Our friend, Rob, makes the best birthday cakes for his family. He usually makes a sheet cake, cuts it into a shape and then decorates it. He makes whatever was significant for that year - like a sneaker when his wife ran a marathon, or the cover of "Goodnight Moon" when his daughter was turning 1 and loved that book.
My kids are always saying "we wish Rob could make our cake", so I decided it was time to give it a try before they left our family for theirs.
Jane loves purple and horses, so requested a "purple horsey cake." No huge surprise there. I asked her what kind of cake she'd like it to be inside and she said "purple", I explained I was talking about the inside of the cake and it could be vanilla, or chocolate, or yellow cake ... She repeated "purple." OK then, purple it is.
I made a white cake and added purple food coloring. These scraps show the color.
Then I cut the shape. Rob free-hands his, but I'm not that good. I used a favorite coloring page of Jane's and enlarged it on my printer, then cut around it.
Then decorated it to look like a horse, in her favorite colors.
She liked it!
With 3 pink candles ready to sing.
Happy Birthday to Jane!
I don't know anyone who loves birthdays as much as Jane. Even as an infant she knew what they were, she gets the concept of it being your special day, the cake, gifts, everything.
We don't give our kids a birthday party every year, and Jane had one for her 1st and second, so I was going to skip this year. Jane asked for weeks before her birthday how long until her "
birthday party" and talked non stop about her "
purple horsey cake" and that she was going to invite "
everyone."
At the last minute, we invited over a few of her friends for cake and ice-cream, bought some balloons, threw out our bounce house, and put the bubble machine in the backyard. Instant birthday party. Jane bought it, and was delighted that her friends came over to share her day.
After everyone left we took her for her birthday surprise - a horse ride (really a pony, but she didn't care.) The pony was really cute, and named "Tinkerbell" - she was delighted.
She got to be lead around the arena twice. Rick said "It's probably really dangerous that this place is so close to our house." Yeah, I think we'll be back on a regular basis.
After her pony ride we went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We had just been seated and ordered when Jane said she felt sick. She was lethargic, and felt warm, and wouldn't get off my lap. She even dry heaved a few times. I had them put her food right in a box, and was thinking about leaving Rick and the others there, taking Jane home to get ready for bed and some Tylenol and then going back for them. Rick suggested we just eat and then all leave together, since the food was already there - but I just felt awful for her - who wants to be in a busy restaurant on a Saturday night, surrounded by food if you're feeling sick? Even worse on your birthday! I decided to zip into Whole Foods, which is next door, and see if they had any kind of homeopathic fever reducer, that could tide her over until we got home. I bought some oscillococcinum, which I have never used before. I gave it to her and within 10 minutes, she was sitting up, eating her food, drinking lemonade and talking. Even the waiter commented "Oh, you feel better now?" when he came by - it was a marked difference. By the time we left, she was skipping out of the restaurant, holding the bag with extra food it it, and swinging it around. I'm not sure if it was a fluke, but I'll definitely try that again when one of them gets sick!
When we got home we opened presents from family. She got lots of lovely things including -
A purple skipping rope from Emily -
from Green Toys, the handles are made of recycled milk bottles.
A light saber from Jacob - purple, of course.
Comes in handy for battles with Jedi brothers.
A big horse puzzle and horse stickers from Rebekah.
A new tea-set from Grandma & Grandpa O.
She had asked for "a big big horse." So, we gave her a Breyer one - that looks like "Spirit" (from the movie.) But I also got her a stable to play with all her smaller Schleich horses.
It's beautiful, and she loves it. Because it's made by Schleich, all the other horses we have (we have many) fit in it really well.
I also got a fence to make a corral around it.
She and I will have lots of fun with this one!
We changed pj's - it was too hot for winter one's, and then opened cards. Grandpa D. sent her money. I asked her "What are you going to buy with it?" She said "A horse."
At least she's consistent.
All in all, I think she had a really great day.
He named two of them. He called them "Vampire, Vampire" and "Colin."
