Our Journey to Malia: A "TOPSY TURVEY TWO" BIRTHDAY PARTY!

A birthday party theme revolves around the cake, right? Well, maybe not always, but most of the time it does. As I perused through a past edition of a F@mily Fun M@againe, I came upon the "Topsy Turvy" cake and loved it. Now, I've never attempted more than a normal 9 by 13 Pyrex cake, but was willing to give this one a go - that's how cute it was. And, let me just take this opportunity to say how excited I was to finally be planning a girly birthday party. Not that I haven't enjoyed planning Spencer's parties, but I just haven't been that into P*wer R@angers and Spiderm@an. So, I made arrangements to borrow some cake pans, bought the other supplies and yesterday, set out to making this outlandish birthday cake. The funnest part was having Malia help me mix some of the cake batter.

And, Malia, being the typical kid, loved licking the batter from the mixer-thingys.

I put part of the cake together last night, and then finished it up today before the party. Let me just say for the record right now that there is a reason I am not in the cake business. I felt sorry for Malia that her cake looked the way it did. It did have some resemblance to the cake in the picture, but it definitely looked better from afar. Anyway, on to the party .....

We had a small little birthday get-together with family. They began arriving at 4:00 pm. Malia welcomed them wearing her Christmas dress that she'd worn to church this morning. She looked like a beautiful princess, so we made a throne of pillows to sit on as she opened her presents.

This plan actually worked rather well. Whenever Malia would get up to start walking around we'd just tell her to sit on the pillows and she'd plop right back down to open the next present.

Malia did a great job opening presents this year. We are thankful for all the thought everyone put in to Malia's presents. She got so many nice things.

One of Malia's favorite things to play with are cards that make sound. Whenever any of us get one we save it and place them in a drawer so Malia can get them out and listen to them whenever she wants. Here she is listening to the card she received from her grandparents.

And here is Malia donning part of her Dor@ dress-up clothes for her audience. Makes her look more like a princess, doesn't it?

After eating some sandwiches, chips and other snacky foods it was time for the cake. Malia was so cute as she listened to everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her. I just love that she is able to experience this attention and hope that she can feel just how loved she is.

Here she is with her topsy turvy cake (and yes, it's supposed to be lopsided - it's topsy turvy!).

Blowing out the candles!

After cake and ice cream, Malia played and played with her cousins. And then it was time to give hugs and kisses, say "thank you" and bid everyone a farewell. Later this evening we put up the K@ilan tent that was given to Malia by one of her aunts and uncles. She loved playing in it. She'd look out the mesh parts of the tent and say, "Peek Boo, I see you!" It was so cute!