Kayla’s 1st Teenage Birthday

We are officially parents

of a teenage  young lady,

precious, self-driven, Kayla.

She has grown so much, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Ray and I are very honored God has entrusted us with her care and upbringing.

We are so very proud of her.

Happy Birthday to you,

Kayla!

Again this year, she wanted to have her party at the Harpers’. They were fine with us imposing so we did.

Last year Kayla refused to tell me what she wanted for a cake. This year was the complete opposite. She came up with a tall order and a challenge to boot. The request was for a banana coconut cake with her horse Doree’s portrait with a sunflower by her ear and an elaborate butterfly.

Mind you, I do not use any artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. This led to using my imagination (and prayer). Doree is a sorrel color, a red-brown. How to recreate that in frosting? The closest I could come up with, because I forgot to order carmine powder, comprised of triple berry jelly, cocoa powder, molasses, and cream cheese frosting. The butterfly was decorated using scrapbook findings set in chocolate. Turmeric lends itself to wonderful shades of yellow. Her mane is nowhere near the right color but melted chocolate piped on made quick work of it.  Banana cake with banana coconut filling (my own creation), cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut sides was a big tasty success. Most came back for seconds.

All are singing, “Happy Birthday to you…” Now looking at the picture, Kayla and I are both wondering where are the Ramseys? They were there. Next year you will not escape the camera!

Dad missed the party. He was away for Kevin’s wedding. On her birthday, we met at home around 10:15 pm and had another little party. He missed his daughter so. He went shopping while in Lake Tahoe and could not leave without this for his little girl. It’s a metal form that stands 1/2 inch off the wall.

All in all,

I think she had a great 13th birthday!