The Birthday Part 1

At four, Nicky is obsessed with Disney princesses but still equally obsessed with dogs. It was a rough decision but in the end she ordered up a dog cake. I was surprised when she said she wanted no part in the cake-making process. She said, "I want you to make the cake and I will just find it in the morning." She is in love with Sleeping Beauty and I realized she wanted to recreate Sleeping Beauty's birthday where the fairies' make surprises while Sleeping Beauty is away. Fine with me. So I made this dog cake. Laugh if you will. I never claimed to be a cakeist or a good cook or whatever those who make fancy cakes are called. I'm just a mom working within a budget.


Upon discovering the cake at 7 a.m., Nicky was elated. She loved the dog's eyes most. She insisted that we wear party hats and blow out candles immediately.
This was all followed by cake and ice cream. I still have a stomach ache.

Nicky and Andy then proceeded to fight over balloons all morning. Shorty after this picture was taken, I popped all the balloons so that I could have some ever loving peace.

I didn't feel like we'd gotten a decent gift for Nicky's birthday, so I then attempted to take the kids to Target. Jeff had taken out Andy's car seat when he took some of the boys home from mutual the other night. As I worked to put Andy's seat back in, Andy made his way to the front seat and stuck a bunch of coins into the CD player slot. I turned around and saw what he was doing and tried to get them out to no avail. The CD player loaded a quarter and three pennies. So instead of going to Target, we made our way to the Ford Dealership where I spent $100 to get 28 cents out of the CD player. Luckily it didn't break the whole system or it would have set us back $600. I forget how sensitive Andy is to disapproval. I got mad at him as we drove off and said he should never put coins in the CD player. From the backseat I heard a sniffling, sweet little, "Ok." Then he asked, "is Daddy willy mad?" He'd heard me talking on the phone with Jeff. I told him that Daddy was not mad and we still loved him. It's too hard to stay mad at our sweet little stinker.

Since we incurred that little expense and our budget was shot, Nicky never got a gift. She didn't end up noticing because I took her to Sea World while Jeff watched Andy in the afternoon. She did the rides, watched the sea lions and seals forever, and attended her favorite dogs and cats show, "Pets Rule." When we got home, all kinds of boxes with presents had arrived from Grandma Karen and Kelly.

It sort of felt like Christmas; for Nicky anyway. She was in absolute heaven today with all the attention, gifts, and the one-on-one trip to Sea World. For her, things were as they should be.

The following photo shows how Andy looked pretty much the whole day. Poor guy. It's hard when it's someone else's birthday and you are 2 1/2. He didn't get any gifts, got left out of the trip to Sea World, and got in trouble for putting coins in the CD player. The only redemption for him came when he I gave him cake for dinner. At least he went to bed happy.

The birthday concludes after tomorrow morning's Build A Bear Workshop party.