Lydia's 5th Birthday

My daughter turned the big 0-5 a few days ago. In some ways she is our miracle baby. After she was born she would not breathe. She had an Apgar score of 2. After she was born they put her in my arms for thirty seconds and then grabbed her back again and pushed the "code" button on the wall. Within moments, half a dozen people poured into the room, started "bagging" her so she would breathe and working on her to keep her going. Although it seemed like an eternity they finally got her breathing after a couple of minutes. They put her in the NICU for several days but she was already doing great. I was so thankful for the doctors and nurses that did such a great job on my newborn baby.

On the morning of her birthday we went to a farm where they made sorghum. Here is the old time machine pulled by a mule that they used to squeeze the juice from the sorghum cane. Although hard to see, the juice is pouring into the blue barrel. Later they will boil it for hours until it gets thick and brown. (It's actually green to begin with)



The girls also got to paint and take home a pumpkin from the sorghum farm and play on a playground there. They had a great time and we were pleased with our birthday excursion.

While Lydia and I were at the library a few days before her birthday we discovered that as well as books, the library lends cake pans! Lydia immediately chose the crown cake pan for her birthday cake. I was a little nervous about baking a shaped a cake because I have never been able to get a cake out of a pan without some of it sticking and ruining the whole thing, let alone a shaped cake. I looked up directions on the internet and learned the secret. Use non-stick spray with flour in the spray. It worked perfectly and the cake came out beautifully! The pan came with directions for unbelievably intricate decorations. There was no way I was going to spend hours frosting the cake and besides that, Lydia really wanted to help decorate it. After I baked it, I simply frosted the whole thing pink. Then I had Lydia and her little sister put M&M's all around the edges and gummy Lifesavers in the middle of each of the crown prongs for jewels. Then we put a candle in each of the five jewels. (The funny thing is I didn't realize the crown had exactly five prongs just like her age when we first got the pan) Lydia then used thin licorice to write her name and age on the cake.



Here is Lydia with the cake:



Here is Lydia in mid-blow:



Happy 5th Birthday Sweetheart!


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