Actually, I'm going to start on Thursday, the day before Annika's birthday. I baked and decorated the cake for her party on Saturday, and the cupcakes for taking to preschool on Friday afternoon. And as always, she was very excited to lick the beaters (I think I have a picture of her like this from just about every year). This year Emmett even got to join in on the fun.
I baked everything in the morning and then did the decorating while Emmett was napping and Annika was having quiet time. I needed them out from under my feet to concentrate on the decorating! These kids literally like to be "underfoot" when I'm doing something in the kitchen. They pick a spot as close to me as possible to play, making it quite difficult to move around without stepping on one of them (or on one of their toys, or on the entire contents of my Tupperware drawer that they've emptied...). Anyways, the cake turned out to be more challenging than it looked online, which makes me think that from now on I may just do cupcakes for birthdays. Remember how pretty the cupcakes were for Emmett's birthday? I can do cupcakes fairly well and fairly easily - why do I continually stress myself out doing cakes???
On Friday morning, Annika was so excited when she woke up. She even told me "I'm bigger now when I stand up", now that she was four. ;) Carey was already at work when she woke up, but he was able to make a quick stop at home while she was eating breakfast and we gave her one of her birthday presents - a betta fish! A while ago she told me that she wanted a kitten for her birthday (no way that was happening!!), and I told her, "well, maybe a fish", so we got her a fish (I'm sure she had already forgotten about that conversation, but she was pretty excited to get it).
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| She's looking at her reflection in a mirror, and "fighting" herself |
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| They were both quite enthralled. They also had a bowl of Cheerios there between them - I probably could've gone out shopping for an hour and they would've been in the same place when I returned!! |
Annika decided that it was a girl fish and we named her "Scarlet" (because she's red). I'll admit, I suggested the name (along with a few others) and strongly encouraged Annika towards it, because Annika wanted to name the fish something like "princess alla balla" (or something like that - it changed every time she said it).After lunch I took Annika to preschool, along with 2 dozen butterfly cupcakes. I must say, I'm pretty proud of how they turned out. I even put aside my need for perfection and let Annika help with putting the butterflies on top (with my assistance). She had a great time at school, as she got a birthday crown and a card from her teachers, and everyone sang happy birthday to her.
By supper time we headed over to Carey's parents' place to celebrate with them and his sister. Annika had requested crepes for a birthday supper, and they was delicious. For dessert we had Dairy Queen ice cream cake (my request). Annika received some great presents, including a box set of 3,000 stickers (she is obsessed with stickers - I always joke that she goes through them like air), a few other gifts from us, and this awesome dollhouse, handmade by Carey's dad. I know she doesn't look terribly excited in the picture below, but she absolutely loves it. We put it in her room, and I hear her playing with it all the time (and even at times when she shouldn't be, like when I send her upstairs to get a sweater or something!). Right now she's just using some Little People stuff to play with it, but I'd like to get some little wooden dolls and simple wooden furniture to go with it.
2 comments:
That doll house is amazing! What a lucky little girl to have a grandpa who can make something like that.
So glad that she enjoyed her special day:) Seriously lucky girl to have Phil as her Grandpa, Sydney would like to be an adopt(e) of his. It's such a special doll house, Sydney was so happy to see that Annika has the same one as her:)
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