The Birthday!

Look who's 3!

This sweet little monkey!

She wanted a train cake so we did our best to please. Needless to say she enjoyed helping mommy build it, as there was plenty of chocolate involved.

She also helped me put together the train tracks, which we made with popsicle sticks on a big piece of cardboard. We covered the part under the tracks with gray paper and the surrounding areas with green then covered it all with waxed paper before adding the tracks. Then we added a couple of signs for a little extra flair... the railroad crossing sign, of course, and the giant HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner.

The cake was a Chocolate Zuchinni Cake (our favorite!!) and I baked it in one of those tins with 8 mini loaves in it...a train car for each letter of her name. The extra batter I put into 2 small loaf pans (I'm guessing about 3x6in) and used them to build the engine and add a the cupola (or whatever its called) to the caboose. Each piece of the train is set on a graham cracker sheet trimmed to size (for easier handling and movement) and the cupola roof and cowcatcher on the engine are also graham cracker. I used a small amount of melted chocolate and white chocolate to do the letters, wheel dots, and stripes on the roof and cowcatcher, as well as to "glue" the candy down and the cowcatcher together. Mini Peanut butter cups sliced in half made the wheels and oreos for the big engine wheels. Twix, Marshmallows, Reese's pieces, and crushed oreos did the job for the boxcar loads and I sprinkled the left over crushed oreos around the track for some gravel. Ta Da!! Mission accomplished...a very tasty cake that aslo looked cute without too much extra trouble. ( I was pretty crunched for time, since we had unexpected company for the weekend.) The longest part was frosting each piece.

I forgot to put the 3 on the engine...til after she blew out her candles. :)

Mr. Wise Guy had the brilliant idea of using the 3 candles as lights on the train and it turned out very well.

After all the cake excitement was over it was PRESENT TIME!!!

There was Play dough...

and Pretty Dresses!!

(The one below I sewed for her with matching hair bows...SUCH FUN!!)

A new winter jacket.

The Animal Parade, which they watch by the hour. ( i wish i could bring it to meeting) :D

And best of all...

A TRAIN SET!!!!

with an interactive sawmill stop

and a zipline track which is the kids favorite part.

And last but not least ... the train itself complete with dumping log-trailer and a magnetic log that can be sliced in half at the saw mill.

What a birthday!