Caroline's 5th Birthday Party

Caroline turned five this week. This was her most anticipated birthday yet. With age comes awareness, I guess. She asked for months when her birthday was. Then it was weeks, then it was days, then it was hours... and then her party finally really was happening. In her mind she didn't officially turn five until she had her birthday party. Tonight that finally happened and she had a grand time.

This was the first birthday party I just served dessert and boy was it a breeze. Before I served a meal too and it was so much work. I let her pick some fun things out at the Dollar Store for her friends to paint and some goodies for them to take home.

She is a bundle of energy and always ready to do something. She is my little helper; some days I am amazed at how well she can clean up the house. Then other days it feels like I'm telling a sloth to hurry:) Natalie and her are becoming good friends that also fight like girls. Lots of hair pulling and also lots of fun times too.

She wanted a barbie cake. My mom would make barbie cakes for us girls using a bundt cake pan. I used 6" layered cake pans and shaved off the cake to look like a skirt. She seemed to be delighted with the results.

My go-to birthday cake recipe is from Natasha's Kitchen.

Click to see the recipes. For the icing I use her cream cheese buttercream from this cake recipe and use raspberries instead. I love her Vanilla cupcake recipe... I just double the recipe for layer cakes and bake them 20-25 minutes.

 These girls keep me smiling.

 Grandpa was home so he could come to her party!

We love you Caroline,

Mom and Dad