Katie's 5th Birthday

When it comes to birthdays for the kids I like to plan well in advance.  Months before their big day I start probing about what they want for their birthday and what kind of cake they want.  Making birthday cakes for them is one of my most favorite things to do.  I really should take a class on decorating so mine don't look quite so homemade.  But no matter what they always love them.  I'm proud to say that I have only bought one cake for all 25 birthdays they've had (it was Charles's 1st birthday cake, sorry Charles). 
So anyway, back to Katie's birthday.  She wanted a princess castle cake.  I looked online a ton and watched You Tube videos on making a castle cake.  In the process, I got her hooked on watching these how to videos.  She still watches them and runs the battery on my phone down every time.  She did learn a lot.  Whenever she plays with play dough she throws our things like "cutting the dome off your nine inch cake", "put a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper over your fondant to roll and smooth it".  She's a hoot.
I thought the cake would be easy peasy after watching the tutorial a hundred times.  I was wrong.  It kept falling apart while I was frosting it but Katie kept cheering me on telling me it was OK.   Her special job was to put the sanding sugar on the cones. The cake  looked alright if you weren't too close. 

 She received great gifts that she loves and uses almost everyday. She was given everything she needed to learn how to swim from lessons down to the towel and flip flops.  The swimsuit had to be given a test run in the tub that night.  Here are a few pictures from her special day.