Elayne is Three!!

It’s so amazing to me how much she has grown and changed just over the past year, and especially within the past few months.

Up until April, Elayne was hardly talking at all. She understood everything we said to her, and she listened well. But she just didn’t want to speak much. Now, she’s talking up a storm! I mean full, comprehensible sentences. And she’s picking up on some big words just from listening to me and Tommy when we’re speaking. It’s amazing.

She has also geared up to be a big sister. She takes her baby dolls and feeds them, burps them, rocks them, and lies them down to sleep. It’s absolutely adorable to watch. I think she’s going to be an excellent big sister!

For her birthday this year, we had a Winnie the Pooh party. We had a bunch of people over, with a bunch of kids running around. And I made brunch food for this party again, just like last year. Morning is still the time of day that Elayne is happiest and in her best mood, so we're sticking with that until further notice.

We had lots of food, including French toast casserole, chia seed pudding, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, bacon & sausage, mini ham sandwiches (Pooh's Hunny Ham Sandwiches), chicken nuggets, cheese puffs (Tigger's Tails), pigs in blankets (Piglets in blankets), a veggie tray (Rabbit's Vegetable Garden), and chocolate chip cookies.

I also tried a new recipe, Honey Cookies, because they seemed to fit in the theme very well. They were also very yummy. Just like a sugar cookie, but with a hint (not too much) of added sweetness.

I also made Elayne’s Winnie the Pooh cake.
I used a Winnie the Pooh cake pan to make it. Please don’t think I’m talented enough to shape that cake by myself!!
But I also knew that just using that one pan wouldn’t make enough cake for the amount of people we were having over. So I also made a 9x13 cake, and I placed the Winnie the Pooh cake on top of it.

It did take quite a while to decorate the cakes though, because I used 5 different food colors, meaning I needed to use several different mixing bowls, piping bags, and tips. And there was enough detail that it took me a decently long time, especially since I was decorating it around 10:00 at night.

Despite taking a while, the cake did turn out pretty well. I was pretty satisfied with it. I did have a little issue right at the start of the party. The Pooh cake started to split a little, because the 9x13 cake was just barely bigger than the Pooh cake. And so, the weight of the Pooh cake make it split some. But we didn't panic. We took some chocolate chip cookies, and placed them underneath the Pooh cake, to help balance it out and keep it together. One thing to remember in baking: Something will always go wrong, or not turn out how you expected. But many times it is still salvageable.

It was a good day all-around. However, I will say, I don’t recommend throwing a big party at 8 months pregnant 😂 It was completely exhausting. And I was prepping any way I could for weeks in advance. By the time the party was finished, I was about ready to collapse. I hardly did anything the following day, and our house is still a wreck. I’ll have to really get organized again soon though, because now I have to get all the remaining baby stuff out and have it ready for when the baby is born in 3 weeks! 😄