Claire's Birthday - Part II

Once again, I've left the blog for too long, and now I am woefully behind in recording recent events. So, although Claire's birthday was several weeks ago, I'm just now getting the time to post some more pictures from her party at home.

Generally, I try to make a cake for birthdays, and while I am, by no means, what I would call an expert at cake decorating, the cakes have certainly become more elaborate lately. No longer is the plain sheet cake with some fancy writing, polka-dots and flowers enough for Claire. Last year, I decorated the face of Strawberry Shortcake. My dad and Shawn can attest that it took me about 3 hours to finish the whole process. This year Claire wanted a Tinkerbell cake, but when she caught sight of this princess cake at the store, she wouldn't settle for anything else.

So, here's this year's masterpiece:




What you can't see in this picture (because I positioned the cake to avoid it) is that the warm weather started to melt the icing, and her entire dress was sliding down to the bottom. Now I understand why bakeries keep their cakes refrigerated. Nevertheless, melting dress and all, this cake princess still made the birthday girl very happy.

Here's Claire opening some of her various birthday gifts.
Can you believe this toy is still around?

And Ben opening his "unbirthday" gift from Grandma - Handy Manny complete with tool set.

Blowing out the candles! Look at Ben in the background. I think he's trying to help.

I can't believe she's 5 already. Time really does go by so quickly.