My Sweet Abby is 7...

Tonight, I kissed my 6 year old princess good night, for the last time! Tomorrow morning I will kiss my brand new 7 year old princess. I feel crazy every time one of my kiddos has a birthday. I am so excited to see how they will learn and change this next year, but I am so sad that they have to grow and change.

Abby has always been my most unique kiddo. There was more than an entire year of her life when she would not answer to any name other than Minnie Mouse. It wasn't worth it to convince her that she was being crazy, and yes, she was old enough to know better. She finds something that she loves and gives her whole heart and soul to it. She is so special.

For Abby's birthday this year she chose to take the whole family bowling and then out to dinner. She didn't want a party, just family time. I will admit, I am pretty excited that she chose us. She didn't ask if a friend could come, she didn't ask for a present, just time with us. I am so proud to be her mommy.

As a surprise, I switched snack days for basket ball so that I could bring cupcakes for her team. When I told her this evening how lucky she was that her actual birthday landed on her basketball day, she was thrilled!

Of course her request was pink cupcakes with pink frosting. How could I say no to that? Who am I kidding? I would NEVER say no to that!

Our evening was spent whipping up some pink vanilla cupcakes with  pink buttercream frosting, while Abby watched my every move and danced around with delight. Before I could frost them for her it was bed time, and I explained that she will have to wait until morning to see them. She was a little disappointed until I snuck into her room with a little piece of frosted cake for her.

I only wish that I could bottle up her brand of crazy because it is amazing. I hope that she never changes.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Yesterday I made a mistake. I mentioned, in front of the kids, my desire to make cinnamon rolls.

When the kids got up this morning they fully expected that there would be pans of fresh cinnamon rolls ready for them. I felt bad... really bad...

To make up for my mistake I decided to make Cinnamon Roll Pancakes!!

I used a simple pancake recipe that I have used for years, its very basic, no frills, just flour, milk, baking powder etc... I dressed it up by adding a little extra sugar and a ton of cinnamon. Enough cinnamon to change the color of the batter (I added two heaping tablespoons of cinnamon, which was perfect for the volume it takes to make enough pancakes for 6 kiddos).

I decided to make silver dollar sized pancakes or as the kids say,"dippy" sized, because they are cute (the kids and the pancakes). I use my handy dandy cookie scoop for nearly everything, no sense in stopping now! 

Now all of the pancakes will be uniform in size, and cook time. I am still a rookie at cooking on the cast-iron insert on my stove, so uniformity pleases my perfectionism and my inexperience. (Confession: I burned the first batch, don't tell anyone.)

The part that makes these "Cinnamon Roll Pancakes" isn't only the cinnamon, it's the frosting. Yes, I said FROSTING. I used the same maple flavored frosting recipe that I use in my favorite super old cinnamon roll recipe from Pioneer Woman (Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls).  I wanted to make the frosting taste the same but thinner and more syrup like. To make the perfect pancake frosting I, doubled the butter, used salted butter, and omitted the salt. The frosting texture was perfect for pouring, but the kiddos really wanted to dip!

So each of the kiddos got their own ramekin of frosting to dip to their hearts content. 

After breakfast, I got the seal of approval from the kiddos that these are a "make again," but I was not forgiven for the lack of actual cinnamon rolls, and those are expected at some point this week. That's what I get for thinking I was off the hook!