Saturday, January 31, 2009

January 28, 2009 - Natalie's 4th Birthday

My little sweetheart has turned 4. Four in itself, is fine, but it's too close to 5 for my comfort. On Wednesday, her actual birthday, we painted nails while daddy was at work. Then, we were majorly side-tracked when the 9 yr old neighborhood girl that walks around by herself (LZ) stopped over. She hadn't eaten since the night before (it was 1pm now), so I made her lunch. Finally, I insisted she go home so I could put the girls down for their nap. I also needed to finish decorating for our little family party, making the pizzas and wrapping presents.

Nat was much too excited to nap. After about 20 minutes, she came out and saw the "Happy Birthday" sign affixed above the table. "Mommy, an ABC sign, ..... it's beautiful!" I put her back to nap ...ten minutes later, she returns to see the table cloth "Oh mommy, look at the little duck, isn't it sweet. This is so beautiful." I just can't do justice to her tone and the look on her face. I just had to smile from ear to ear and get down and hug her little cute self. .... Then, put her back to bed. Just long enough for me to finish wrapping her gifts. ... and I told her so. That's the only reason she agreed. So I quickly finished and immediately got her. She said, "Are they (the presents) going to be under there?" "Under where?" I said. "Oh," I said, "this isn't Christmas honey, they won't be under a tree." =) I kept all her presents, cutely wrapped in coordinating paper, in my room until after our pizza dinner. She did see them though and thought they were beautiful too.

So, daddy came home from work (luckily a little late) and we ate homemade pizza. Then, daddy took a little nap and Nat and I made the icing for her cake. The cake was a two-tiered round with pink icing. The cake was pink too =)

whoops! here's a tangent: (I especially like to make 2 tiered rounds because I have this beautiful ivory porcelain cake plate made in Italy. I got it as a wedding gift and was told that "if something happens, make sure you take the cake plate." hahaha. Oh, and while I do place it in my china closet, I use it any chance I can get. Really, what's the point of having something if you don't use it. This way, it will always be special to my kids too.=)

So, back to the cake. Pink. Then, since I'm no Gramma Graham (or mom) when it comes to decorating cakes in a traditional method, I had to come up with another idea. So, I looked to my friend, the Gourmet Mom on the Go - aka Mandy. From her fun blog (all about cooking with whimsy - gourmetmomonthego.blogspot.com ), I got the idea to make little chocolate decorations and words using melted chocolate chips and ziploc baggy. I made some number 4s, some flowers, and wrote "happy birthday natalie" in chocolate. I thought the cake turned out well, if I do say so myself, and John said it tasted good too. Nat helped put the chocolate decorations on and insisted on placing her own candles. I had to hold myself back not to move them to "prettier" positions, but I did. I figured it would mean more to her to do it by herself than to have it "perfect" in my eyes.

We called Gramma and Grampa in Montana on Skype. The got to sing with us and watch her open her presents from them and us.

All in all, it was a nice and pleasant birthday. Oh, and it was great, because Nat wanted to wear her birthday hat the whole time. (I kept thinking, "I'm so glad she's not too old for that yet!")

Oh, and where are all the wonderful pictures we took of the day? Deleted. Yes. Deleted. I downloaded them onto my computer, but somehow it didn't work! When I came back to the computer the folder was EMPTY! and I had deleted everything. I was simply devastated. I have always had good documentation of her birthdays.... and now =(

No comments: