Happy Birthday!

Today we celebrated the blessing of experiencing Shoshana in our lives for four whole years! Her birthday was actually three weeks ago but she was in the hospital at that time so we rescheduled for today. It is fun to watch her develop to the stage where she can understand lengths of time like "next week" and "tomorrow". Last night when the night nurse showed up Shoshana happily announced that she would have a birthday tomorrow so she needed to sleep to make it be tomorrow. :)

First thing in the morning we presented her with the gift from us: a lovely find at the twice-yearly consignment sale. Lightly used, with lots of dishes, linens, and velcro veggies.

Shoshana got a new kitchen from Mom & Dad

Before her most recent hospital stay I asked her whether she would like me to bake her a special themed cake. She picked Minnie Mouse. An interesting pick since I'm not sure how much exposure she's had to Minnie at this point. We haven't watched it together except for a few episodes of Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse streaming on a phone during unpleasant procedures. Here is the result:

I'm not a real fan of cake, and neither is anyone else in my family, so I don't have much experience with baking such things. Honestly, though I'm sad we ran out of time to actually make Minnie Mouse bows out of fondant I'm just glad they look somewhat iconic. The fact they also resemble a ladybug doesn't bother me. They are baked, they are cute, and they are yummy! Definitely a hit. Betty Crocker cake mix, buttercream frosting from www.foodnetwork.com, and fondant also from FN. Katherine helped me with the fondant since she had made it once before but our inexperience led to putting in too much powdered sugar which made it too dry and brittle to shape into bows though we easily punched out polka dots with the back end of a cake decorating tip.

I managed the food scene while Tim played with the kids including cousins from both sides and friends from church. They enjoyed the swings, slide, pool, bubbles, and rockets. I tried to keep it simple and free play since most of the kids would be age 5 and under and it seems that people, big and little, enjoyed themselves.

Some of the attendees had never seen my parent's property what with the garden, orchard, chickens, ducks, berries, and multi-generational living situation so I also gave a few tours. My Peruvian brother-in-law was happy to hear that I am attempting to grow quinoa.

Mostly, I've been contemplating the meaning of birthdays a lot since Shoshana's was rescheduled. We are celebrating her life, her growth, her impact on our family. The one day when the focus can really be on her. In this case we are acutely aware that she might not have made it to see her fourth birthday. And I am so glad she did.

(I will upload more pics later but my comp is wigging out and I need to go to bed.)

Update: 

Photos from the birthday party:

Jessie boots from Toy Story.  Thanks, Chelsea!