Lorelei Turns Five

We had a wonderful day celebrating Miss Lorelei. As most of you know, birthdays are a pretty big deal at our place. From my point of view, this is the one day a year that makes every person feel extra-super-special, so you have to go all out! :) I love making these memories for my kids and that they have that super special day each year.

Anyway, here is how we got to celebrate Lorelei's day. It turned out pretty perfect!

First on her agenda was opening presents. For some reason in previous years I think I let them open the gifts mailed from family the day they got them, but this year I decided to have them wait until the big day. This led to a ginormous pile to open that morning! It was almost like Christmas presents under the tree for them seeing those presents in the play room just waiting to be opened for a few days. :)

And of course, her door and the kitchen were decorated. :) She woke up (as she did last year) as we were decorating her door and did not want to go back to sleep. She is such a light sleeper!

Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast, including candles. This year I also added the idea of putting cool whip and sprinkles onto it...I know, I need to stop thinking of more things to add to poor Mickey!

Blissfully laid-back morning enjoying presents. :)

Later that morning we headed out per Lorelei's request for riding bikes on a bike path and the park. This also included a sand box and we came prepared with sand toys! We decided on a McDonald's treat for a picnic lunch. (Don't worry, Brad had Subway. ;) )

Cake Time!!!

We played for a bit (decided to let them skip nap) and then at our usual "after nap" time Dan and Michelle came over to join us for cake and ice cream. It was great to have some special visitors to help us celebrate.

After our sweet treats the Smiths stayed for some play time. Dan was especially amusing playing puppies. :) They also built a train for the wild animals with the tinker toys.

Wrapping up our day...pedicures for Mommy and Lorelei, traditional picture of Mom, Dad and Lorelei on her birthday, and Lorelei super-excited to sleep with her new bedding from Grandma and Grandpa. First-ever bedding set! :)  Thankful for such a wonderful day celebrating!

So I thought you might want more info about the cake...

Since we were not able to have the friends party I had planned, I decided I had to at least give her a super-special cake to make up for the lack of party. My mom made Heather a carousel cake once, and Lorelei LOVES carousels, so it seemed like a good fit for this year.

Naturally, when I kept researching how to make the carousel cake I got a few ideas off Pinterest, but also made sure to do my own thing. I already had the red and white straws from last Christmas, so that kinda gave me the idea for the color scheme. Brad helped engineer some of it. The center involved a Parmesan cheese bottle with scrapbook paper inside hot glued to an upside down applesauce container. What else would it be right? ;) My only regret is that I didn't let the cake thaw longer. I heard the idea of freezing the cakes and that they were easier to work with, but I did not let it thaw long enough so the frosting slid about an inch after I was done frosting. So, it was not perfect, but Lorelei loved it and thats what mattered! :)