Somebody Had a Birthday ...

This young lady had a birthday this past week. She's pretty seriously introverted, and doesn't enjoy crowds of people. Parties wear her out. So we had a low-key birthday, which she enjoyed. We dropped by the local thrift store and she picked up this cute top and shorts, plus an adorable pair of lime-green sandals. $6 total, which was nice on my pocketbook.

We also got her all her favorite facial supplies at Walmart, which might not sound like much of a birthday present, but it's what she wanted. "No cheap junk from Dollar General, Mom," she said. So we went to Wally's. Haha! The rest of her birthday cash she's saving carefully, planning on a laptop in the fall. Well ... she's not saving it. I'm hiding it for her in my bedroom, so she won't spend it.
Okay, and instead of a cake, she wanted a batch of homemade donuts.  Here's the recipe. It's Martha Stewart's recipe.

Julia wanted to do the cutting.

Don't turn your oil up too hot. Other times I've done that, and you end up with over-cooked donuts. It was about perfect this time on a low-medium heat.

They are truly fabulous. Only 1/2 cup of sugar in the actual dough. Six egg yolks, so the dough is lovely yellow.

Adam made a pot of fresh coffee, and we called it dinner. Donuts are rather naughty ... and filling.

Later Julia and I biked over to the Bean for a treat. I wanted to round out the fun on her special day.
She got a chocolate shake and I got a mango/vegetable smoothie, trying to be healthy. She hates when I do selfies together, but she can't turn me down when it's her birthday. I just put on that Sad Mommy Face and remind her how lonely I'll be when she leaves home and I have only her old photos to keep me company. Sniff.

This cracked us up -- a clever way to increase tipping at the coffee shop! Just appeal to the natural competition between the genders!

I was standing there, dissatisfied because the women were losing by a few bucks. So I did what any good woman would do. I took a few bills from the men's jar and put them into the women's jar. The gregarious teenaged boy behind the counter smiled and told me that men will take a five out of the men's jar and replace it with five one-dollar-bills, to fill out their jar. But the women? They do what I did. Haha!