The party was Sunday August 31 starting at 10:30. Although her actual birthday was a few weeks ago, we put it off until this weekend so Peter could get through several tough work weeks that included weekend code moves. Unfortunately, he came down with the flu Friday night so he missed it after all.
Birthday parties at Hogan's Fountain are the best. People can come and go as they please. The kids have built-in entertainment with playground equipment. It does mean a certain amount of work packing up and transporting supplies, but it sure beats the cleanup I'd have at home.
The party was Sunday August 31 starting at 10:30. Although her actual birthday was a few weeks ago, we put it off until this weekend so Peter could get through several tough work weeks that included weekend code moves. Unfortunately, he came down with the flu Friday night so he missed it after all. :(
Since it was a morning party, we had coffee, bagels with cream cheese, and lots of fruit. I forgot the bag of clementines, but in my family it's somewhat tradition to leave at least one thing in the refrigerator. Of course, we ended with cake and ice cream.
Her big penguin cake was carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It had so many good reviews, I assumed it was fool proof. The darn thing collapsed in the center and then broke in half when I tried to take it out of the pan. Oh, well. It still tasted good. After much hemming and hawing about what I was going to do, I made the penguin using a marshmallow fondant. I skipped the black food coloring and decided to add chocolate to part of the fondant to make the darker color. It didn't turn out too badly for an amateur. She wanted to help so she got to make little snowballs for the penguin to stand on.
Piper's Uncle Mike took most of the photos - she spent a good portion of the time trying to hide from him. Apparently she seriously didn't want her picture taken. After she blew out the candles on her cake, she immediately started crying when she realized several people had taken her picture so he had to be a lot more sneaky about it after that. She's so funny. Sometimes she'll pose and demand to have the camera pulled out. Ah, four-year-olds.
After the sugary cake, the kids took off to play. After playing on the slides & swings and kicking around a ball, Piper and her friend Brynn decided to built an ant restaurant out of the dust around the picnic tables.
Everyone started dispersing around 1:30. I feel grateful to have such good friends and family. Thanks to those who could celebrate with us.
Here's where they started clamoring for the cake to be cut.
