Now that it's May and finally (hopefully) going to stay warm and spring-like....I got to thinking about the picture that has hung on my wall since I was little.  May Day Nymphs.....3 little girls all dressed up, ready to dance around the May Pole.

I am 4 in these pictures. My mom ran/worked  the daycare/preschool, which is where these pictures were taken. I don't remember a whole lot about this time. But I love the picture. I reminds me of the great times I had in Maryland before we moved down here to Tennessee.

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So this isn't a too far in the past flashback, but since I am trying to decide what type of cake to make for my youngest's upcoming birthday, this is what is on my mind. So here are the cakes of birthdays past....

Starting with my oldest: The first is a bad picture- but the only one I have on my PC since it was pre-digital camera- it's a yellow car for his 2nd, 3rd: dump truck, 4th: soccer ball, 5th (and 1st): cow, and 6th: monster truck

 Then for my 4yr old: #1: fire truck, #2: Blue's Clues, #3: Thomas the Tank Engine, #4: Alligator

 And my 2 yr old: #1: Race Car, #2: snake

 So the baby turns one on the 27th and we are having his little party on the 22nd, and I can't decide what to make him. He was obsessed with soccerballs but not so much anymore, so I probably won't do that. The ideas on the table from the kids are: Mousie (his stuffed mouse he loves), a dandelion (which I am not sure I could do) and a strawberry. So far I am leaning toward the mouse. Seems the easiest.

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What happens when you get 3 cousins together for a week or so in the summer in Small Town, PA?? My brother, cousin and me would spend our time making up all sorts of games and traditions. It's amazing how only seeing each other a few times a year how we could pick up right where we left off. We would make forts from card tables, benches and couch pillows. We would rummage through the attics and find all sorts of old "stuff" that was so interesting, we would wake up EARLY in the morning to try and beat my grandmother to the kitchen (we only made it once), but the one thing we did EVERY single time was to create our resturant: Cocktail Cafe  (and if anyone was wondering it IS named after the Tom Cruise movie, Cocktail....I hadn't seen it but I owned the soundtrack).

In my grandparent's basement there was a little kitchenette, stocked with old dishes, pans, and some fake food type decorations.

 We even wrote out our whole menu to serve our parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. One of us was the cook, one the host and one the server. We also had a taxi- it consisted of a stationary bike and an old bench. I still remember the time my grandmother fell backward off the bench- she was a good sport and still stayed for 'dinner'

I believe one year we set up a casino as well.  But back to our menu- here I am being served my dinner. It was a very yummy steak....we got very good at balancing our trays on one hand too, too bad I never worked in a real restaurant to use that skill...

And finally: Our masterpiece of a sign to introduce our business:

 Wouldn't you like to come and eat cast iron steak, plastic grapes, a wooden pork chop, and any drink you could possibly imagine as long as you don't mind it tasting like air???

Looking back I wonder how much we annoyed our family running upstairs begging for them to come and eat....but I could talk forever about the times spent in Millville, PA....there are so many good memories there.....

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1983: Bucket-O-Crabs and Me- age 3

When I was younger we lived in Maryland. St Mary's City to be exact. We lived near Point Lookout, where the Chesepeake Bay meets the Potomac River. Down  a long dirt road that flooded everytime heavy rains or hurricanes came near, a walk across the road from our house to the water. One thing I remember the most if crabbing. A short walk from our house, down the dirt road was a little bridge crossing over a marsh where the cattails grew. We- my parents, brother and me- would sit on that bridge and tie a piece of raw chicked to a string and drop it down into the water. Not long after we would pull up a crab or two. The best were the blue ones.

Some days we would row out into the water on our rowboat and pull up the crabtraps. Take tongs and throw them- if I remember correct- in a bucket. Here is my brother looking pretty scared if you ask me...

I wish I could give this experience to my children. It is so different from the rod-and-reel fishing we do up in the Smokies. Besides crabs are so much more yummy! Maybe one day we will drive back up to Maryland- where the best crabcakes are made- and let them have a go a it.

~Sarah **a vegetarian with one exception- crabcakes**

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