Tuesday, January 10, 2012

She Puts The Color Inside Of My World

As soon as we found out Anna's due date (December 24th), I knew our future kid was going to be faced with a lot of birthday disappointments over the years. I mean, seriously, a birthday at the end of December? My birthday is at the end of October and I sometimes feel slightly shorted. Like, all my presents come in a two-month stretch and right around June or July I start feeling envious of everyone celebrating their birthdays. (Because that's what Christmas and birthdays are all about, right? Presents!)

In fact, I even came across a blog that declares March to be "National Abstinence Month" so that no one is forced to celebrate a December birthday. While I wouldn't go as far as Scary Mommy does and say that "December babies suck," I would agree that a birthday three days after Christmas isn't exactly ideal.

But you know what? It is what it is. And like I mentioned a few days ago, even if I'm exhausted and totally over celebrating and stuffing my face, I'm going to make damn sure that Anna's birthday is celebrated. Yes, we've all eaten way too much cake. Yes, she's totally spoiled by the seemingly endless amount of presents that she's opened. Yes, I would very much like to take a long nap instead of cleaning my house. If Anna's birthday was in  probably any other month, though, none of those things would be an issue. My sister said, and I agree with her, that it's almost like we have to make a bigger deal out of her birthday than we normally would, just so she knows she has her own special day.

Besides, how are we not going to celebrate the day this girl came into our world?



This year was a much smaller affair than last year's, although I did get talked out of my original idea of ordering Costco pizzas. (Boo to that - who doesn't love Costco pizza? Who?) And I of course went a little overboard on the cake, but mostly because I get a kick out of doing stuff like that. Also - Pinterest exists this year, and there were quite a few fun ideas I wanted to try out.

Behold, the rainbow.





Much less complicated than it looks. Promise. Mostly time consuming. You need to buy the gel food coloring to get the colors that bright - they sell them at Michael's. I just used two boxes of white cake mix and divided the batter into eight smaller bowls. I only have two cake pans, so it took awhile to bake the layers, let them cool, wash the pans, and start over again.This bad boy required two batches of frosting, which equaled an extremely heart healthy six sticks of butter and eight cups of powdered sugar. Yum. If I did it again, I would use the same frosting for in between the layers, but probably use something a little fluffier for the outside. I still have like half of this cake in the freezer, so hit me up if you want a slice!



We ate Mexican food, Anna showed off her new presents, and we all marveled over the amazing little person she has become.

I spent like $25 on rainbow sprinkles. Yes, I'm aware I have a problem.






Birthday crown made by my mom.



When it comes down to it, even though her birthday may not be perfectly timed, in my eyes she timed her arrival perfectly. She's here. She's healthy. That's all that really matters.

And if that's not an excuse to eat rainbow cake, I'm not sure what is.

Any December babies out there? How do you cope? Will Anna be scarred for life?

4 comments:

  1. As a fellow December 28th baby, I have to say that I love celebrating so close to Christmas! When we were kids it kind of stunk because I didn't get to bring cupcakes to school on your bday like some other kids, and sometimes my friends were out of town visiting relatives when I wanted to have my party, but as we got older I really started to love it. For starters, decorations are still up so it is like the whole city has decorated just for my bday (haven't they?) and the years that I have traveled home to Michigan I have gotten to see tons of old friends that are now IN TOWN visiting family. I think it is marvelous being a December baby, and I think your little one will grow to love it as well.

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  2. Oh my god, I'm going to pale in comparison to you as a mom.... I mean rainbow layered cake and a homemade crown.... baby Steinke is already jealous!

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    1. Ha ha - you are going to be an amazing mama! And Baby Steinke will always have Auntie Leslie to make rainbow cakes for her!!

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  3. Awww we had a rainbow party for our daughter's 2nd bday last year! I made a very similar cake :-) Love that theme, there's so much you can do with it. Looks like it was a great party.
    Here's a link to ours if you're interested. LOL we even had the same kind of candles
    http://www.backwardslife.com/2011/02/27/happy-birthday-baby/

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