Birthday Fun

Being 'back to school' has kept me quite busy.  I continued to feel like teaching, meal prep, grading, laundry, and prepping for teaching the next day consumed my days.

Fortunately, I enjoy all of that.

But.... it was also the week leading up to Charity's birthday.

That meant plans for her birthday celebration needed to be made.

We allowed her to pick lunch -- pizza from Papa John's.  Perfect! Pizza in the Park - a most fun way to celebrate HER!

Next Aunt Biff offered to cook whatever meal Charity would like for her birthday dinner Sunday night.  Upon asking her, she declared, "Chicken tenders, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes."  Quite emphatically, I might add. So, that is what we had with the addition of some regular fried chicken for the grown-ups and some fruit and salad to balance out the starch content of this 'most excellent' birthday meal.

Finally, I asked her what type of cake she wanted on her birthday.

Expecting to hear a flavor and maybe a 'theme' for a cake, I was quite taken aback as Charity began her diatribe of what her cake was to be.

"It should be a .... triangle."  She stated.

"Uh, I don't have a triangle pan, do you mean a rectangle?"  I chimed hopefully.

"Oh yeah, like this."  (As she used her hands to demonstrate how wide and even how tall the cake should be.)  "It should have pink and purple flowers all around the sides. And flowers here, here, and here." (again gesturing with her hands to give me a mental picture of what her heart desired.) "Oh, and a Barbie here."  (Pointing to what would be the center of the cake.)  Finally, she added, "And bumblebees flying around."  Accompanied with a flourish of her hands to demonstrate their flight path.

From around the corner I heard some snickering from Techno-genius who added, "Did you get all that?" with a hint of smart-allicky-ness.

Lifting my chin off the ground, I mentally imagined just HOW I'd pull off just such a cake.

"Ok, Sweetie, I'll try to make a cake just like that."

My mind was racing.  How WAS I going to make a cake that fit her quite detailed specifications.

I do enjoy baking and decorating cakes, but this was going to be a bit on the elaborate side.  To top it off, after her declaration of what her cake was to be, she added to the mix. The Barbie in the middle was to be the 'Barbie cake pan' type Barbie.  You know -- 3 dimensional and all.

Well sure, why not.  Let's just complicate things completely.  LOL!

Techno and I had to go to Colorado to pick up carpet squares for our shed re-model (blog post to come) so we made a slight detour while there and stopped at Michael's to take a peak at the cake decorating supplies.

My plan was to buy 'wings' for the bumblebees and make their bodies out of frosting.  I had also planned to make frosting flowers (although this is not something I'm accomplished at doing.  I tend to stick to the simpler stars and other embellishments, instead.)

While looking for the 'wings', the wonderful Michael's employee showed me the bumblebee 'figures' they had.  Hmmmm... "If I do THESE bumblebees and NOT frosting ones, I could do silk flowers as well."

Ha!

That would save me time AND frustration.  Win, win!!!

From Fri night to Sat I baked cakes (in between painting walls), then Sat night I decorated.

As I was painting and waiting for the dress portion of the cake to cool - Charity announced she also wanted 'hail' on her cake.  HAIL!?  Who wants Hail on their cake? Well, Charity, that's who.  So..... my mental plan altered and I came up with a plan for 'hail' - of all things.

Here's the finished product.  What do you think?  Flowers, a mermaid Barbie (another late request), bumblebees, and last but not least, hail.  ALL in one cake.

The 'flower, bumblebee, barbie, hail' cake

Charity liked it - although she was a little disappointed the flowers weren't 'edible', but.... once she realized she could actually KEEP all those flowers, she was once again pleased.

So blessed to be able to celebrate this precious little girl on her 6th birthday.

Celebrating Charity was a blast.  Pizza and presents in the park.  Followed by chicken, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and more presents at Aunt Biff's house.  Both times with a chaser of pink and purple frosted-bumblebee-flower-mermaid Barbie-and-hail cake.

Her very own 'Brave doll'

A card and check from mammaw.
I see shopping in our future

I think this gift was a hit.

A walking, neighing, horn lighting up unicorn.
What else could a girl want?

A Fairy -- HUGE wings

My Little Ponies.   Of course.

I love her smile!  

I'm glad she liked her cake

Birthday girl gets to lick the frosting.