We had her birthday cake at the Sitthichai family reunion at the Temple Hill campground in Manti the last weekend in July. It was a week before her birthday but we decided to do it then since my whole family was together. I couldn't bring myself to set a big, hardcore sugary cake in front of her when she's still such a little baby (I know, I know, people have been doing it for years). I even considered not having a cake, but then I realized I shouldn't let my fanatacism suck ALL the fun out of Caitlyn's life. My ultimate solution was to bake a homemade carrot cake with wholesome ingredients and then use plain whipping cream with no sugar added for the frosting (her first intro to cows milk). I did add pink sprinkles though, so that's kind of fun, right?
I made a doll cake and it turned out pretty good! Growing up, my mom used to make us whatever kind, shape, theme, etc. we wanted for our birthday cake and we loved it, so I want to continue that tradition.
Caitlyn played the part of birthday girl very well. I had to encourage her at first when we put the cake in front of her, but once she realized that we WANTED her to dig in and were not going to stop her at all, she had a total feast! I actually had to stop her a couple of times from shoving a bite bigger than her fist into her mouth. She was pretty much in cake-heaven. (Incidentally, see that little finger-swipe mark in the front of the cake? Apparently that is Kayla's signature for the cakes in our life -- it just occurred to me that she put an identical swipe mark in our wedding cake before anyone could stop her!)
On Caitlyn's actual birthday we were here in Virginia and in the middle of moving into our apartment. We decided to buy her a push toy (having suddenly realized that her two grandmas have done such an excellent job of supplying her with great toys that we've never actually bought her a toy!) to help her gain confidence walking without holding our hands. It's a pretty sweet toy -- an "Alphabet Train."
Happy Birthday Caitlyn! You are the light of your mommy and daddy's lives!
happy birthday Caitlyn! I will never have to wonder how old she is, because Anna will always be the same age! Anna's birthday was fairly low key. We made her a full fledged sugary cake-- more for richard and I than for her. she didn't eat much of it, but it did seem like this last year went by like lightning. So glad to be in touch again!
ReplyDeleteoh this is just the cutest thing!!! Can you send me the carrot cake recipe? I've been crying at night with the thought of Ryan eating a cake by himself ;)
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Caitlyn! The last time I saw her she was just tiny! I'm glad I found your blog Suzanne, don't know how I missed that one. I perused some of your older posts. Looks like you had an awesome visit to Thailand!
ReplyDeleteBTW thanks so much for adding me to your blog roll!