Cousins, Superbowl, and Gluten-free cake

These past two weeks Dan and Catrina have been in the states with Eva and Aidan. We have enjoyed two full weekends together, celebrating belated Christmas (at Mom and Dad's in VA), Dan's Birthday (spent at Ash's home in VA), Catrina's birthday, and introducing the cousins that haven't met. Tristan and Eva hit things off well and attended the same Sunday school class both at Burke Community Church and Calvary Church. Anastasia and Acadia were together and Aidan and Brayden are the same age. Of course, that leaves baby Gwedolyn. She's the youngest of the bunch and all of the cousins love her. Aidan and Bray are especially gentle and loving toward her. Pretty amazing that two one year old boys could be so sweet with a baby. We all really enjoyed watching the children interact and connect. We even enjoyed a snow day together! It was really a special time. About ten minutes after Dan and Catrina drove away from our home Anastasia said, "I miss my cousins!".
 Catrina shared her birthday with Superbowl 48 and it was the first superbowl she's seen. Turned out to be a lousy game, for football fans, however, we enjoyed eating birthday cake all week. This is the first gluten-free cake that I've attempted and I learned that gluten-free cakes dry out easily and should never overbake. Mine, unfortunately, was on the dry side. The layers of cheesecake helped moisten the red velvet cake layers and the white chocolate frosting added sweetness to balance the flavors nicely. Overall it wasn't bad, but I would've liked it more moist.



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