Happy Birthday (yesterday) LEILA!!!

My little bitty Lolly is four. It's the strangest thing. This year she not only recognized the significance of her birthday, she demanded that each of us tell her happy birthday at regular intervals throughout the day, which we did gladly because we love birthdays just about as much as we love anything.

She didn't expect much for her birthday because it's just not about all the bells and whistles, it's about being the center of attention for one day of the year. So we invited every member of our household to the party.

Of course, there were presents which she opened with in a whirlwind. **Thank you to all of our loving family members that sent boxes full of wonderful treasures for Leila and the rest of us. I'm getting soft in my thirties; I let her open the boxes the minute they came through the door. If you have an aversion to that, just write it on the box, and I will be happy to oblige. xoxo

We baked a cake and decorated it together. Most of the members of my family request a chocolate cake for their birthdays, but not Leila. She wanted a white cake with yellow and pink frosting. I loved decorating this cake, except that it was especially hot in my house and the frosting was not as stiff as I would have liked it to be. Because I am a little bit ghetto and don't like to clean out my pastry bag, I used sandwich bags instead and close to the end of my decorating, the tip on each color burst out of the hole in the corner of the bag along with a big blob of frosting. It was a good thing because when I set the cake in the fridge, the sriracha bottle fell and messed up another side of the cake. Because of the former disaster, I didn't cry over the later. Nor did I fuss when Leila put Eeyore on backwards or when Pooh bear rolled of the side three times. It was still yummy. I wish I would have cut myself half a piece though, after I figured up the calorie content of a piece of white cake with frosting. Then it wouldn't have mattered that I ate half of Leila's too.

We also had ice cream. Dale thought this was a detail important enough to chronicle with a photograph.

And we had Great Value Flavored Marshmallows too. I always thought that you spelled marshmallow with an e; M-A-R-S-H-M-E-L-L-O-W. Guess not. See? I never would have known if not for Dale's keen eye for the important things in life.

She loved every minute of this day, except for the hours following what would normally have been her bedtime when she was flying from hysteria to hysteria; laughing to crying. What can I say, she's my kid.