Hannah turned 5 on February 19. Can't believe I'm the mother of a 5-year-old! She's got such a fun personality and is very creative. Her creativity comes out in her story telling and her make-believe playing. Most of her stories and playtime revolve around horses, of course. For the past 2 years, her love of horses has only increased! Horse books are the only books she cares to check out at the library every week.
This year, we have been reading lots of books together, and we started doing preschool at home. We're following Sonlight's 4-5 yr old curriculum, which gives lots of reading suggestions. She's doing great at recognizing all her letters and sounds and can write them all as well. We recently started on blending sounds together and she's so pleased with herself when she gets it right! She'll be reading soon. She's also determined to count to 100, but she forgets every 7...like she forgets 17, 27, 37...97! Who needs 7? Isn't it "unlucky"?
About a month ago, I was helping her with AWANA Cubbies and we were discussing sin and heaven and salvation. I described how God hates sin and won't let sin into heaven, but because Jesus died for our sins, we can ask for forgiveness for our sins and tell God that we believe Jesus is his son and that we want to follow him. Hannah said she wanted to think about it before she prayed. A few days later, she told me, "Mama, I don't have that sin inside me anymore. I prayed just like you said!" She loves to learn her verses and asks lots of questions about what she's learning about God.
Every night, she and her sister run horse races on their stick horses while I'm either cooking supper or cleaning up. They get their exercise! Sometimes they make their horses run barrel races, sometimes it's doing circles in the round pen, and sometimes they are running from mountain lions!
Hannah is a great big sister, and it made my heart melt this morning when I overheard her tell her baby brother how much God loves him! Today in the van, she was lifting her hands to the sky singing praise songs to Jesus. I love her heart! She is my encourager and my helper! She is my firstborn daughter!
Here's how I made the cake: (this is a recipe to extend your cake mix)
1 box Funfetti Cake mix
Oil called for in the cake + enough water to make 2 cups
4 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup flour
Mix it all up and pour into a greased and floured cake pan. After baking according to the box, let cool for a while. The cake pan said 10 minutes, but this wasn't long enough for my cake. I used a knife to cut the top of the cake to make it even, knifed along the edges to loosen it, then tipped it over to invert it on my tray. It didn't come out. I shook it. I knifed the edges again. I tried to get my fingers in there to loosen it. It finally came out. Some stayed in the pan. Frosting, like love, covers a multitude of wrongs. {grin} I made a double batch of Wilton's Buttercream Frosting. I got rave comments on the frosting. It's so rich, how could it not be good?
Cream:
2 lb powdered sugar
2 sticks/1 cup shortening
2 sticks/1 cup butter
Add:
4 Tbls milk
2 tsp Vanilla
I took out 2 cups and added 4 tsp light caro syrup to thin it. I spread this around the whole cake. I mostly did this because the cake was in pieces and very bumpy. Don't do this if you don't have to...it covers up all the details the pan gave the cake! I then colored some yellow, some purple, and some pink and filled up my pastry bags and away I went! Ta-Da! It turned out very bright and better than I'd hoped. Hannah loved it! And it tasted very good, too!
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