A Big 4-0

...Continued from yesterday:

     The following day, Saturday, was the day of our daughter's birthday party.
     But there was much to do before the party, starting with, of course, the Saturday morning soccer games,

...followed by the Saturday afternoon soccer games.

      A good spot for little sisters to hang during their big sisters' game.

     After the soccer games we drove home, at one point in the trip passing what would have been the most beautiful vista of the city backdropped by mountains,

...if the scene had not been blurred by the smoke wafting south from the wildfires currently burning to in the north and western parts of Los Angeles County. Thankfully, the fires hadn't reached the South Bay area where my daughter's family lives.
      When we arrived home it was time to begin the party preparations. The dinner would be catered, but there was still setting up to be done and a birthday cake to be made. 
     Earlier in the day my daughter had begun the assembly of her birthday cake, that is, one of her two birthday cakes, this one being a two-layer ice cream cake.
      She made the cake by taking two 9" x 13" cake pans and filling each with a carton of ice cream, one pan with Cookies and Cream,

...and the other with a flavor called Tillamook Monster Cookie, which was vanilla ice cream mixed with M&M's, cookie hunks and a few other yummy ingredients.

    She then topped one of the pans of ice cream with a mix of crushed Oreo cookies and chocolate fudge topping. Then she placed both pans of ice cream into the freezer for several hours.
     My grand daughter and I made the whipped cream for the icing by pouring a quart of heavy whipping cream into a bowl, 

...adding four tablespoons of powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract,

...then whipping until peaks formed, being careful not to over-beat, which will leave one with lumpy, buttery whipped cream.

     Perfect!

      Then my daughter removed the layers from freezer and the girls helped her with the assembly,

...then the icing of the cake with the whipped cream,

...and the adding of the sprinkles.

        After the cake was finished there remained only arranging  chairs for the guests,

...setting up a slide show in the living room,

...and doing some drink-prep,

...for the fruit water.

      At 5:15 pm the food arrived, healthy, yummy fare from a local restaurant called Mendocino Farms,

...including steak, chicken and veggie sandwiches.

      By 5:30 the guests began arriving,

...and digging in.

     Tyson and Pinky's friend Sneakers was also among the party guests.

    Among the party highlights were the slide show,

...which the children especially seemed to enjoy;

...a show put on by some of the children,

...that the dogs joined in;

...Tyson hamming it up;

....the serving of the birthday cakes:

     The ice cream cake,

...and a beautiful buttercream layer cake from a local baker called Susiecakes,

     Both cakes were the stuff of dessert dreams.

    And then there was a beautiful surprise birthday card made by the children,

...decorated with mermaids and merdogs,

...palm trees,

...birthday cakes,

...and the ocean.

     It was a great party.

      The following morning at 7 am my two grand daughters bounced into Tom's and my bedroom and onto our bed.
       "Wake up, Grammie," they cried, "we want to make blueberry muffins for Mommy's birthday."
      Now, they had told me before the trip that they wanted to make blueberry muffins during our visit. I did not know that the plan was to be that we would make them on Sunday morning at 7 am.
      However this day was my daughter's actual birthday, and the girls wanted to surprise her.
      So I hauled out of bed, got the fixins' together and pulled up on my laptop my recipe for Go Crazy Blueberry Muffins,

...so called because you go crazy with the blueberries.
     Here's the recipe:
      Go Crazy Blueberry Muffins
     Muffins:
      3 cups flour
      2 cups sugar
      4 teaspoons baking powder
      2/3 cup vegetable oil
      2 eggs
      2/3 cup milk
     4 cups blueberries

     Streusel topping:
​     1/4 cup sugar
     1/2  of 1/3 cup flour (sorry, I don't know how to better express this!)
     1 tablespoon butter
     1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a muffin pan  with muffin liners.

     Combine the  3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, and baking powder.  Add the vegetable oil.  

     Lightly beat the eggs with the milk and stir into the flour mixture. The batter will be very thick.

   Lightly fold in the blueberries.

     Fill the muffin cups to the top.

      To make the streusel  topping:
​     Mix together the 1/4 cup of sugar, the 1/2 of 1/3 cup of flour and the cinnamon.  Cut in the 1 tablespoon of butter until it's pretty crumb-ish.  

  Top each muffin with some streusel, maybe a tablespoon or two, but not too much, even if you end up not using all the topping (otherwise the topping  might sink into the muffin, as over-heavy streusel toppings tend to do.  So keep the topping on the light side).

   Bake for about 20 minutes (or maybe a few minute more or less according to your oven) until a toothpick  in the middle comes out clean.

     As soon as the muffins were done the birthday girl was led into the kitchen.

      She loved her birthday surprise.