Claire turns 2!

My baby is 2! It is amazing how time flies. (And yes, her birthday was last month, but I am behind. What else is new?)

Anyhow, the night before Claire's birthday we realized that Lydia had some sort of throat infection that we thought might be strep. And decided that we would take her to the doctor the next day. Unfortunately, when Claire woke up, she had a fever and didn't want to eat anything. We thought, well, it might be the same thing, so we'll take them both in. Poor kid, had to go to the doctor on her birthday. (Sidenote, it wasn't strep, just some viral infection we had to wait out, yuck.)

While Claire slept, I made her birthday cake. This was probably the saddest cake that I have made for either of my girl's birthdays! I decided I would make a purse cake because Claire has been into purses recently. My friend mentioned a purse cake she saw on the Betty Crocker site, so I went there for inspiration, and found another at the Parenting Magazine website. I didn't really stick to either one, because I didn't want to buy a ton of candy that I just used one piece for. Thus, I kind of used the BC version, and did it my own way. This is how version 1 turned out:

As you can tell, once I insterted the licorice handle, it was starting to come apart (I totally debated what to use for the handle, apparently I should have picked something else or made it smaller). I QUICKLY grabbed the camera to get the shots that you see here, before it promptly fell apart. I think my problem was that my two round cakes weren't even in the amount of batter in each one, and then the jelly beans weighted it down a little and the handle pushed it apart. I kind of wanted to cry. :(

I ended up removing all of the jelly beans, and shoving tons of toothpicks in to hold it together rather than just relying on the frosting. Claire's name "slid off" the cake, so I fixed some of the Happy Birthday and put her name on the other side of the cake. It actually turned out pretty cute, but not exactly how I had envisioned it. Here is version 2:

As you can tell, it still had some issues in these pictures. But, Claire probably could have cared less what it looked like (fortuantely she is only 2, so she just wanted to eat it!). Here is her first look at it and trying to lick off the frosting.

I was trying to get her to look at me and smile, and moved my head away from the viewfinder, and apparently moved the focus too, oops.

Lydia got a hold of the camera and took some pictures too. Here Claire is contemplating her cake instead of eating her dinner. Or maybe she is waiting for dinner, I don't remember.

Another view of the cake with her sadly wrapped present in the background. It is hard to wrap a doll cradle. At least she could have cared less how it was wrapped!

The grandparents presents. At least they looked cute! :)

Enjoying her cake when mom and dad aren't paying attention.

She LOVED the frosting! :)

Well, Happy Birthday sweet Claire!! I wish you had a better day on YOUR day, but we are so glad that you are part of our family! You add spice to our life! I love you! Love, Mommy