Anna's Birthday

      I've never been one to go all out for birthdays; the fact that all of my children were born in yucky weather months probably has something to with it, as well as always being an a budget that doesn't include spending hundreds on a party.  However, I always try to do what I can to make birthdays a special event.  This year for Anna that meant having her cousins over, making her a fun "Happy Birthday" banner, and letting her decorate her own cake.  The banner idea I got from "Pink and Green Mama's" blog. Her's was made out of felt, but since I was running low in time, I made Anna's out of construction paper.  I would like to make a felt one that I can reuse every year for all of their Birthdays. 

     I always make and decorate my own cakes; it's very fun thinking up the theme, and then decorating it, but this year Anna said she wanted to decorate her own cake.  She wanted a "Fall" cake- blue with orange leaves.  I was impressed with her design; it sounded like it could be beautiful, so I suggested that she cut the leaf shapes out of fruit roll ups (a pretty good idea, if I do say so myself) but she wanted to do it her way.    So I stepped back and let her do her thing, which was surprisingly hard for me.  I made the cake (pumpkin for Fall) and mixed up the icing (cream cheese), but she was in charge of the rest.  Like me, she hates the taste of food dye, so she didn't want the colors too dark.  I wrote "Happy Birthday" and did some piping around the bottom, and she did the rest. It turned out very nice.