Happy Birthday, Catherine!

Feb. 18 

It's a great day to be six!

I may have had to take several...ten...pictures, but I finally got a good smile!

Since our kids are swimming in "things" (toys, books, clothes), we've been trying really hard to give them "activities" as gifts. For her birthday this year, Catherine got to go on a date with her dad to Red Robin. She even dressed up for it!

After the date was over it was time for the birthday outfit from Grandma Cathy:

She loves this thing and now wears it on a regular basis.

Catherine was very specific about what she wanted for her cake this year. White chocolate cake with white chocolate/sour cream ganache, covered in fondant which she would paint:

Aaron also enjoyed painting (and chopping) some fondant:

Then, because we've had a crazy warm winter, we went to a park to celebrate with friends. A park. In February. It was lovely. 

Enjoying being sung to (and please note the awesomeness of the cake, 

since I failed to get a picture of the completed masterpiece):

No idea what the painting was, but the pink blobs are hearts in the shape of shirt, apparently.

Blowing out her candles...

...and then Aaron swoops in to help.

Sadly, the cake ended up being a disappointment for Catherine. She didn't like how it tasted and was not entirely happy with her decorating job. The rest of us thought it was delicious and that the cake was very fitting for a creative little girl

After some fun park playing, we headed home for dinner and gifts. The Oliveras brought Elise a gift, too. She had no idea what to do with it:

Emma & Catherine examining her gifts:

I may have misplaced some of Catherine's gifts from Grandma Cathy. Thankfully they were found by the next morning, meaning Catherine got some extended birthday fun!

Feb. 18: A swimming Moana doll!

This was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but thanks to some extremely slow shipping/packages getting lost and resent, it ended up a birthday gift. One happy little mermaid in the tub! 

She has since requested that I sew the tail together "like real mermaid."

We'll see if it happens...

Happy birthday, Princess Boo!