Larkspur had such a wonderful birthday yesterday. Last year I was in a bit of a fog, and while of course we celebrated, I wasn’t as present as I would have liked to be. This year I wanted to make up for that.
The day started with Larkspur finding her birthday crown hanging on the post by her bed. After that we headed downstairs to choose a birthday outfit to wear. She ended up in a sweater and skirt that I made for her last year.
We try not to make celebrations all about the gifts, but of course, Larkspur being four, really wanted to get right to the presents. We let her open one gift early in the day, the one “must have” go to gift for any child: a mortar and pestle. For some reason this is the must have gift in my family. Both Seth and Keats requested them for their birthdays and of course Lark wanted one too. I am working on an outdoor kitchen for Lark and the mortar and pestle will be a good addition for grinding dirt and flower petals and such.
We had already discussed her cake, but Larkspur needed to find her copy of Bunny Cakes to make sure I understood what she wanted: a “bunny cake.”
Finally the time arrived to open her other gifts. She was really excited because she knew she was getting “something special.”
And while I think that the dress and sweater that I spent hours making for her are special, for Larkspur, the real prize was a baby doll whose eyes open and shut.
Honestly I almost never buy plastic toys or toys in general really. This baby doll was sort of a last minute thing, but I am so glad I bought it for her. She absolutely loves it. She named her “Flowery.”
The dress and sweater were left lying on the table while Lark headed upstairs to care for her baby. Larkspur clearly liked the dress and sweater, but being an honest child, informed me that clothes don’t make the best gifts. It’s okay, she didn’t mean that the way it sounded. She does like it when I make her clothes. Either way, I love seeing her wearing things that I make, whether they make “good” gifts or not.
Eventually she wanted to put her dress on. I took lots of pictures and will post more about the dress and shrug later.
But, then it was back to the baby. She loves the baby.
Look at that face. I love the baby too. Makes me want to get my Tiny Tears doll restored.
At the end of the day it was time for bunny cake (translation: sloppy looking pink cake with pink frosting. I used the vanilla butter cake recipe from this gluten free cookbook-it turned out great.) If you look closely you can see that Larkspur already has frosting all over her face. After I frosted the cake Keats attempted to take the spatula to lick it, much to Larkspur’s dismay. With her fists shaking in the air at him she cried, “But I’m the birthday girl!” He quickly handed it to her and all was well.
At bedtime Larkspur got a final gift: two new books (Dogger and The Maggie B. I highly recommend both ) and I may make that a new birthday tradition. I like the idea of one last gift, a book or two, at the end of a birthday. We read Larkspur her books and then the birthday girl went to bed with a smile on her face.
**Oh, and because I was asked: I buy neutral colored (brown) wool felt by the yard at JoAnne for the backing of the crown (it’s cheaper but make sure you do get the wool stuff), and order plant dyed wool felt from Weir Dolls for the front. Larkspur’s crown was made with the “rose” colored felt. It is a really nice shade of pink. Not too babyish, not too bright, just perfectly rose.
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