[pinterest]

Isobel’s birthday fell on a Saturday this year (it was back in April but I’m just now getting around to posting about it), and it was the day before Easter so we planned her party for the following weekend. I don’t think anyone we knew had any elaborate Easter plans, or even planned on going out of town for it, but given my health situation I knew I wouldn’t be able to enjoy Easter with my family if we did her party the day before. Our plans are never elaborate, either, but we were looking forward to our annual egg hunt with our cousins and getting together with family. It was an especially good thing we waited because this year Anthony had a killer cold this weekend and was down for the count.

We did want to celebrate her actual birthday in a celebratory,  but low-key, and thrifty way. Anthony’s cold was pretty awful at this point, so we celebrated by having a “girl’s day.” We started the day by wearing a fancy outfit–a dress her Tia Gloria, who was visiting from Guatemala, made by hand just for her. Then we went to the bakery for a special birthday treat.

I let her pick a treat for now and then another one to take home and share with the family. She picked a pretty package of macarons and a double-chocolate cupcake. I smuggled in a candle and a lighter in my bag, so when we sat down to eat I could sing to her and she could make a wish.

I’m not sure if I was allowed to have an open flame in the bakery, so we did it as quickly as inconspicuously as possible. But she loved the surprise! And I didn’t get arrested, so, whew.

She ate the whole thing. I was so proud.

She tried the macarons but did not like them so I graciously decided I would eat them all for her. As a mother, it’s the kind of sacrifice I signed up to make.

After we finished licking frosting off the plate (me) and setting things on fire (me, again), we stayed another twenty minutes or so by the cake decorating window and watched the ladies work. Isobel really wants to decorate a cake some time, which sounds like a fun thing to do with Valerie, who is a demon baker. We picked up some chocolate chip cookies for Anthony and spent the whole rest of the day playing video games and watching movies and listening to the demands of Isobel, our six-year-old dictator.

[pinterest]