Hello Kitty cake construction

Well, my Mom always made wonderful cakes for us, so I've been trying to keep the tradition alive with my own little girls! The first birthday was a butterfly cake that turned out pretty cute, last year was cupcakes on a tower with a Nemo theme, and this year ended up being Hello Kitty. How I was going to make a cake, I had no idea. So I decided to totally wing it -- and here are the results!

The napkin -- my inspiration.
And I'm such a geek that I drafted up the pattern and printed it out to use as a template for cutting the top layer out.....

.....which then got put on top of the base layer that was already frosted and sprinkled....

....and then came frosting, jelly beans for the eyes and nose, and black licorice for the wiskers....
.....cake scaps....which taste just as good as the cake, but have the added bonus of needing as much frosting as you want on them!

Bubbles!!!

Danielle got two different bubble wands for her birthday.....so of course we had to have a competition to see which one worked better!

Daddy tried the one he bought.....it was pretty good!
.....but it was put to shame by the second one (I'm blanking on who gave it to her -- sorry!)

So we had lots of fun with bubbles even though it was raining out.....

Craig had fun watching.....and check out the huge bubble in front of Danielle's face!

Did I mention that it was raining? So the bubbles sat on the ground for a LONG time.....hard to see, but it was kinda cool.....

Birthday Party!!

....and she blows out 3 candles!!! We had lots of friends over and had lots of fun, lots of food, and watched the kids eat lots of sugar.....

The Hello Kitty cake looked really cute, even if I do say so myself! And what's cuter than a bunch of kids helping with opening the presents?
....and then there's the showing off the presents....

....and of course, Daddy's present to his little girl....which actually originated with Grandpa Red Truck.....

....and the adults had WAY too much fun with the mini golf clubs....

Party 1 of 2!

While Grandpa Pat was in town, we wanted to do a party so he could watch Danielle blow out her candles. She had lots of fun with the cake, the presents, and Bob the Tomato!!

....blowing out her candles.....
....opening a card from Grandma Sweetie (see the stickers?)........opening presents.....
....OOOOOO!!!! Bob the Tomato!!....

...and of course loving the cake!!!

Smiles and silly faces

So we were having fun with the camera the other day.....

....and Danielle decided that she wanted to REALLY smile.....
....but it was a little difficult to capture a smile when the eyes are closed so tight!

...so then I tried Ashely and she cooperated a little more!

....but of course my little princess wanted to try again....

...and then Ashley kept trying to steal the camera! I think we're in trouble in a few years with these two little hams!

Relaxation!

So here we are just hanging out one day.....

Ashley being her adorable self....

....nice and bright eyed.....

....and here's my little reader!!!

Fourth of July!!!

My wonderful husband with his two little patriots!!

Ashley is looking a little zoned out here....
...and here Danielle is showing us that she is still two years old....

Just chillin'.....

....and here's Mommy being a jungle-gym for a cutie-pie!!

I took the camera with me to the fireworks show, but then we saw friends and started talking and I promptly forgot to take any until we were in the car on the way home. Oops.