I love a girl who knows exactly what she wants

About a week or so ago I talked to my little niece to plan her birthday cake. This year her birthday will fall at the end of our big Spaulding family reunion and Grandma, on her last visit to Texas, suggested we hold a little celebration as one of the festivities. Grandma also happened to suggest a Patriotic-themed cake since it will be July.

Before continuing, I have to say that I absolutely love this little girl- she cracks me up. Nine years old and the stories about her are already legendary; everyone knows and loves them and we usually end up weeping with laughter by the end of the telling.

So here's something of how our conversation went. . .

Me: "Ok, do you have any ideas for your cake?"

Annalee: "Yes. Aunt Molly, I want red, white and blue,

and an American flag- with the stripes and stars. And a river. And I want the Declaration of Independence on it, a feather quill, Thomas Jefferson, and a tricorn hat.

Lucky I had a pen and notebook handy. Smoke was starting to rise from the friction of my furious scribbling, trying to keep up. It appeared my own little idea of how this cake was going to go was already out the window. And I'm thinking to myself, did she really say a tricorn?

M: "Sorry, hun,. . . you want a what?"

A: "A TRI-CORN." Spoken in her slowest, help-the-toddler-learn voice. "Do you know what that is, Aunt Molly? It's a hat."

M: "Sure do." Scribble, scribble, sigh and drop the pen. "Alright, well that sounds pretty cool. . . is that it?"

A: "Nope. I want fireworks coming out of the top, and the cake should be white and then we can have ice cream and have blueberry sauce and strawberry sauce, and then that will go with the red white and blue. And can it be three layers tall with ten candles on top?"

M: "Wow, alright. That sounds pretty darn cool. How 'bout some tie-dye? Are you sure you don't want a little red, white, and blue tie-dye in there too?"

A: Silence. "Ok."

Like I said, I love a girl who knows exactly what she wants. It commands respect.

I think this cake will too. We'll probably need to salute before cutting.

Then her little brother got on the phone to tell me precisely what I needed to teach his mom to do for his Super Mario birthday cake on Friday.