IT'S ALL FUN & GAMES UNTIL SOMEONE HAS TO BAKE A CAKE!

WE KNOW HOW TO PARTY...

Scene of the crime...a little house on Dixie Drive. The suspect's daughter asked her to make a homemade birthday cake with fresh custard filling and decorated with her favorite colors, pink, orange, & purple. The mother thought it would be a nice gesture to make a cake with love and spend a little quality time with her.

Everything was peaceful and the house was filled with a vanilla-like aroma. Moods were pleasant, the oven was heating at a consistent temperature, and all the decorations for the cake were laid out neatly on the counter. THEN, the disaster began. Homemade custard doesn't taste like bakery custard, the frosting looks way prettier in a can than it does laying all of the counter in 4 bowls with food coloring and knives scattered all around. The sprinkles also look a lot nicer when they manage to stay off of the floor! And who the heck is so talented that they can make a cake that is perfectly even? For sure not me!

I give credit to all those cake decorators and bakers. I guess all that matters is that Devyn got her birthday wish and she was proud of her cake that she helped to make. I had never made a 2 layer cake with homemade filling, nor do I think that I will ever do it again. It did taste just fine, and it looked presentable, but shoot me if I ever decide to attempt that again. This photo will be added to the collection of dessert photos that I made and will never make again.

Because Alayna & Devyn's birthdays are so close together, we had Devyn's party on Father's Day & had a cookout. We had family over and stuffed our faces.

The birthday girl (aka Doodle) with her fancy cake.

Devyn opening one of her many outfits. She is a fashion princess.

The cake was so yummy, Devyn decided to eat it with her face!

This is a "play" Subway pack that we gave to her on her real birthday. She played with it everyday for a week straight and packed it all away neatly in her backpack. I think she fell asleep with on one night.

Since we already had a party, her actual birthday, June 24th was a low-key day. I made her a special dinner and during the day she, her sisters, and 2 friends went to one of the public pool to swim. This is an official picture of Devyn at 7 years old!

That's all for now because we are headed out to swim at a friend's house and it takes quite awhile to pack everyone up. Goodbye for now. Thanks for stopping by.

BIRTHDAY WITH A BANG!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

ALAYNA GRACE!

(She has officially entered into "double digits")

The entire Bilich family...

Jon, Molly, Alayna, Samara, Devyn, Dominick, & Anthony

Forgive me family & friends,

It has been almost a month since my last confession. Can you believe that? Time sure has flown by. It didn't seem like we were busy, but apparently we were when I sit & think of what I would like to catch everyone up on.

As the title stated, we celebrated Alayna's 10th birthday which is the 4th of July. The festivities took place at my sister-in-law's house in Wheaton, IL. It was good food, good company, & a good time. We stayed to watch the fireworks and they were spectacular! The boys sat still in amazement and clapped pretty much after every one. I was kind of worried as to how they would react to the sounds. They slept through them last year so that should have been a sign for what would come for this year.

Since we are only a week into July, I don't feel so far behind on this month yet. The kids have been quite busy. Devyn went to a Riverhawks baseball game (a local pro team) & recently went to lunch with her friend, Ally. She also went on a birthday shopping spree at the mall with her friend Kimmy. More on Devyn in the next entry with her BDay photos.

Molly has gone swimming quite a few times with her friend Sarah. She also went to Volcano Falls (a large park with mini-putting, go-karts, bumper cars, video games, etc.) and sure enough, Molly got hurt. She came home with a black eye from the result of a go-kart crash (not her fault). She is fine and the shiner is going away, but still a little sore. It hasn't seemed to slow her down.

Alayna is at Magic Waters as we speak with her friend Mackenzie. It is a HUGE outdoor water park that's about 5 min. from our house. Hopefully she won't overdo it and get sunburned. She was torn whether she wanted to go or not because she purchased her very own blue IPOD NANO yesterday with $ she has saved since Christmastime. I told her she had to leave that at home. She wanted to stay home to listen to all of the songs she downloaded. It cost about $1.00 per song, so she only has a few. She bought herself a $30 ITunes card for the music. It's really nice and she said that she would let me listen to it. (How kind!) The unit holds 1000 songs and she said she will maybe let me download 1 or 2 songs that I like. What a stinker!

As far as the boys go, they are growing more every day. This is the stage that they are starting to communicate with us a little more and interact with each other too. They have their little quirks that keep us laughing (& guessing), but all in all, they are a joy to be around.

Since I've gotten July out of the way, I will back track and fill you in on June! Sit back, keep reading and enjoy the show!