Pony Gal's Sixth Birthday

Here is her cake, raspberry almond with raspberry almond Swiss buttercream (the closest I could think of to her requested cotton candy flavor). I made it Saturday, her party was Sunday. Over night something happened to the cake, via her little brother. I meant to take a picture of the "incident" but was somewhat panicked, and so the next shot is mom's fixing of the cake...

Notice the purple swirli-ness on the top? That is because someone swirled it all for us, ahead of time, as well as smearing around the horse and digging in a bit in the green. Boys. I will say he managed to lift the lid off of the cake platter and put it back on without much damage. There was a little smearing on the sides, but that is all. I had to chuckle :)

This is one of the "fun" finds I hinted about (maybe on facebook and not on here? Sorry...) from the Highway 141 garage sales. All of $5 brought this baby home. There is a little surface rust on the bottom outside of the mixing can, but everything is there.

The original plan was to have the kids churn the ice cream for us all (ha!) but the thing was pretty loud. And with my allergies in full swing (I was lucky to be awake with amount of allergy medication coursing through my veins) we couldn't just move them outside (so we adults could have our own party, wink, wink). So, I moved everything into the good ol' frozen electric base and let it do all the work. We will keep this handy for outside picnics and such, though. Plus, it holds a full gallon of ice cream. My freeze-ahead base only holds maybe half a gallon, maybe less. The ice cream was de-li-cious, though. Raspberry almond again, and I have to say, you must try that combination. Nothing like cherry nut. Well, I didn't put any actual nuts in. I was using extracts-no fake flavors. So good. Real cream. Real eggs. Real milk. Suuuuugar. Yes, yum.

I was having troubles getting a straight picture of my Pony Gal opening her gifts. She is so animated, and there was just enough light that I couldn't get a flash to come out. I should read my manual so I can find the action setting on the camera. Should.
So, here is a rare shot of her in action. Notice the red eyes? She had been crying. My little drama queen. Two of her favorite friends are boys. Rough and tumble boys. She is all about rough and tumble-sometimes. She was in  a dollhouse mood that day, though, and they weren't. They were playing elsewhere and she was sad they weren't with her. After the gifts were opened, though, all was well with the world and they were fine. Just a minor meltdown moment, and like a lady, she snuck off to her room to have it in privacy. My sweet girl.

Boy buddies. I didn't want a gaggle of hooligans running around, so she was left picking one friend. Then two nights before revealed she just *had* to have another, and a last minute phone call was made :) They were so cute. As we were walking over to open gifts they just spontaneously, together, broke out in a happy birthday song for Pony Gal. I hope they hang onto that for later in life!

I couldn't catch the candle lit. Everyone under 7 was helping to put them out.
I think everyone had a good time. I know Pony Gal was happy with the party and gifts. Her only gripe has been having to write thank you notes. We've gotten one done. In two weeks. People will be still be getting them at Christmas at this rate, and then she'll just have to start over. My girl. It's hard to believe she started out in the neo-natal intensive care unit, only 2# 13 oz, nearly 9 weeks early. She has grown remarkably and beautifully. I love you, sweet girl!