Party night with Amanda

Every Tuesday night, my dear friend Amanda comes over and hangs out with me. Over the past few months, we've developed a routine of playing Chinese Checkers on our evenings together. However, we don't play the "normal" way, we're wild and crazy...we play with all 6 colors. Yes, that's right--3 colors each. And yessssss sireee, it gets very confusing!! Well every single Tuesday night for the past I don't even know how many months I've spanked her butt playing this game! She seriously has lost every single round we've played. So a few weeks ago I said, "Amanda, the night you finally win a round of Checkers against me, I promise the following week we will have a party in your honor!" Lo and Behold, Amanda's day finally came last Tuesday night.

So tonight, Amanda showed up to a house full of balloons and a very crummy streamer job. (It's hard for a prego lady to stand on a chair and hang steamers! I kind of gave up!! ...It's the thought that counts...right?!)

When she arrived, the French Vanilla cupcakes were just coming out of the oven. We let them cool for a while and then we attempted to make frosting in a blender. Lets just say..."It didn't go so well." First off, I think I nearly killed my poor little blender, who has never had to work so hard in his entire life time. And secondly, something went waaay wrong with the recipe and I ended up having to add 3 extra cups of powdered sugar. You can only imagine how sweet this frosting was!! In fact, so much extra sugar was added, the frosted cupcakes have begun to crystallize and I can now CUT the frosting. Explain that one! After frosting half of the cupcakes, we decided to try to tone the flavor down with cocoa powder. It worked fabulously--it is now deemed one of the most delicious frostings ever tasted!

We spent the rest of the evening...of course, playing Chinese Checkers. Amanda proudly won another round, to which I quickly informed her that we are not going to be having a party every time she wins a round!! We each enjoyed a cupcake...which was about one cupcake too much, having already stuffed ourselves to the brim with frosting. Needless to say, I think we'll both be feeling pretty awful tonight. :-/ But...that's a price I think we're both willing to pay. Those cupcakes were pretty darn delicious.