Arianna's Birthday, Part Two

Arianna may have decided not to have a party, but really, she essentially ended up with 3 parties! We celebrated here at home (breakfast and lunch). Then, in the afternoon, Kenneth and I abandoned the Birthday girl (and the other 2 as well) and went to see the U.S. National Ladies Ice Skating Championships. They were watched by good friends of ours who have 5 children. We brought over cupcakes and a gift and she had a little party with them! Then, on Monday, we went to visit Miss Anita (our adopted Grandma out here) and she threw a little party for Arianna. Good times all around!
Here are the pictures:
We had caterpillars for breakfast, what else for lunch than a crab?!?! Arianna and the other two were delighted. Arianna requested peanut butter and jelly and frozen peas for lunch (she sure does makes it easy on me) so I figured I could at least make that somewhat exciting. I saw this idea in Family Fun magazine. They made them with croissants, but I didn't have them and, of course, thought to do this last minute, so this is what I came up with!
Here they are with their crabs.

Then came the main event, the cake. Kenneth came up with this set up. Pretty cheesy, but pretty darn cool for a 4 year old! It was kind of selfish of me, too. I wanted to make a particular chocolate cake recipe, which Kenneth tells me is really a brownie (no wonder I like it so well!) You bake it in a loaf pan and then it sinks as it cools, so it does not have a shape condusive to frosting. Plus, I didn't want frosting anyway. So I had to come up with a way to serve it with the whipped cream and raspberries. So, I just cut it in chunks and made a volcano. Voila!

And boy was it delicious!

Arianna loved it! The first thing she did was remove the dinosaurs from the habitat and share with her siblings. One for each of them. So sweet. (No, it is not always so blissful.)

Opening gifts at home after lunch.

In the afternoon/evening, Kenenth and I enjoyed being at the U.S. National Ladies Ice Skating Championships. Kenneth got tickets from work. It was such fun! And nice to be on a date together! One of the highlights of the evening, was Michelle Kwan being inducted into the National Ice Skating Hall of Fame. Pretty cool. Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano were also there.Here is Michelle Kwan on the big screen.

There is Ashley Wagner taking her victory lap before being awarded as Champion.

Kenneth and me with the Four Champions in the background.

And finally, some pictures of Monday's celebration with Miss Anita: Arianna delighted with Miss Anita's dinosaur brownies powdered with 'snow'.

Yum!

The party

Arianna having fun with her gifts from Miss Anita. Thanks, Anita!

It's all dinosaurs all the time around here nowadays. They even separate the little ones into piles: babies and food! They get that some of them are carnivorous. However, I also saw them setting up the babies to nurse from the mommy. I tried to explain that dinosaurs were not mammals, but they didn't want to hear it. Oh well.