Happy Birthday, Little Lamb!

Never thought I'd do a character birthday

cake! For months I'd been tearing ideas

out of magazines. But her love of ELMO came

through, and a craft store had a cake

pan, so we got it and with some red sugar, made our

own Elmo (and it looked MUCH better than

what was offered at the grocery store!)

I made the cake and all day kept finding excuses

to not ice it. I must have been chicken!

When Bruce called from work to see if I'd

done it, I said, "No, not yet..." & he

said he would. I said, "OK!"

I put Royanne down for a late nap

so she'd be asleep when he got home

to decorate.

The finished product! The nose is a piece

of orange rind. The eyes are half of a cupcake -

really frosted up big -

and then mini Oreo cookies. The mouth is chocolate

sprinkles.

I did a little pre-decorating that night,

(from the chandelier)

and she climbed up on a chair!

Normally we eat in the kitchen and the dining

room chairs are in the garage

because she is such a climber!

But I had brought in the chairs and

pulled out the table to accommodate more

people. Not such a good idea!

I can't wait for gymnastics class, or

SOMETHING!!

Royanne in her ELMO hat, showing her

bat for "FOUL BALL!"

Don't you try on your jewelry

right before bedtime?

She grabbed my glasses from when we were

reading.

Tomorrow is your birthday,

my soon to be BIG GIRL!

Royanne went home with mom after church because

I wanted her to enter the house and see the

decorations all at once, not watch me do it.

Mom called right before they got here and I went

outside and covered Annie's eyes.

I wouldn't say she was impressed, exactly,

but she did take notice of the

chandelier decorations! We had three

dozen helium balloons, Elmo table

covers, plates and hats.

She really liked the Elmo balloon, fashioned

by the traveling balloon artist that goes to

Denny's on the weekends.

Getting ready for blowing the candles, her mood was

still pretty good.

She was really impressed by the cake, but

I don't have a good picture from when she

first saw it. Maybe Craig's dad, Lin, got one, I

don't know.

Cake and ice cream!

At present opening time, her stress level

was high and she had a momentary

meltdown; over stimulation and all!

Here she was starting to be back to her

old self.

She got a lot of help from Liam and

Abby.

Another doll. She loves them so!

Puzzles, books, Wonder Colors and drawing

tablets!

Wooden puzzle alphabet book! Too cool!

CHEESE!

MY JOY!