Claire Turns Four!

I didn't realize how long it has been since I last posted until I sat down here to write. The last few weeks have been really busy for a myriad of reasons (I've got a backlog of posts to write). One of the big events has been Claire's fourth birthday. Be still my heart! Four? Already? Didn't I take this picture of her yesterday?:


Honestly, I remember taking this photo so vividly that it could well have been yesterday. I was trying really hard to get a pretty shot of her for her birth announcement and I went through several set ups and wardrobe changes. In the end, I got film developed from the hospital and went with one of those shots instead. This was a very close second.

Here is Her Highness the Pink Princess on her big day:

What personality this kid has! She both challenges and delights me every day and I suspect that if we play our cards right (and I can keep a grip on my sanity), she's going to make a fantastic adult someday. In the meantime, she is such a paradox, I often don't know what the heck is going on in that little head of hers.

These days, drawing, printing and learning to read are her main occupations. It strikes me odd that the girl will declare that she's "too tired of walking" to take her dirty clothes to the laundry room or declare that colouring is "booooooooring" but will spend 45 minutes sounding out words, writing them down, drawing accompanying pictures, make a mistake, crumple it all up and start again. Priorities...she has 'em.

Anyway, several months ago (probably around Jillian's birthday in June) Claire told me that she wanted a Princess Aurora cake for her birthday (that's Disney's Sleeping Beauty in case you don't have a four year old of your own). Being one of the lesser loved princesses in the lineup, there aren't a lot of instructions on the internet (or anywhere else) on how to make your own Aurora. I wasn't too sure I was up to the challenge and I told Claire that maybe Aurora was too hard for Mommy to make. Amazingly, she took that news in stride and would say "Mommy, if Aurora is too hard maybe you can make me a (fill in blank here) cake".

Something about her willingness to settle for something else made me more desperate to produce Aurora and I started reaching out to friends, neigbours and blog readers for help. A wonderful blog reader named Sue gave me some directions and armed with those, I thought I could make a go of it. I got a couple of my friends together to help and six hours, three cans of icing, and a sugar headache each later, we had this:


Princess Aurora. Right? Sort of? Next time I attempt to make anything with a face, the face and features will be fondant. Trying to make lips and eyes that don't look creepy with icing is not easy.

The main thing was that Claire, upon inspecting the cake the morning of her birthday, declared that she was beautiful and so we considered our work to be complete. In fact, once I got more than four inches from the cake (decorating can be close work), I didn't think she was half bad. Either way, we stuck candles in her after dinner and ate her up:

Make a wish!


The kid really does have reasonable table manners most of the time. Aurora just looked to tasty to eat delicately.

Jillian was in her typical form:

It isn't a birthday party unless she gets cake on both hands, all over her face and in her hair.

She got some nice gifts too:

This is her new Teacher Barbie that she insisted my mother get her for her birthday. She asked Mom for it back in September and after that would talk about her birthday as the time when she was going to eat Aurora cake and play with Teacher Barbie. No expectations there.

DH and I decided to try and be practical with her gift this year. Claire had a growth spurt recently and I wanted to get her some new clothes. One day, DH and I went out shopping and when he saw this getup, he had to have it for her:

So much for practical. She loves it though!

I still can't believe she's four. Tomorrow she'll be sixteen. Sigh.