her birthday

So, here's a taste of Gennie's birthday celebration. First, we got a huge snowstorm that day so I let her run around while it was coming down. She made a snow angel and ate handfuls of it . . . it kind of looked more like she fell off the roof:

Then, in the tradition of mean parents in our family who don't let their kids get into their birthday presents until after supper on the appointed day, she had to suffer all day waiting to open anything. Good thing for me, tho, as I didn't have anything wrapped until after her nap. Grandma and Grandaddy came over to have birthday supper with us, which consisted of Pork, Potatoes, and Peas, as requested by the Birthday Girl. She didn't care how any of the required items were prepared so I made Seared Pork Chops in Mushroom Gravy, Julienne Potatoes in Cheddar Sauce and Steamed Peas. And yes, I had to recite the menu just this way as I served it (for my little Top Chef junkie . . . she's been chompin' at the bit for the show to resume after the holiday break).

After we cleaned up supper she got to decorate her "cake". This year she wanted princess stuff so I did streamers and balloons and everything in princess colors (which you can't see in any of the photos, for some reason) and for her cake I found a gingerbread castle kit to put together. I usually don't like those kit things because you never can tell just how long they were on the shelves before being shipped to sit on our shelves here but this year I made an exception . . . and truthfully I had no intention of eating any of it. It came with all the frosting and cookie pieces and decorating candies and mom and I helped her put it together and decorate it.

I can only imagine what kinds of chemicals they used in the frosting . . . it was this random white powder until you added a tiny bit of water . . . then it turned this shockingly bright shade of pink and had to be stirred constantly or it hardened and was unusable. But it was the perfect color for a princess castle and Gennie LOVED getting to "paint" it on.

There were even little rice paper princesses to put in the windows . . . they were supposed to be edible as well so she tried a taste and spit it out all over the table . . . apparently not.

Then, on to the presents. She got a bunch of fun stuff from everyone, including a Groovy Girls collection from us. They are kinda like Barbies but bigger and made of cloth. We gave her 4 different dolls, a tent and sleeping bags, and a horse. Then she opened the Big One and found the Mod Pod House! She was really surprised:

I had a blast going thru the whole set and wrapping it all up for her . . . Kev said it looked like I was having as much fun as she was going to . . . he just shook his head and laughed. And of course her brother dove right in and checked it all out. He kept sneaking up and stealing different pieces, then running away to hide them in the hall.

After all the presents, we moved on to the dessert. Since I wasn't planning on serving the princess castle, I made a chocolate mousse pie.

All in all, she said it was the best birthday she's ever had. Mind you, she's said this every year since she learned to speak but I think she really did have a good time. Now, how do we top this next year?