The perfect age!

November 8th my husband celebrated his 33rd birthday. According to him and Thomas Aquinas it is the best age.

The little boys let us sleep a little bit later than usual. I made breakfast from the fruits of Kleinshire. Consisting of our home cured bacon, eggs from our hens, and tomatoes from our garden. It was quite tasty. I also made Franz coffee, don't ask me if I made it right. I don't drink coffee so I have to guess how much to grind and throw in the French press. I made myself a nice pot of tea.

After our lovely breakfast I headed out to pick up a free table from someone and get a few things I needed from the store. Cletus came with me while Cyprian and Clement worked out in the garage with Franz.

I got home from errands just after noon. I suggested we should try the Common Grounds shop for lunch. It is down the road less than two miles from us in Bunn. We have talked about checking it out, having been told it is a nice spot. So, Franz pumped all the tires on the bikes and the trailer. Franz hauled Cyprian and Clement in the trailer while Cletus sat in the toddler seat on my bike. It was a beautiful day cool, clear, with beautiful fall colors.

The Common Grounds is run by a sweet older couple. Well at least the guy is really nice. His wife was not there while we were. They do a lot of fun community things such as karaoke, dart tournaments, hosting gatherings, bands playing music, etc. The set up is cozy and inviting. There is a whole table of toys and a shelf full of board games. Franz and Cyprian learned how to play connect four. Yes, Franz has never played before. He and I faced off and I have to admit he did beat me twice, though I won more games. We ordered the boys hot dogs and ourselves sandwiches. We also got one big peach smoothie and Franz ordered himself a Chai latte. After enjoying our lunch and games we headed back home. Actually, we raced back taking the loop that leads home. Franz led the whole way till the very end. I made a sneaky pass and won the race:')

At home, I got Cletus ready for a nap and tried to rest. Between older boys coming to me to ask me questions and baby Klein being active I had to settle for just trying to relax a bit. Since Cletus was napping I was able to hang laundry and spend a bit of time outside watching animals and hanging with the boys. I collected eggs too.

Then it was time to to start making Franz's birthday dinner. I started by grinding gold'n'white flour. I had a dozen fresh eggs from our hens sitting on the counter to make homemade Angel food.

Angel food cake: Taking a dozen eggs I separated the whites into a mixing bowl. I saved the yolks to fry up for breakfast. Then I whipped up the egg whites with half a cup of organic sugar, putting in some vanilla and almond extract. I also put just over a tsp. of cream of tartar. In a separate bowl was mixed one and a fourth cup of flour with just over a cup of sugar and a dash of salt. After the egg white mixture was beaten to the point where it formed nice peaks. I folded in the flour mixture. Lastly I put the batter in a greased angel food cake pan. I used coconut oil. It was suppose to bake at 350 for 40 minutes or so. Clement was the lucky fellow who got to lick the spoon. Cletus was still asleep and Cyprian was outside with Franz

Now I did this, and halfway through the baking we had a power surge or something that made the power go out in the house for a moment. We have an electric stove. So when the power came back on I thought I turned the oven on. Cletus also woke up at this point due to Clement screaming in terror when the light went off on him in the bathroom. So, I got Cletus and Clement and set them up at the table with paper and washable markers. They were going to make cards for Daddy. I started making my pizza dough. Warm water, yeast, organic sugar, I let it sit a bit. Then adding salt, garlic powder, onion flakes, Italian seasoning, and olive oil. I mixed it all together. Flour was added and kneaded in till a nice dough consistency formed. The big ball of dough was tossed into a bowl covered and left to sit on the warm stove for an hour for raising. Cyprian came in from outside and went to work on his card for Daddy.

I had gotten to this point with the dough mixed and sitting on top of the warm stove. I kept checking the cake and thinking man it is not turning golden on top like it should. It rose beautifully, but still was not finishing. Then it dawned on me. Yep, I thought I had turned the stove back on after the outage, but I had only turned on the stove temperature and had forgotten to press start. Ooops! So a half hour after the outage I turned the stove back on, which at this point was only at 160 degrees temperature.

