Brianna's 1st Birthday

Our little ladybug is 1! 

We had a great time celebrating Brianna's birthday a week ago. I had the idea of doing a ladybug theme and then my mom told me she had made a ladybug quilt for her so that is what we went with. 

 She makes the cutest birthday girl!

I made the headband bow and tutu.

She got a little help from her siblings blowing out the candle.

She couldn't eat the cake fast enough! By the time I got the camera out, her little piece was almost gone!

Ladybug quilt was lovingly made by Grandma Pontier. We gave her a ladybug pillow pet to go along with it.

Here's a little recap of how I made the cake. I baked one cake mix in 2 sizes of pyrex glass bowls. The smaller bowl cooked in a 3rd of the time. When they cooled I cut the smaller to fit into the larger to make the head. The white stuff on the cake is just flour from greasing and flouring the bowl so the cake wouldn't stick.

 Blake did a great job supervising and eating as much frosting as he could. Black and red are probably the two hardest colors to make, but I just tried to get them as dark as I could without using the whole bottle of coloring paste. I find that frosting actually gets darker as it sets so my gray and pink ladybug looked more black and red after a few hours.

 I used a medium star tip all over for both the black and the red.  Making progress...

 I added the details (spots, eyes, and smile) last and was very happy with how cute it turned out! I was glad there was a little room on the cake board to add the words "Happy Birthday" and "Brianna 1". 

 The only thing I wish this little guy had were some antenna made of black pipe cleaners. I realized a little too late in the day that I didn't have any. Maybe cake #2 will get some for birthday party #2, we'll see.