Annika's Birthday (pt 3)

On Saturday, we had Annika's third of three birthday celebrations... the family party.

The night before, Eric and I worked on her cake, which according to Annika, needed a dinosaur and an egg. OK... gotcha! Fortunately for our little girl, her daddy is quite the artist and sculpting a dinosaur out of fondant didn't send him into cold sweats, which it certainly would have done to her mother! While Eric conquered the fondant work, I took care of stacking and frosting the cake. We let the fondant creations dry over night and then Eric used my airbrush to paint the dinosaur, baby, and egg the morning of the party. I must say that we were mighty pleased with how the whole thing turned out. We were a bit stressed about how we'd get the mama dinosaur onto the cake (Eric used an empty cake pan as his modeling platform) but it worked out!

Around 3 o'clock, the family started rolling in and the associated noise and fun ensued. There were 12 of us in all, yet we probably had enough food for about 25! We had bratwurst, cucumber salad, spinach salad, garlic bread, tuna pasta salad, and (of course) dinosaur cake!

Between dinner and cake, Annika opened her much-anticipated presents. We have one very fortunate girl to have such generous family members!! She received a variety of books (math, mazes, kindergarten skills, Junie B. Jones), wonderful clothes, an art kit, and Hello Kitty pajamas. The girl couldn't have been happier if she tried.

Eric sculpting the mama dinosaur

Finished cake

I love how Eric decided to have the mama's legs wrap around the edge of the cake

Eric helping Annika read the cards

What is it?? What is it??

DRESSES!

Of course, she had to put one of the new dresses on right away

Hello Kitty pajamas that she has worn each night since her party

Awaiting the arrival of her cake

The candles were out before Eric had the cake on the
table ... our girl doesn't waste time when cake is involved!

Cheese!!

Collective nouns: A gaggle of geese, a pack of wolves, a pile of cousins.