Andra's 3 ! Sort of. Ok, not really.

This was a big weekend in our little household...we celebrated Andra's third birthday! I say "celebrated" because, technically, she's really not 3 years old yet. Her birthday (Sept. 12) is exactly two days after her baby brother's due date (Sept. 10). Rather than try to have a birthday party with a newborn to care for, we decided to have her birthday party a few weeks early this year. She too young to know the difference. :)

This year, it had to be Thomas the Tank Engine-themed, of course. She LOVES all things Thomas and still is nuts about her Thomas train table...so, not surprisingly, she asked for a Thomas birthday party.

So...I felt compelled this year to make Andra's birthday cake myself. My mom made some of the cutest cakes for us when we were young, so I feel like it's my motherly duty to make her cake. I found a really cute engine-shaped Thomas cake decorating kit online, and the pictures made it look really simple to assemble and ice...nevermind that I'm a complete cake rookie. I'll figure it out, I told myself.

So about $40 later in cake gadgets that I had NO idea how to use, I decided to do a practice run of this Thomas cake about a month before the party. Welllll...if you want all the gory details, you can talk to Dave (who witnessed my mental and emotional breakdown) or call my mom (who cleaned up the emotional mess).

Let's just say the practice run went miserably and I ended up in tears. Lots and lots of tears. There's even one particularly nasty rumor of a spatula being thrown across the kitchen in frustration...I deny all such accusations. And if such a thing WERE to happen, I'd blame it entirely on raging pregnancy hormones. This cake was nearly the death of me. Anyway, I called my mom in tears...beyond tears really...having an emotional breakdown over a stupid cake...then decided to call in the professionals to make my little gal's cake. Her name is Donna Bricker, and she's a miracle worker. Also happened to make our wedding cake. And here is the beautiful result or her incredible talent!! Needles to say, Andra LOVED it and it physically pained me to cut into it. It really brought to life the saying "you can't have your cake and eat it too."

She made me laugh (as usual)...when everybody was singing Happy Birthday to her, she sang too. It was so funny...I don't know why, it just cracked me up. Then she blew out her candles like a big girl (with a little help from Mom, since she kept blowing through her two front teeth)

My little gal. (Almost) three years old. How does that happen? It makes me teary to just think of it. THREE sounds so old. She's becoming such a little person...we can have conversations, she can tell me what's on her mind, and when she disagrees with me. :) I love the little girl she's becoming...so sweet, so smart, and so unconventional with her love of trains and all things mechanical (a future engineer, I've decided). When I get sad about how fast she's growing, I always try to remind myself how incredibly blessed I am to have a healthy and growing little girl. She's my angel. :) (Now let's just hope she's got a baby brother to celebrate with in a few weeks on her REAL birthday!)