Bailey's party!

Grandma and Pop-pop did some festive foraging in Chinatown and in the goodies packed away from their trip to China, and Auntie - in the regular Auntie style - decked the halls with lanterns, dragons and fans and set up a Chinese eatery for the kids.

Bailey is most thankful for the party.

The boys are only there for the hats, really.

Wait! Was that the lo mein that was just delivered? Nope, just another picture of the marzipan on top of the cake!

I also finally got Natalie's birthday gifts to her. I felt terrible at Christmas - already three weeks past her birthday - that the gloves weren't done and I totally couldn't find the hat... of course, being late meant that I had time to knit her the calorimetry from this winter's Knitty issue. She almost always wears her hair up and when I saw that, I knew it would be perfect. Now her ears will be nice and toasty! AND I found her hat, so if she decides to wear her hair down, she's still warm and fuzzy. She was very excited about the flip mittens, too.

And then I made a cake...

Bailey's 6th birthday theme was Chinese New Year. It was totally her idea, we were thinking a tea party would be nice, but what do we know, really? The party was lots of fun, of course. Auntie is unequalled at planning and executing these things. She was a little at a loss because the food was ordered, so she had nothing to cook in those last few hours. I took on the cake project and needed something to work with our theme. What says "Chinese New Year birthday party" better than a big ol' container of lo mein? So I made a half-sheet of butter cake, cut it into thirds and filled it with some yummy chocolate pastry cream, applied some rolled fondant and stuffed in my marzipan lo mein...



and painted a blue willow-esque scene. (that dog is a pig... it IS, after all, the year of the pig)

Then, I added some calligraphy that says "Happy Birthday Bailey" in Madarin characters.





I was quite tickled that the guy delivering our feast saw the cake, from the calligraphy side and asked who Bailey was... then wished her a happy birthday! Birthday pictures are next. Hang on!