Birthday!

Caitlin had a fun, but packed birthday.

Because she had gymnastics in the morning we met Jon for lunch.

Caitlin chose to eat at Cinco's because she remembered that hat she saw another person get to wear on their birthday. I'm sure it helped that she loves the food.

 Unfortunately when they came to sing to her, she was crying about something we had made her do. 

 Ice cream cheered her up though.

 But the sweet guys at Cinco's thought she needed a candy ring in addition to the ice cream.

 She then chose IHOP for supper.

She had requested a pink and purple cake. But I forgot until the night before and was rushing to try and get her gifts wrapped and cake made. So please ignore the lack of decorations or the skill level on the icing. I figured she wouldn't notice as long as it was pink and purple. Thankfully I was correct.

On another note - On Thursday I couldn't get Caitlin to come to the table to eat breakfast. So finally I went into her room to get her so we could take Dominic to school. She was sprawled out on her floor playing with her doll house and the Polly Pockets. I threw her into the car in pjs and no shoes. When we returned she headed straight for the bedroom to play again. Nothing I said could convince her to change her clothes or eat a thing. Since I was feeling pretty cruddy I left her alone and about 11:45am she came out asking for lunch. I convinced her to change before lunch or she would have spent the day in pjs. Every day she's spent at least a couple of hours playing in her room. Even Dominic is enjoying using his men to play with her. It was clearly the perfect gift for baby girl.

The making of a cake

After the terrible cake that I made for Caitlin's pre-birthday party a few weeks ago I felt I had to redeem my self. I had received a recipe for marshmallow fondant the day after I'd made the first cake. So I thought I'd try it.

It's rather time consuming. The "dough" has to be kneaded for about 10 minutes.

I made it several days before I needed it in case it turned out bad I could make another batch. So this is the fondant right out of the frig.

I had so much "help" while making it that I thought I'd make it while Caitlin was sleeping and Dominic watching a video to lessen the time it took. Dominic wasn't even remotely interested in a movie. =)

Rolling out the fondant.

On the cake and trimmed. Notice my cheat icing if this didn't work out? 

Turns out that makes really great glue for attaching the fondant circles to the cake.

I like circles and Caitlin likes pink. 

So I thought I'd do something easy that we'd both enjoy.

Making the circles.

The finished product.

 

Caitlin wanted pink cake. I wasn't sure I wanted the whole think to be strawberry cake so we compromised. She certainly didn't complain.

I had some fondant circles left over. Caitlin was up from her nap by this time and asked for one. Why not? It's almost her birthday. She was very excited to have her "candy". 

I looked outside and saw a gorgeous sunset. So I grabbed the camera and ran out to try to capture it.

When I returned I found a little girl with very stuffed cheeks frantically stuffing more "candy" into her mouth before I could reach her. She was one unhappy little girl when I took her away from her treat.

I was so excited about how well this cake had turned out for my first time. I even posted pictures on Facebook. Then I made the cherry pie for my dad. 

Pride goes before a fall.

The top of the pie literally fell off of the pie and onto the bottom of my stove where I'd neglected to place a overflow pan. 

The edges were starting to burn so I took it out of the oven.

When my dad cut into it, the entire pie was gooey. 

Not one of my prouder moments. =)

Caitlin's early birthday!

We had decided to have Caitlin's birthday party a little early for Jon's family.

We chose supper time and took her out to the Olive Garden. It's so nice when they can't talk yet and you get to chose for them. Dominic was sure she'd said Taco Bell. The rest of us were sure it was Olive Garden. =)

After we ate, we came back to the house for the cake. Now before you see the pictures I'll tell you that this is the ugliest cake I've EVER made. I didn't have a creative bone in my body that day. I hope she never compares it to Dominic's 3rd birthday. His wasn't a masterpiece, but it was creative and showed some thought. =)

I made the cake on Sunday morning and had so much help. I gave the cake a crumb coating and was trying to ice it when Caitlin started dumping pink and purple sprinkles on it. She had tons of fun and I guess that is what really counts.

Some cupcakes I made for the people who think that frosting is why you eat cake.

 The head lamp that Dominic is wearing was given to him by his Gramps. He wears it everywhere - restaurants, gymnastics, grocery store. It's humbling. =)

I don't think she had a clue what the occasion was. But she knew it was cake. And that's enough to get excited about.

Caitlin can't blow very well so she had a little help from Daddy.

 

One of her presents.

Eating cake!

 

Happy Early Birthday little girl!

Belated Birthday pictures

A little late, but here are some pictures from Dominic’s actual birthday. I went to a friends house and posted a blog on his actual birthday using her WiFi. I had intended to post everything after he went to bed that night, but with the modem out I knew I wouldn’t be able to. I really wanted to post a birthday message on his actual birthday. I know - very OCD. So here are the pictures.

He wanted to have pancakes for breakfast, Taco Bell for lunch with Daddy and pizza and cake for supper. Thankfully they were all wishes that I could make happen. So we invited some friends over for supper and I made another cake.

I forgot to make the cake until 3pm and everyone was coming over at 5pm. So the cake was still a little hot when I tried to put the frosting on. This was a normal cake for me, unfortunately. But thankfully I didn’t have to put any major decorations on it.

The kids were covered in food and so we (gently) threw the kids in the tub together. It was a bit crowded. =)

Early Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Dominic’s birthday early while the grandparents were here. Dominic wanted a skate board park cake. I have NEVER made a themed cake before. So here is a picture of my attempt at a skate board park cake.

I made the actual cake before Dominic went down for his nap. He was pretty excited. He brought his seat over to the oven and thought he’d wait until it was done baking. Poor little kid just couldn’t wait for 30 minutes.

Here is the final product. I must admit - I was impressed with myself. =)

Dominic trying to blow out his candles. He was told not to spit and so had trouble blowing with out spitting.

Dominic got several nice presents. But the largest one was a new bike. We tried to pick out one that looked the most like a trick bike. I don’t think he was convinced it was a trick bike, but he loved it anyways.