Friday, March 29, 2013

A Twins Birthday Cake Dilemma

Our twins recently turned six! It is hard to believe that it was six years ago that they were born and have grown to be the great kids they are today. This year we had an added wrinkle to deal with--the Jewish festival of Passover. For those unfamiliar with this holiday, it comemerates the old testament story of the Hebrew slaves' exodus from Egypt following the ten plagues. For eight days, Jewish people and families have to eat only unleavened bread, and grain products made from this. Since the date of the holiday changes with the moon calendar, this was the first year that our twins' birthday landed on Passover. This meant a couple of things. First, we moved their birthday party forward to be on a weekend following Passover. No big deal here. Then we had to decide what to do about celebrating their birthday with their grandparents and decided to do so during the first seder, just before their actual birthday. We went to buy a Passover cake from a local grocery store and discovered that they actually made customized birthday cakes for the holiday. But due to the high cost and not needing so much cake, we opted for one round cake. We were told it could be decorated in two different colours for each half and have flowers for my daugter and balloons for my son along with their name on each side. We usually have two cakes but the kids were fine with the one to share as long as each had what they wanted on it. They even agreed to have one layer be chocolate and the other vanilla. Unfortunately, when we got the cake, the store had not decorated it as two halves, but used the colours in layers and placed the flowers and balloons more randomly. We hoped our twin son and daughter would not be disappointed and luckily they weren't. We got candles with the letters of each of their names and they blew out these together, which again was fine with them. But as a tradition in our family, we sang each of them happy birthday individually. Even on their actual birthday, I baked Passover brownies with them, and when it came time to lighting candles and singing happy birthday (twice again), we asked whether they wanted the brownie cut in two separate halves or kept as one. Our twins again chose to share the brownie. This time we did light number six candles separately, so at least they got to do that. They were really good about the whole thing, and it taught me that they still really enjoy and appreciate celebrating their birthday together. I hope this continues for many years to come!