Birthday Season

Summer is birthday season around here, with Nathan in June and Caitlyn in August. We were visiting my parents in July so we had a little combined family party for both of them, which was fun. Caitlyn wanted a ladybug cake and I wanted to make a puppy cake for Nathan since he loves dogs (I'm pretty sure his first word was "Dah!" for dog). I found a picture of a ladybug cake online that I liked, but I was having trouble deciding how to make a dog cake -- the pics online either looked too complicated or I didn't think they were very cute. Luckily, my mom was there to consult with and between the two of us we came up with a plan.

Here were the results.

As on Caitlyn's first birthday, I did a homemade carrot cake for Nathan and used whipped cream with a little bit of powdered sugar in an effort to not overload his little system with so much sugar on his first introduction to sweets. We opened presents and played with them and had lots of fun.

I thought that would be good for birthday season. But then...we went to a birthday party at a pool for one of Caitlyn's little friends in our ward. And every single day without fail after that, Caitlyn talked about how on her birthday she was going to have a party at our pool with a caterpillar cake (?). She even made a new friend at the library one day and told her all about it. I didn't have the heart to not have a party for her after all this anticipation she was creating for herself. But I also didn't have the energy to throw an enormous bash. The solution? I invited just four families, the parents of which Quinn and I are good friends with and the kids of which Caitlyn is good friends with. We met at our complex's pool at 10:30am, had cupcakes (in caterpillar cake form), played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, opened presents, chatted, swam, gave out party favors, and had a great time. Not too huge of an undertaking, but still a lot of fun. Making the cake was really the only time-consuming part. Here are some pics.

 

Happy Birthday to our two little stinkers, and thank you so much to all our family and friends who were so thoughtful to send/bring cards and gifts. We love you all!