Extra, Extra: Esther is an Old Lady

  My first child is now 9.  Has it really been that long?  She is my experiment child and will always be the one that tests me the most.  Having said this, I need to then say that she is truly a wonderful girl.  She is very smart and her language skills are unparalleled (we have the tests to prove it), and she can surprise you with the kind things she does for others.  She is determined and like to do what she wants to do.  She loves to sing and dance.  Public exhibitions embarrass her, but she also like to be the center of attention; a conundrum that baffles me.  
  Her imagination is more active than any other I have come across and I think she will be a great writer some day.  She loves to play Barbies and she loves her new purse puppy, Clarisse.  One would think that she understands the difference between fiction and reality, but sometimes I wonder.  She asked me to make sure Clarisse was fed.  Hello, stuffed dog.  It just goes to show she has a lot of love to share--even with imaginary people and pets.
  We celebrated her birthday with a small family party that included niece Trisa.  I made a Little Mermaid cake and it took a couple of tries to get it somewhat right.  The first attempt looked more like a stripper than a mermaid.

Nothing a toilet paper tube and a paper towel couldn't fix.  I also had to wait for the frosting to harden a little because I ran out of powdered sugar and the frosting was too runny.

This is the result.  Not perfect, but much better.  By the way, did you know it is really hard to make purple and orange from green?  Yeah.  Tip for anyone making a mermaid cake in the future:  Divide the frosting into separate bowls and then dye it.  Starfish are hard to make, too.  Another tip:  Don't try it.After all of this I received a complaint that it didn't look like Ariel.  Her hair was in a bun.  So I had to carefully take her hair down and not get frosting everywhere.  In the end she was really happy and that is all that matters.