Cat's Eleventh Birthday

Cat had a great birthday but I didn't take any pictures until the evening.  We went to a Dollar theater to see "Mr. Peabody and Sherman" with one of Cat's friends.  Then we all went to Costco, because Cat wanted Costco pizza for lunch.  Then we took the friend home and had some time at the house while Luke took a nap.  Cat started watching "Goosebumps" and Ben and I finished watching it with her that night after the other kids went to bed.

Per the birthday girl's request, we had alfredo pasta with chicken and roasted asparagus for dinner.  She opened some lovely presents that she was really excited about, then we went to her softball game.  After the game it was cake time.

Cat told me before her birthday that she just wanted a simple cake, so I didn't plan anything special in advance.  But as I was looking for fun, different recipes online that morning, Cat decided to poke around on the net and found something that would make her birthday perfect: emoji cupcakes.  I took a look and figured that my amateur cake decorating skills were up to the challenge.  I used a box cake mix, but made the frosting from scratch (I really think that's the way to go, folks.)  I used store-bought cans of frosting for the black and red, though, and they were really easy to use.  I made a larger cake for the center and used Cat's brand-new emoji backpack (which she LOVES) for inspiration of faces to make.  The girls each gave one or two cupcakes faces, too, and had fun with that.

The first time we lit the candles, the boys blew them out before Cat had the chance.  You can see how Cat tried to prevent this from happening the second time.

Happy Birthday Cat!