way from Manhattan just for my birthday celebration (that's her on the left)! On the right is my friend Elizabeth, who's still local but I don't see that often. The tiara was courtesy of the Sandbar.


I also saw some high school friends, including Marshall on the far left. Haven't seen him in a few years either. I don't have that many pictures from the night, but it was a great time!


The day after my birthday, Kelly and I drove down to St. Louis to see Vampire Weekend in concert and also visit my cousin. It was an AMAZING concert. They were so good live, it was like listening to their album.


Last but not least, for graduation, I was supposed to get a dog. Seems unrelated, yes? Well, the dog plan fell through, so on my birthday, my dad gave me my graduation present: a new Canon SLR camera!! Needless to say, I was SUPER excited! Now I can actually take decent pictures for my blog, and of life in general. Oh, and cat pictures, because that's what I'm best at :) I haven't had too much time to play with it yet, but I have gotten some great photos. Case in point: Melvin being obnoxious. I can't wait to mess with it more!