Mia's Jungle-rific Party

Since about 30 minutes after her birthday party last year, Mia has wanted to have a pink crocodile cake for her 4th birthday. I have no idea where she got this idea, but I agreed to it. Mostly because I thought she'd either forget or change her mind. But, lucky for us, she remembered and became increasingly specific as the birthday month approached. The crocodile needed to have lots of pointy teeth, but be smiling to demonstrate it's kindness. It needed to have yellow cake inside, and big, happy eyeballs.

Yes, ma'am, I said. Anything for you, princess, I said.

And then I panicked. I had no idea how to make a crocodile cake, much less make sure it was smiling.

Somehow, with extensive research and much fretting, a pink crocodile cake was born.

For accompaniment, we came up with a few jungle-themed goodies:

Monkey bait (bananas) and Croc Rocks (malt balls and gummy candies).

Laguna Tuna (Swedish fish and Goldfish).

And Jungle Juice (Cocktails for kids. Er, I mean, juice boxes.)

Mia was quite pleased with the outcome, which made it worth the effort. Even if I thought the crocodile looked somewhat pink-poodle-ish, Mia loved it. When we all gathered around to sing the birthday song to her, Mia soaked it up in her shy way and beamed her happiness from shining eyes.

I only got teary eyed once.

During the song, anyway.

Lauren wasn't allowed within 3 feet of the cake until eating time, due to her criminal history. (Which, by the way, didn't harm anything after all. I just used the chocolate cake to cut out pieces for the head and tail, saving the un-marred yellow cake for the body. All's well that ends well.)

When the time came for presents to be opened, Mia got a little bit bashful at first.

But she warmed up when the papers and bows began ripping away, revealing wonderful new gifts. Crocodiles, of course.



I had so much fun watching her open her gifts; she was gracious and excited. Before any birthday party, I've always had a niggle of worry about how she'd receive her gifts -- would she remember to say thank you? Would she express disappointment in a supposedly boring gift? Would she yell out that she already had something if it was a duplicate?

My worries were all unfounded. Mia behaved as beautifully as I knew she could.

I can't believe she's old enough to behave graciously. She's not a baby, not a toddler -- she's a little girl. Almost 4 years old.

And her party was a success...

...as evidenced by the mess left behind. A fun, celebratory mess: the best kind.