Birthday Weekend

Mara had quite the birthday weekend! She woke up Friday in such a mood, its almost like someone had filled her in as to what the "stereotypical two year old" should act like! Everything was "Oh, Oh, Oh!" (translation: "No!No!No!")
We still managed to have a fun day anyways :) I still had to make her cake, which had enough drama in itself. The only kind of cake/muffins that Mara has ever shown any kind of emotion towards is banana, so I found a banana pineapple cake recipe in one of my gluten-free cookbooks. It called for two flours that we did not have-potato flour and teff flour. Greg had gone to 3 different natural food stores that week and still wasn't able to get it. So I had to improvise, which I really did not want to do. Using different flours can be tricky, and the wrong choice can leave quite the aftertaste (this I know from experience). But, I chose my flours-rice, potato starch flour, tapioca, and millet and we began our cooking.

The girls had a blast! Analese spent most of the time mixing up the flours for me, as Mara just played with the leftovers from my dump bowl.

The cake looked delicious, so delicious that one of the cats ate a chunk out of it while I was putting/fighting with Mara to take a nap! I just cried, darn hormones, but soon realized that I was flipping the cake over to get it out of the pan so it didn't even matter.

Mara wanted a puppy dog cake, so that is what she got! The frosting took another search to find, but I found one that only used sugar, an egg, cream of tartar and boiling water. I added some vanilla to it for flavor, and it was pretty good!

Here is the finished cake! I used one of Mara's cookies for a nose her fruit snack for a tongue, all natural sprinkles and safe choc. chips. It's not the greatest dog cake ever, but it brought a smile to Mara's face :)

The cake was delicious too! I am so happy...getting better at this food thing!




Here are some photos of the birthday girl blowing out her candles!

























Then it was present time! Mara had received a special gift from Aunt Lorrie in the mail. She LOVES the "horsies" and has slept with it every night since! Thanks again Lorrie!



The box it came in was lots of fun too!



We had gotten Mara a dollhouse for her birthday, and I was so excited to give it to her. She loves it even more then I thought she would and has played with it nonstop. The best part about is that the house comes in two pieces, so they can constantly rearrange it and can even play two separate houses. Great for two little girls!













On Sunday we had Greg's parents over for dinner and more cake. The girls had fun showing them all their toys and games. Next weekend Mara will have a birthday party with all of her cousins who also share a winter birthday. I kind of dread the thought of her getting more stuff, but I guess thats what happens when your birthday is right after Christmas :)