Leah turned 5 yesterday. I can't believe my little girl is already 5 and going into Kindergarten in the Fall. She is really excited about being 5. I think she thinks she is all grown up.
Leah's party invitation. I painted the painting and then scanned it for the invitation. I actually did 4 paintings trying to get a very loose, whimsical style. I never did achieve quite what I was after but settled on this one because after all, it is a little crazy to do 4 of the same painting just for a party invitation!!!
Leah really wanted a pinata this year. She has been to a couple of friends parties with pinatas and wanted one of her own. I really didn't want to shell out the money for a good one so I decided I could make one myself.
The pinata took a little longer than I had anticipated but luckily I started it 5 days before the party. I think I had some divine inspiration for that decision! Otherwise I probably would have started it a day before the party thinking I could get it done and dry by whacking time.
I wanted to do a fondant covered cake very much like what is on the party invitation. I found a marshmallow fondant recipe that didn't seem too difficult, just time consuming to make. Luckily before I actually started the fondant I realized that again, I'm a little crazy and was taking on too much. I told Leah I was just going to do cupcakes because they were going to be a lot easier than a whole cake. She didn't like that idea and neither did Lance so the cake had to be made. I decided on a 7 minute frosting, it is kind of like marshmallows, yum! I did make the cake from scratch though. It was pretty tasty, just a little dry. I found these great gummy butterflies from Winco in Orem (love that store!) and just had to find a way to put them on the cake. The crown on top is leftover fondant from a bee cake I did for YW a few months ago. The little white things are tiny candy pearls. Leah wanted to push all of them in so they wouldn't fall off, after 5 minutes of her pushing each individually (it seamed like it anyway) I convinced her they would be fine, please stop!!
I made the crown when Leah was gone having birthday breakfast with Lance so I didn't realize how tall it would be on her. Oh well, it turned out ok. She loved it too. I spread out glitter glue all over it, she loved that the best. I bet if I had just put the glitter on it with nothing else she would have loved it just because of the glitter. She is so GIRLY! She was waving her hands around and "posing" in odd ways. I don't know what she was thinking with all that posing. I told her to put her hands down to her sides but this picture turned out much better and reflects her personality more.
She couldn't stop laughing and making funny cheesy/freaky faces while I was trying to get a picture of her and the cake. I think she was just a LITTLE bit excited!
Whacking time! Don't you love the stick the pinata is tied to? Resourceful aren't we?
Ryan having a go at the pinata. His first swing was pretty good, the second was not.
All the kids only got one turn because the boy to Leah's left is so strong and burly! He whacked it once and the strings broke so we let him whack it again on the ground and then dumped out all the candy. We expected more kids since we invited all of Leah's preschool class so there was a ton of candy that went home with each kid. There were 9 kids that showed up and some parents as well.
She just looked so cute, I couldn't resist putting this picture in too.
Contemplating the making of the wish.
The making of the wish. I don't know what she wished for but she sure spent a lot of time making that wish, probably a full minute at least.
Of course the blowing out of the candles. Everyone wanted a butterfly, even though not many actually finished their coveted butterfly. Tears were shed about not getting the right color and everything. We tried to accommodate everyone though. It was so nice and calm and quiet for about 2 minutes while all the kids happened to be stuffing their faces at the same time. Then the crazies happened some more until present unwrapping time. Leah was given lots of great treasures, including lots of wonderful dress-up and girly things. She was in total heaven. I just realized it would have been good to have a picture of her with her hoard but alas, I didn't think of it then and I really don't want to re-stage the moment. Just imagine it in your mind.
I had been asking Leah for month what kind of a cake she wanted for her birthday. At first she wanted a fairy cake like she had last year but because I wanted to make something different I kept asking. Then she wanted an Aladdin cake with a figure of Aladdin on it, didn't really want to try and find a figure of Aladdin so I kept asking. Then she wanted a car cake, really? She doesn't even play with cars much! So I kept asking. She settled on the car cake though and decided she wanted it to be pink. Princess gets what Princess wants, right? Well maybe this time.
The candles were a sparkler variety so they kept lighting back up. She got a kick out of them.
Auntie Kimm gave her some books, including this wipe off book (she loved the one she had so much it was falling apart). I think she was pretty excited to get some new books.
Best part of all? New crown and earrings. Precious little brother broke her old one months and months ago so she was really ecstatic to get a new one. Those earrings are already lost though, I think she kept track of them for a week. They are probably just buried in the toy box.
Ryan turned 2 on May 4th.
He wanted a train cake with blue frosting.
He really liked pulling the bunny crackers off the top best.
He got some new trains and tracks. Leah and Ryan had lots of fun setting them up and playing with them.
I think Ryan really likes that red train.
The leftovers...we even gave some away to the neighbors. The kids got one more piece the next day and the rest went in the trash.
Such a cute blue boy.
I looked all over for fairy cake ideas and figurines and finally found some Tinkerbell fairy figurines at the Disney Store. The flowers are rolled out starbursts.
Leah contemplating blowing out her candles, they were supposed to be sparkly. 
Right after she blew out her candles.
We brought out the bubble machine and the bubble wand. One of the neighbors had another bubble blowing toy they used to make the little bubbles. Leah was excited to pop the bubbles, and mad when the other kids popped them first. 
She had to use the bubble wand all by herself. Of course the other kids wanted to do it too. Leah finally relinquished her fairy wand and let some others try making big bubbles.
Leah handing out the butterfly cookies I made to all her party guests, at least the kids. She got too shy when I asked her to pass them out to the adults. 
I made these butterfly cookies for the party. The frosting got a little squished on these. I made about 40 of them and had a bucket full left over.
He wasn't too sure what to do at first.
Ryan was eating like normal with his hands but then all of the sudden he stuck his face in his cake. Maybe he didn't like getting the frosting on his hands, who knows.
Sugar rush kicking in! He loves the camera. I love the balloons in the background.
We had a mini party with just our family the actual day of his birthday. He crumbled up his cupcake, eating only 1/4 of it. He just likes making messes.
Ryan loved putting the cupcake gunk all over his head, notice the clumps in his hair. At one point he actually ground it into his head.
