I knew you were coming, so I went ahead and baked a cake

A month ago (yeah, I know, July disappeared, too) we had some visitors (hi, Mom and Dad!!), and since one of them was having a birthday, it really was the perfect reason to bake a cake.  So I did.  At, like, midnight the night before because I have poor time management skills when it comes to prioritizing things and strongly feel that sometimes watching crap TV is number one.  Oops.  Let's commence with the caking.

Is it scary when the stuff IN the mixer matches the color OF the mixer?  Only a little bit...

And that's why you slap on a crumb coat - look at that hot mess of a cake

There, that's better!  Thumbs up to the cake!

This is Dad we're talking about, so I knew red velvet was the way to go.  And yes, it's kinda ridiculous to bake a giant cake for four people to maybe have one piece each, but when has that ever stopped me?  So we kept on celebrating by doing the present thing...

birthday present opening while wearing Father's Day present - now, that's pretty cool, Dad

...and journeying over to Ft. Worth and eating some really delicious Mexican food at El Rancho Grande, where we've been going as a family since before I can remember...

...and doing some definite Dad-style shopping, where Craig was more than just a little out of his element.

"What the heck are these things?" - oh, Craig, so much horse education to go

It was a little on the crazy-hot side, but we explored the stockyards for a little while and found some horsey friends.

Then back home to just sit in air conditioning where certain animals were a little less inclined to be friends...

...but then pretty much got over it and decided these guys weren't so bad after all.

oh, kitten, you are ridiculous

Happy birthday, Dad, creepy dripping candles and all!