Happy Birthday!

We’ve celebrated one birthday amidst Covid but turning nine is a lot different than turning seventeen. I felt like we needed to do a bit more to make Malia’s birthday special. Although her actual birthday isn’t for a few days, Daniel is moving to Logan tomorrow so we did our family celebration today so we could all be here. That was very important to Malia (as well it should be) and she was completely amenable. Plus, we always end up with multiple birthday bashes so having just one would be as abnormal as the past five months have been!

Malia’s passion right now is horses. She loves all things horsey and desperately wants to learn to ride horses. As such, creating a horse themed birthday cake was a no brainer. We combed Pinterest and came up with a winner. Malia loved it and it looked like something I could actually create. Since she is in not in school this summer, she helped me bake the cakes, make the frosting and tint the fondant. She also helped me decorate the cake, forming fondant and piping part of the mane. She really enjoyed the piping part and we were both so pleased with how the cake turned out!

We did presents today as well. Daniel and Nathan gave her a doll that is just the right size to ride the horse she got for Christmas. She was so excited about that! She has stuffed animals and other dolls that have been riding Woody (her horse) since December, but none of their legs are long enough to fit in the stirrups. Having a doll the right size was one of her birthday wishes and we were even able to find one that was wearing the right clothes for horseback riding. Matthew gave her a brown bear stuffed animal which she loves, and Kevin and I got her a new bike since she has grown so much that she really can’t ride her old one anymore. She got the bike about a month ago, since Kevin was smart and picked it up when he started to notice huge gaps in the selection of bikes. Bikes, like many other items, are in short supply due to a variety of Covid induced reasons. Kevin’s mom gave Malia tickets to see “Mary Poppins” at Hale Centre Theater. That show was actually last week and after being shut up at home for so long, Malia was thrilled to be able to get out of the house and have an adventure!

The family celebration was a great success. Malia was thrilled with how everything turned out. And I am glad that we were able to add a little joy to her seriously restricted lifestyle.