Random Shannon: Jane's Birthday

Well, the last few weeks have trotted on by, but for some reason Jane's birthday seems like forever ago. She turned 9 whole years old on August 4.

The day began with the birthday girl opening her presents.

She sure likes presents.

She asked mostly for Moshi Monsters, and that's mostly what she got, along with some other odds and ends.

Aren't they cute? Jane forms these little obsessions with things. (No idea where she gets that tendency.)

After present time, our family went out to the lovely Golden Corral, Jane's "favorite". Apparently we need to introduce her to more dining options. =) I guess she's still at the age where anything she likes automatically gets labeled as her favorite. I'd given her the choice between IHOP and GC, and she picked GC with a big grin and a twinkle in her eye. Maybe next time we'll surprise her by taking her somewhere a little less familiar.
(Note: The only reason we ever "introduced" the kids to GC was because we've been invited there a few times with Ryan's dad who likes it.)

After we returned, we got to work decorating and bracing ourselves for her afternoon party.
That's the part where I never leave myself enough time to adequately prepare. I do my best work in scramble mode anyway. (Also, my only work.)

Jane bursting with enthusiasm as her guests begin to arrive.

Not a soul in sight.

The kids played freeze dance...

They also played a few other games, and of course jumped on the trampoline with water balloons.
I've already posted too many pictures of that happening this summer; I won't bore anyone with more today.

Bella, Natalie, Jane, Emma, and Maya. Back row: Cora. And Oliver lurking by the chair.

Crazy kids.

A few weeks before her birthday, Jane and Cora were looking at cake ideas online. She wanted her special cake to be Moshi Monster related. They found this picture:

It's called the Foodies' Yum Yum Lair. Foodies are Moshlings which resemble sweet foods such as donuts and cupcakes. So completely up my alley. =)

I don't know what came over me, but I decided I was going to try and make this cake. It couldn't be too difficult, right? Then why, out of all the thousands of adorable Moshi cake images we scrolled through, why didn't we see even one sugary attempt at the Yum Yum Lair? I was shocked and a little confused. Nobody has EVER attempted to make this into a cake?! It's such a cute design! Either nobody has tried, or their efforts turned out somewhat like mine, leaving the baker too sheepish to post proof on the World Wide Web.

I knew I'd have to try fondant for the first time. Frosting would look too sloppy. So I made some fondant the night before I needed to decorate the cake. This would be my first time ever completing a cake the night before an event. Usually I'm working feverishly until the party is about to begin. But not this time, no!

I had to omit the candy cane, as I could not see any possible way to fashion one out of fondant and have it stay upright. I wished I'd had some real candy canes in my stash. =(

Some of my fondant was a nightmare to work with! It was too stretchy or something, and I really had no idea what I was doing, but I was so worn out after the hours I'd spent coloring the fondant (kneading and kneading and...) and shaping the cakes that I didn't really care to try fixing the problem at that hour of the night. I just wanted it to be done!

Mmmm, that yellow layer looks like real banana chewing gum! And how did I get the aqua fondant to turn out so droopy? Shhhhh, it's a secret. I'll never tell!

It actually didn't look that bad from a distance. I was overall satisfied with how it turned out, considering I'd never tried a cake with fondant before. I'll just need to get some pointers about how to make it look seamless. The back looked like a dog had decorated it.

Enough about the cake!
Everyone sang the customary birthday song to her and she blew out nine candles.