N is for.....Nine?

My step-daughter, Lily, just turned 9 years old on August 1st.

I was thinking back to the very first time that I met her. She was about 5, and was small with the roundest little face and long blonde, curly hair. At the time, I had no idea that she would ever be my step-daughter, nor that her handsome dad would be my husband and love of my life within the next few years. I'm working on an anniversary blog, so you can read our story in the next week or so (our 1st anniversary is August 21st!). 

But back to Lily's Birthday...Unlike my mom, I'm not a cake decorator, nor am I super creative. So, I took to the internet in search of something fun for a cake. When we were younger, my mom never failed to create some awesome cakes, complete with a Lego scene of varying kinds each year, each kid. Let's say we had these cakes each year until we were about 12 (just a guess), multiply by 4 (one for each kid) - that would be approximately 48 cakes over those years. Did I ever see a repeat of any of those cakes? Never once. Let's just say: I felt some pressure regarding my skills in the cake department. But what I found seemed somewhat easy, and pretty fun to do. Since Lily likes horses more than anyone else I have ever met in my life, here's what her "cake" looked like:

CUPCAKE HORSE! I originally wanted to make it brown, with black hair. But after desperate attempts at brown frosting (without cocoa powder) and ruining a whole batch of frosting, I nixed the idea of any type of realistic look. I went for the white frosting (no food coloring needed), and with the suggestion of my ever-supportive husband, she became a somewhat My Little Pony horse with a pink mane, tail and hooves. It's definitely not as awesome looking as the one that I stumbled upon online, but it's my first attempt at any sort of frosting decorating. Not too shabby. 

Since we have a tiny apartment, my sister Stephanie graciously allowed us to host the party at her house. Not thinking clearly about transporting the "cake," I did all the decorating at home, and then thought it would be a grand idea to try and bring it in the car without any issues. HA! I was getting INTO the car, and dropped an important cupcake on the floor. The mouth/nose cupcake was frosting side down on the driver's side floor. When I picked it up, most of the frosting was still on the cupcake, and you could still tell it had a mouth and nose. So, thinking I avoided a major tragedy, I pretty quickly moved on.....only to hear Lily say from the back seat "Well, I guess I don't have to choose between the one with the mouth or the one with eye anymore." Of course, I had to ruin one of the front-runners for her birthday cupcake. But it turned out ok in the end. Here is a *small* glimpse of the her fun presents:

This is where she opened the most exciting gift of all: Money. (Good call, Uncle Preston)

I didn't even show half of it, but Lily received TONS of clothes, and got some sweet books, barbies and crafty-type projects. She felt really loved on her birthday, which is most important for a 9 year old girl who goes between her mom's during the week, and dad's on the weekend. Thank you to our family and friends who helped us make her day special.



Side Story: I told Lily she should try on her clothes before returning to her mom's for the week, so that if needed, I could exchange anything that didn't fit before the next weekend. At one point during the party, the following short conversation took place. Lily: "Can I just try them on next weekend?" Me (laced with sarcasm): "What? You don't want to do a fashion show??" Lily: "OK!" Me: Complete Shock. She gets embarrassed when she thinks everyone is looking at her, so I really expected a no answer. But, she spent the next twenty minutes trying on EVERY piece of clothing, and showing them off. Thank you to Levi, Lynn, Grandma Wava, Al, and Josh for humoring her (and my niece, Avery, who decided a fashion show was way too much fun to miss out on...wearing the same dress the whole time).