Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Yesterday, Charlie turned five. As trite as it may sound, I really can't believe how quickly he's growing up! In the weeks leading up to his birthday, I've been reminding him that his birthday was coming up. He would say he didn't want his birthday to come. And, when people asked him how old he would be on his birthday, he'd say "four!" and deny that he would be five. I figured out that it was because I had told him that after he turned five, he'd be able to go to kindergarten. He really loved preschool and didn't want to go to kindergarten. I think he thought that the moment he turned five, he'd have to leave preschool and go straight to kindergarten. It's interesting how kids think of time. Well, I think he's accepted the fact that he's five because he now says that he's "five years old". I'm sure it helped that he got to go to preschool on his birthday.

As mentioned previously, Charlie didn't just love trains, he LOVES trains. I can't remember when it all started but I do remember the early days of him learning to eat solid foods and lining up whatever was cut up for him on his plate like train cars. So, it was very appropriate that Grandma sent him a locomotive cake mold. I thought it'd be fun to bring the cake to share with his preschool friends on his birthday. Since I'd never used a mold for a cake before, I made a practice run for playgroup on Friday.

So here's the trial cake:
And here's the one I made yesterday for Charlie's preschool:
I must admit it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be. The hardest part was greasing the pan, which took a very LONG time because of all the nooks and crannies. Charlie got to pick where he wanted the different colors of frosting. That was the funnest part!

I was too lazy to make the cake a THIRD time so we had the leftovers of the preschool cake for our little family birthday party. Charlie wanted pizza for dinner so that's what we had! I loved that I didn't have to cook but I would've enjoyed making something at home for him if he wanted. Not having to cook and do too much clean-up was a bonus.
He got to pick out his birthday gift from us at Target. It's a remote controlled GeoTrax train. I'm glad I let him pick because I wouldn't have thought to get this toy for him. I thought he would've wanted a Thomas train because he loves Thomas. But maybe he chose this one because he already has several Thomas & Friends trains. It's so fun to watch him be so happy playing with a toy he really loves.