Saturday night we had a joint birthday party for my mother and the Professor's granddaughter. They are only 85 years and 51 weeks apart, after all. The little one's middle name is my mother's name, her first namesake, even though there is no blood relationship.

I went to Baskin-Robbins to order an ice cream cake. (Since I discovered these, I have quit baking birthday cakes.) I was later than I should have been, and it was going to be impossible to pick up the cake and get everything else done. So I went on down to Dairy Queen. I had heard they also had ice cream cakes, and for less money than Baskin-Robbins. Well, they had several cakes in the freezer, different sizes and shapes, but all the same flavor: a little bit of a fudge brownie with chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, I'm not sure what else but it was delicious! You can't get the variety of flavors or decorations at DQ, but everyone sure enjoyed this cake.

The little one loves Dora the Explorer, so I got her Dora's Talking Dollhouse. I have never seen anything hold her attention like this did. The older kids got into it, too!

I made three pans of lasagna, two the usual way, with hamburger (I know, it's supposed to be sausage, but none of us like sausage), and one pan made with portobello mushrooms instead of meat. There were 20 of us total, but Guppyman and Stormii came late -- they went to church first. There was one tiny portion of the lasagna with meat left for Guppy, and that was left only because I fought everyone from taking the last piece. If all three pans had been with meat sauce, there would have been nothing left at all. But once the meat was gone, and the men were forced to try the mushroom, they discovered they liked it, too. (Except for Guppy, who from birth on has had an extreme aversion to any kind of vegetable.)

The Professor's kids stayed Saturday night and left mid-Sunday afternoon. Then I had a steady stream of grandchildren stopping by. So my weekend was basically shop, wrap, clean, cook, and enjoy my family. Not a bad way to spend a weekend! Hope everyone else had a great weekend, and that the coming week is terrific.