Hoping a I hadn't ruined the cake, I started cutting up toppings for the two pizzas I was making for supper. I chopped up some bacon I had fried up from breakfast, onions, and black olives. From our garden I chopped green bell peppers, hot peppers, and tomatoes. I then shredded mild and sharp cheddar goat cheese from Wisconsin. Once all the toppings were ready I spread the pizza dough out on pizza stones I went to put my pizza sauce on the crust and threw a bunch all over Clement and myself. No joke, Franz had to carry Clement to the tub while I wiped sauce off the table, chairs, floor, and shoes that happened to be right there. Amazingly I didn't lose it. After desaucing things. I carefully poured pizza sauce onto the crust and spread it. Then I made one pizza for the kids which excluded peppers, and onions. Franz and my pizza had the works. The cake came out of the oven smelling great and having not sunk too much considering the long drawn out baking process. I then proceeded to make an improvised frosting recipe. I used coconut oil with just a pat of butter, whipping it up with regular organic sugar, and adding a bit of vanilla and almond extract. Lastly a dash of goat milk. I kept it in the fridge after thoroughly blending it, to keep till I frosted the cake after supper

First fire in our fireplace!

While I was making the pizza Franz started a fire in the fireplace. This is the first we have used our fireplace. It is a mighty .pleasant thing to have a fireplace! He used wood he had cut up from a tree that had fallen on our fence. The boys were all ecstatic over the fire. So while Franz and the boys were sitting and enjoying the fire I finished up supper preparations and set the table.

Enjoying the fire

Pizza party!

Bonfire!

Quick, put out the fire before the house burns down!

The food smelled so good. It tasted even better. Franz had a fancy bottle of wine. I enjoyed a small cup. But mostly I drank sparkling water. The boys had milk. Once all were satisfied. I got the cake ready. 33 candles is a lot! We lit the small bonfire and we all sang Happy Birthday. We all had cake with vanilla ice cream and strawberries and blueberries, I had taken out of the freezer. Franz opened his present from me and the boys, which was a gun cleaning kit. Yes, I am definitely a country girl and like practical gifts given and received. The boys each gave their card they had made.

Birthday boy with his cake:')

Every gun owner should take care of their gun.

Cyprian's card for Daddy. Notice some pizza sauce....

Clement's card for Daddy. Notice he has a C and d for him and Daddy:')

Cletus's card for Daddy. He is an artist!

Feeling full I went and got bath water for the boys. I took Cletus first as the two older boys were still finishing up. I was undressing Cletus and had just taken off his cloth diaper when I realized he was about to poop. I tried to get him on the toilet but was not fast enough. So our bath mat had to go in the laundry. I washed up Cletus and let him play a bit. I took him out and sent Cyprian and Clement to wash with stern instructions that there was to be no splashing because of Clement's stitches. Amazingly they listened. I got Cletus in his footsie pj's and he played with Daddy by the fireplace. I went and washed Cyprian's hair then sent him out to Franz to get his footsie pj's. I then very carefully washed Clement's hair. After Clement was dressed in pj's, I brushed the boys teeth while Franz put food away.

Then Franz hauled boys on his back crawling on all fours to the bedroom. We eventually got boys into bed and prayed our family rosary. By the end Franz was falling asleep. We headed out of the room after blessing each boy and tucking them in. Cletus was the only one still awake but soon fell asleep.

I was feeling tired too. Instead of cleaning the whole kitchen I stacked the dirty supper dishes into the sink, wiped the stove, table, high chair, and counters down. Then swept the floor. I did not wash dishes which is something I rarely leave, but alas I am not perfect and it was good enough for me to just have all straightened up.

Franz watched the news and fell asleep in his recliner. I watched tv for awhile. Then finally decided that we should head to bed.

It was a beautiful family day overall. Franz even whispered sleepily how much he enjoyed the day and thanked me. I was not able to sleep very well due to baby Klein deciding that it was party time for him/her now that all was quiet. I was very happy and content though and decided to enjoy the active little ones acrobatics while I tried to find a comfortable position to rest.

I love God, my husband, and my boys. It was a blessing to celebrate Franz's birthday in a very family oriented way.