Saturday: Birthday Cinnamon Rolls, Build-A-Bear & Dinner at Grandma’s

Today was birthday day, so we started with exactly what Daphne had requested: cinnamon rolls and bacon.

And this is one of those mornings where doing the work a few days early made the birthday feel so much easier.

Birthday Cinnamon Rolls

Earlier this week, I made my favorite sweet milk dinner roll dough and turned half of it into cinnamon rolls.

I baked them all the way through, brushed them with butter, let them cool completely, wrapped them tightly in plastic, and stored them in the refrigerator until this morning.

That meant today I wasn’t making cinnamon rolls. Here is the roll recipe I like to use.

I was just reheating them.

I took off the plastic wrap, covered the rolls with foil, and put them into a 275°F oven for about 20 minutes while I made bacon and we worked through our normal Saturday morning chores.

Then I made the frosting:

• ⅓ cup butter, melted
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• A dash of vanilla
• Heavy cream, whipped in until the frosting reaches a thick but pourable, ribbon-like consistency

Once the cinnamon rolls were hot, I poured the frosting all over them.

And if you want to make them extra decadent, here’s my favorite little trick: after frosting them, put the pan back into that warm 275°F oven for about a minute.

The frosting gets warm and starts working its way down into all those cinnamon-sugar crevices.

Nobody is going to know you didn’t wake up at 5 a.m. and make cinnamon rolls from scratch that morning.

That’s exactly why I like doing birthday breakfasts this way. The homemade part still happens. It just happens on a day when I actually have time for it.

Birthday Morning

We still did our regular Saturday chores because, birthday or not, the house unfortunately continues to require maintenance.

But especially with our younger kids, we like to spread the presents throughout the day instead of having one giant present-opening frenzy.

So after breakfast, Daphne opened a couple of gifts from us and got to play with those while everyone else got ready for the day.

Cleaning Out the Refrigerator

Lunch was basically a full refrigerator clean-out.

We finished:

• The last grilled chicken thighs
• Leftover burgers from Friday night
• A few hot dogs

I turned some of the chicken into wraps for my husband and Fiona, and everyone else mixed and matched whatever sounded good.

It wasn’t a particularly exciting lunch, but it was incredibly satisfying because we used up almost everything.

Our refrigerator is looking very empty now, which means Costco is absolutely happening tomorrow.

Birthday Outing

For birthdays, I love doing one fun activity instead of feeling like the entire day has to be one giant production.

Daphne has been talking for months about going to the “teddy bear store,” otherwise known as Build-A-Bear, so today was finally the day.

My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew joined us, and the kids had the best time picking everything out.

One fun birthday tip: Build-A-Bear has a birthday bear that kids can get during their birthday month for the price of their age.

So Daphne’s bear was $4.

Of course, then you need clothes because apparently we cannot send a naked teddy bear out into society.

She also chose Chase from Paw Patrol, and my 7- and 11-year-olds each picked out bears of their own.

Since we almost never go to the mall, we leaned into it. We stopped at the food court for a snack, wandered around for a bit, and then headed to Mass.

Birthday Dinner at Grandma’s

After Mass, we went to my parents’ house for the big birthday dinner.

Yesterday, Daphne, Eleanor, and Grant had gone over to help decorate.

And this is another one of my favorite birthday tricks: use the things your kids already love as decorations.

I had the girls gather every fun little figurine they could find—Disney princesses, Gabby’s Dollhouse characters, Minnie Mouse, all of it—and they used those all over the birthday table.

My mom had also been quietly saving coloring pages the girls had made over the past few months, so she hung those around the room.

Then she printed pictures of Daphne and put those up too.

My dad contributed a giant birthday balloon from Kroger.

It was incredibly sweet and very her without needing a bunch of expensive party decorations.

We had dinner, sang happy birthday, ate the Gabby’s Dollhouse cake the girls decorated yesterday, and opened the rest of the presents.

It was a really nice night.

Looking Ahead

Naturally, we didn’t come home empty-handed.

We’ve now got leftover birthday cake and some of my mom’s beef stew tucked into the refrigerator.

But otherwise, we’ve officially eaten through most of what I cooked this week.

So tomorrow: Costco restock.

And then we start the whole cycle again.