Today, my girl is four years old. She alternates between her girly and tomboyish sides, but the other day she wanted to be extra fancy. That meant layering every necklace she owns over her pajamas, including one with Christmas lights that blink on and off. Plus fairy wings and a charm bracelet.
She also asked me to take a picture of her “stinky feet.” Ha! See that smile?
Man, we love that girl. She’s turning out to be someone pretty amazing. Happy birthday, kiddo.
My birthday was on Saturday. I wouldn’t normally write a recap of what Brandon got for me (3 books, a Lego set, and a necklace), but he presented everything in such a sweet, clever way that I wanted to share. The gifts were numbered, to be opened in order, and he created a little booklet of explanations to go along with each. This is what he wrote.
Wonderful Life with the Elements (this is my favorite of the gifts!)
We celebrated Eleanor’s birthday on Saturday. You’ve already seen the invitations, so you know I was going for a colorful kind of party. The Marimekko tablecloth and colorful gerbera daisies were a good start to the decorations.
The main attraction though? The rainbow cake. My mother-in-law helped me with it. We followed the Martha Stewart / Whisk Kid recipe; She made the cake layers and I made the frosting and assembled it.
That cake was a smashing success! Delicious and very pretty.
The paper mobiles above the table were made according to these instructions (I used card stock instead of vellum).
There were twenty balloons scattered everywhere, but somehow I missed photographing them. I got a giant gold “2” balloon too (like these), but it blew away! Here are a few paper daisies hung in the window.
These polka-dotted paper straws were cute, but odd to drink out of.
You know that rainbow-colored, yarn-wrapped “Happy Birthday!” banner that I was going to make? Yeah, that didn’t happen. It was taking waaaay too long and I had to scrap it, so I used a “Happy Birthday” banner that we already had on hand instead.
And I filled my elephant teapot with more gerbera daisies.
Happy second birthday, my sweet little Eleanor.
I really got myself into something here. I had this great idea to make a rainbow-colored, yarn-wrapped “Happy Birthday!” banner. It’s going to be great, but I’ve been working for a few hours and I’ve only finished two and a half letters. Here’s a little peek:
I’m off to continue working.
I designed the invitations this weekend. We’re just having our family over, so no need to include the address (I’m pretty sure they know how to find us).
I want to make a rainbow cake for her. Last year, I ordered a chocolate cake from the local bakery. It tasted fine, but it was kind of expensive for a plain cake and I didn’t like the way they frosted it (I decorated the top myself with a chocolate silhouette). I remember thinking that I should have just made the whole thing myself, so this year I’m going to give it a try.
photo by Nicole Hill Gerulat
I’m thinking balloons and polka dots, in lots of bright colors for the decorations. I’m sure the party will come together, but I hope I’m not being overly ambitious with the cake.
We celebrated Eleanor’s first birthday last Sunday. There were plenty of paper daisies (I knew I’d find a use for them some day!), a happy birthday banner, pink baloons, and floral garland across the windows.
The weather even cooperated for us.
Oh look, an elephant! Too cute, right?
That vase is actually a teapot, but it’s adorable when filled with flowers.
Eleanor was a gracious host, thoughtfully opting to skip her nap so as not to miss a moment of her party.
She was in a good mood the whole time though, despite being tired toward the end.
I ordered a cake for the party, but I asked for it to be left completely plain with just pale pink frosting. I wanted it to be a blank canvas, but the bakery apparently thought that I meant “smash a bunch of crumbs all around the edge, and pipe some frosting shapes as a border around the whole cake”. Oh well. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with it anyway; I just knew I wanted to decorate it myself.
I made Eleanor’s silhouette out of chocolate for the cake. I melted chocolate chips in a sandwich bag, snipped the end, then laid parchment paper over a template that I had printed out to size. I did the best I could, piping the outline first and then filling it in, and I placed it in the fridge afterward to harden. I also wrote “Happy Birthday Eleanor” in white, lightly scratching the letters in the frosting with a toothpick first as a guide. The cake was not perfect, but it was fine. The guest of honor seemed to like it quite a bit.
