Sweet Girl's birthday

Better late than never, eh? By the way, thank you all for your kind words, we're all feeling much better now!

So... birthday. Sweet Girl is *slightly* obsessed with Lagoon, the amusement park about 5 hours away from our house. (Just close enough that we can go often, but just far enough away that it's a big deal -- and we don't have to go all.the.time, although it certainly feels like it! LOL) Anyway... due to her obsession, when asked what theme she wanted for her birthday, she said, "I want a LAGOON birthday!" How the heck was I supposed to do that? Well, it worked.

I found a perfect new alphabet to use to make her invitations. The real ones were cuter, but here is the jist of it:



The alphabet is called "Fair Play" and is full of cute little cartoons of people doing various fair-type things - going on a roller coaster, the merry-go-round, etc. Too cute!

OK, invitations: check. Next... decorations. Well, I printed off clip art of carousels and assorted things, along with family pics from Lagoon, and found the matching font to the alphabet (same thing, just in black & white outline) to use in making posters. Unfortunately, I got sick before I got as far as getting them put up. Decorations consisted of a happy Sweet Girl, lots of family and a mommy watching everything from the recliner:



Ignore the double chin, please. It's bad enough when I'm upright, but laying down with my head tilted up to be able to see makes it appear much worse. :s

Where was I? Oh, yes. Invitations: check. Decor: well, kind of check. Cake: ah yes... the cake. I think it turned out really well, if I say so myself. I found a carousel cake on a really cool website; I took the basic idea and changed it to my abilities (i.e., no making intricate sugar cookies with royal icing for the carousel animals! LOL). I found some pics of Sweet Girl on the carousel at Lagoon and printed them off, taped them onto straws, and - voila! Carousel horses with rider.

(Side note: I overheard my 8-yr-old nephew talking to his mom about the cake and had to giggle. "Hey, Mom! That kinda looks like Sweet Girl on there!" "Yeah, well, that's because it is!" Sorry I used old photos, nephew! LOL Those were the best I could find!)

For the top, I cut a circle out of a manila folder, cut a slit in the middle and added one of Sweet Girl's hair ribbons. I think it worked out well. Sweet Girl helped me put the Skittles on the top.





So... on to the party.

First, a big shout out to my sisters, who saved my skin by bringing the food! LOL Also, a big thank you to my neice who showed up early and got drafted to do last-minute housework as a reward. :-) She also ended up helping my mom clean up Little Man and the table when we discovered he was also sick. :-( Ah, good times. Anyway...

Sweet Girl was thoroughly spoiled by her relatives. Again. (Again? Still would be a better word, I think. LOL) Here are some of the gifts...

Posing with the new dress I got her

With the box of ladybug chocolates from Grandma

Promptly eating one of the chocolates (that's my girl! LOL)
















With the adorable netting dance skirt my sister made for her

Little Man wanted in on some of that action!








And of course, last but not least... blowing out the candle. She opted for a '4' candle instead of four single candles. With her daddy holding the cake while we sang:

Sorry for the fuzziness of the last photo. I was taking the photos at that point, and in my semi-conscious state, couldn't make the camera focus properly. Later, DH was kind enough to tell me again how to work it (like I hadn't figured it out in the 4 months I've used it) but I interrupted him and told him he should just be glad I didn't put any vile bodily fluids on the camera. So there. LOL

Anyway... she had a happy birthday in spite of everything. And when I asked her, the next day, if she felt older, she told me she did, indeed, feel much older now that she was 4. "Although," she added, "I wish I could skip 4 and just be 5. Or maybe 6 or 7."

Oh, Sweet Girl, that will come sooner than it needs to. Trust me... sooner than it needs to.