"I survived Birthday Week"

I survived birthday week. Barely. As I type, my folks are driving home, my in-laws are at Columbus airport awaiting their departure, and SPH and R are at R’s swim lesson. G is napping, and the house is quiet. I am basking in the quiet. This week had a few ups and downs that I will spare you, but overall it went great, and now I can proudly say I have a two-year-old and a five-year-old, something I couldn’t say a mere eight days ago. Although the boys loved their cakes, I feel the need to write this for my future self: Next year, please tone it down on the cake expectations. This year I researched and used a homemade cake recipe for R and G’s cakes. I hate to say this, but I don’t think I will do that again. Why is it that from-the-box cake mix just tastes better? I hate this. We are avid natural food eaters, but I have yet to find a homemade cake recipe that can hold a candle to the boxed cake mix, with all its UFIs and gunk. Sigh. I also went out of my way to find natural food dyes. Strike two. The "red" natural dye made the cake icing look like a milquetoast version of a maroon-ish/magenta color. Lastly, I spent the better half of Saturday morning decorating two race car cakes. I was thrilled with how they looked, but three hours of decorating cakes may be a bit much for me: This week I am going low-key on the cooking. I need a respite after all the entertaining, baking and cooking of last week. Tonight I am happily trekking over to my friend Shannon’s house, as it is her turn to co-op dinner tonight. The rest of the week will most likely be easy-peasy meals, like grilled cheese and soup night, pasta with marinara and a salad, etc. What are your favorite easy go-to meals for recovering from a long week of overdrive kitchen time? SPC