'tis the gift to be simple: CATCHING UP

Boy time flies! I can't believe it's been 4 days since I posted.

We're all recovering from the weekend of parties celebrating Billy's 16th birthday. Our gift to him was a new mountain bike. He didn't even ask for one so it was a complete surprise. He loves to go on really long bike rides on the trails around our farm. His old bike has been broken for a long time. He's been using a bike that someone trash picked for me a couple of years ago. My bike is a street bike so it's not particularly suited to the kind of riding that Billy likes to do. He was SO excited when we gave him the bike. It has gotten a ton of use already. On Tuesday he had fun taking a long ride in the rain. Imagine my happy surprise when he came home and washed and dried the bike!!

Billy had 2 parties over the weekend. The first one Friday night was with his friends. He had 16 kids over for pizza, chips, fruit, veggies and dip, lots of candy, and this amazing birthday cake.

I got the recipe here . It is a chocolate torte. It was sinfully delicious. I made two because we had quite a crowd. We only ended up eating one at the party, so we have thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd one all week. The blog that I found the recipe on is my favorite blog I have ever read. If you enjoy reading blogs, it is one you should definitely check out if you haven't already. You can find it here .

Billy's second party was on Sunday and it was with my family. We had a wonderful time visiting and eating as usual.

Billy picked the menu:

Oven-fried chicken, roasted potatoes, macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli, candied carrots, and dinner rolls. DELICIOUS!!

Instead of a cake, he requested pies.

My mom made pumpkin and shoo-fly and I made apple. I have eaten a little of each and would have a very hard time picking a favorite!

Finally, I want to share with you the newest member of our motorized vehicle family. A new (to us) Ford 9N tractor. Doug bid on it on EBay and won on Sunday night. He and a friend drove 2 1/2 hours each way last night to pick it up (and only got pulled over by the police once).

We've been without a tractor for many years. The old one died a long time ago and we've never been able to replace it until now. Needless to say, Doug is out in the driveway working on it now. It has a couple of problems, but with parts from our old one, I'm sure Doug will make it as good as new in no time.