Today was J’s 4th birthday. She’s growing up before my eyes and is super excited that she’s now tall enough to go on a roller coaster. Probably not any roller coaster, but big enough for the Scooby Coaster at Movie World (the only one that matters really!)
Today we kept her home from daycare and we went to the movies for the first time. It was wonderful how she was amazed by the simplest things, like the darkness in the cinema and the number of speakers on the walls. Stuff I take for granted that she was seeing with new eyes.
We saw Arthur Christmas, which is a new animated film by Aardman Studios about how Santa manages to deliver all of the presents in just one night. I really enjoyed it, but I think much of it was lost on J. I was impressed that she managed to sit through the whole thing though.
It occurred to me just tonight that the first movie I ever saw at the cinema was ‘Santa Claus: The Movie‘ – funny how things repeat themselves.
Tonight we had P’s family and a couple of J’s friends around for some party food and her cake. I’ve been frustrated with the tendency for kids to have parties every year, so I thought I’d simplify a little. It was fine – big enough for her to feel special without me feeling overwhelmed.
J's 3rd birthday cake
The kids’ cakes are a special thing in our family. P and I like to make them together – it’s a special time for us to take time out together and do something special for the kids. We normally plan carefully and spend a lot of time getting it right. Last year’s cake was something very special – we were just about to move into this house, and J was really excited about having a veggie garden, so we made a veggie garden cake.
J's 4th birthday cake
This year she requested a rainbow cake from one our cake books, so we used up pretty much all the wilton colouring paste in the house, and came up with this. Would you believe that there was more sugar in the icing than there was flour in the cake? I actually ran out of red Wilton paste – anyone who makes cakes would know how much a full bottle of the colouring paste normally stretches. I couldn’t even bring myself to eat a slice.
Didn’t stop little D though – he had 2!
500m2 in Sydney 
Happy Birthday J, looks like you had a very special cake.
L I love the idea of making the cake together with hubby, perhaps I’ll have to implement that tradition in our house. That vegetable garden cake is fantastic, I think that’s what I’ll have next year!
The veggie garden was actually easier than you may think – crushed oreos for dirt, and most of the ‘vegetables’ were just starburst fruit chews, microwaved and molded like playdough.
That’s one amazing cake!
And yet pretty simple to make. Probably the easiest one ever.
I started making cakes for my girls, doing the late night before stuff, but as they got older what they wanted was different or I couldn’t make. Now my eldest, who loves to bake, does most of the cakes.
I laughed at the party thing. My two are only 15 months apart so I thought one big party a year and the other a small one, take it in turns. Didn’t turn out that way. It is so different when they go to school. When they got to 12 I said no more. They organised them themselves. Can’t win.
I meant I couldn’t win.
It is all just too much, isn’t it? J is getting party invitations left right and centre, and she’s only 4 – how do these parents have the money and energy to invite the whole daycare class to some playcentre at a minimum of $20 a head?
I love the veggie garden cake! The rainbow one was quite a feat too. We just did cupcakes…
Thanks Lilian 🙂
Those cakes look just beautiful L. My 5 year old would love your daughters dress ups!
I can’t believe I have a daughter who likes to dress up as a princess! I swore it would never happen… The pink, the squealing, *shudder*
That rainbow cake is INCREDIBLE! I have a friend who made a very similar one for her daughter’s 8th birthday, and when she cut into it her daughter burst into tears she thought it was so beautiful.
For me a fancy cake is dividing it into cupcakes 😀
That’s lovely! I guess we made the mistake of letting J pick it out, so she knew what was coming.
ps love the princess dress – your little girl is just gorgeous, as is your cake eating little man 🙂
Thanks Ali – they have their moments 😉