Happy Birthday, Dear Katie!

We had a house full of Willdens to celebrate my birthday this year! As per tradition, I made my own birthday cake (that way I always get exactly what I want) and I got to share the party with my nephew Zack and my niece Lindley, who also have March birthdays. Lindley was VERY helpful during the cake-making process--she licked all kinds of spoons for me!


After a big Sunday dinner AND big slabs of chocolate cake we commenced with a root beer tasting. 20 different kinds of root beer--well, 18, because two were repeated oh so sneakily. You would think they would all start to taste the same after a while, but every now and then one would sneak up and make you go, "CACK!" One tasted like dish soap, and one was like some sort of vile medicine--we called it "Rat in the Vat".


Even the Chileans had a go at the tasting extravaganza! My sister-in-law Veronica (on the right) HATES root beer--she says it all tastes like medicine. After our experience with "Rat in the Vat", we began to understand where she was coming from. Her sister, Jacque (left), who had just arrived from Chile the previous day, said that one of the offerings tasted like, and I quote, "horse piss". Oh, the glee! That about made the night for me.


Even Natalie joined in the fun. Can you tell by her grip on the spoon that she enjoyed her first few drops of root beer? (I'm almost positive that we did not subject her to "Rat in the Vat" or, heaven forbid, "horse piss".)