Birthday baking

For River’s second birthday, I decided to attempt this complicated cake. The Wilton gel colors came from Michael’s.

I was intimidated, but luckily, it turned out well. It wasn’t as hard as it looked and was beautiful and unique. Next time I do it, I’ll skip the diet soda and either follow the cake box directions or even better, make a homemade white cake and then just color and layer according to directions.

For a party, we had his first Spanish-language birthday party. We invited the kids from the library Spanish story hour, despite not knowing them well, and I asked them not to bring gifts. Four kids came (I’m still planning to implement the number of kids invited=age rule, but figure next year should be good enough). They had a great time, playing while the parents chatted, then enjoying cake and ice cream. Everyone chatted, played and sang in Spanish.

I fought the pressure and didn’t do goodie bags. But I did buy a piñata and bought some initial trinkets to fill it, before Mark vetoed that idea. So I sprinkled the trinkets on the table and let each kid grab a few. Perhaps it’s because they are young, but they seemed perfectly happy with that.