21st birthday

As weird as it seems, I am now 21 years old... hard to believe time has gone by so quickly. Another year old, but not much wiser, or at least it feels that way... more like, every year I gain, I feel like I know less and less. I can't imagine what i'll be like when I turn 80 or something.

I actually celebrated at home a few days early since I had to be back at school before my birthday. Probably my favorite part of birthdays, I got to decorate my cake (notice I now have a pretty stand to put it on! no more leaving in the pans or using paper plates, lol). I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and white frosting roses, all from scratch! I don't make too many cakes from scratch, but I think it turned out pretty well considering.
... opening presents from my parents.

I had to laugh after I opened this one. Mom had warned me before opening "now, it's not something you asked for but it's something you need" ... 'great', I'm thinking, 'it's gonna be socks or something...' so preparing for the worst, I end up unwrapping a new leather cover Book of Mormon! so cool! definitely waaay better than socks, lol, so I guess I got worried over nothing, but while I guess I do need a Book of Mormon, I wouldn't have said it that way, haha.

... close up of my cake which took nearly a whole day to make from start to finish. I was going to actually put 21 flowers on top, but I got tired after fifteen roses... a little more exhausting work than I had expected, I guess. Plus, I was using a normal buttercream frosting recipe for the flowers, but they really need to be much stiffer so they kept melting before I could finish.