A Quick stop-Over In L.A. For A Birthday Party

    Last Saturday morning Tom and I left the house at 4 am and ventured out into the 20 degree weather of Columbus, Ohio. 
    Happily, though, we were heading to the airport, and 9 hours and three time zones later were in warm, sunny Los Angeles,  home of palm trees, lemon trees, and best of all,

my two grandaughters, Makaila and Sienna, here playing with the surprises we brought for them, two little hand-made crayon aprons we picked up last month in Amish Country.  (see posts from  2/23/2015 - 2/25/ 2015).

The aprons have been a big hit, so well-loved in such a short time that  they're already missing a couple of
crayons each:

    Though this visit is just a brief stop-over on our way to Hawaii - we leave tomorrow for Honolulu - as soon as we arrived we hit the ground running since Makaila's 4th birthday party was to be the following day.
     So there was decorating to do, tables to set, gift-bags to fill,

...water balloons to fill up in advance for the water-balloon toss,

    ...and oh, so important, a birthday cake to be made.
    By early Sunday morning the house was almost ready for the party.

    Makaila had gone around the house with streamers and a roll of tape to  make sure that each area was decorated:

...even the bathroom.

   
And the back yard was all set up for water games,

..and with a lovely play-doh table

    Then it was time to make the cake, which was my job. 
    Makaila had requested a pink heart-shaped cake with flowers on it. 
    Now, there's actually a trick to making a good-sized heart-shaped cake.
    It calls for a square pan and a round pan:

   Divide the cake batter evenly between the two pans (I generally use one cake mix).  After the cakes are baked position the square in the shape of a diamond then cut the circle in half and "glue" with icing  each half to the two top sides of the diamond.  Maybe you can visualize from the above photo.
    As it turned out Maria didn't own an electric mixer, but that was all right, I was able to mix the batter by hand,

..with lots of help, of course,

    After the cake was baked I also had lots of help icing it, along with the batch of mini-cupcakes I made along with it:

But even with all my "help", everything turned out more or less okay anyway.

    The guests were due to arrive at 3:00 pm, at which time they promptly began doing.

First to arrive were the girls' Nana, Pop,  and Grandnana. At Makaila's request Nana and Grandnana made more pink crepe paper bows for Makaila to tape to the wall.

    Then the children and their parents all arrived, about 40 people, and the festivities began, starting with the water balloon toss,

..which was a great hit, and was followed by more free-form running-around-squealing-and-getting-wet-style activities.

    ...with brief pauses, at the parents' insistence, for eating.

The menu was oven-fried chicken cooked by me, a beautiful salad fixed by Maria, carrots in honey-lemon sauce fixed by Justin, and black beans, rice and plantains that Tom picked up from a local Cuban restaurant,

...and, of course, birthday cake and cupcakes,

...followed by more running around, squealing, laughing, crying, then more laughing, squealing, and running around. 
    Then one by one children and parents started going home until all the guests were gone,

...and the party was over.

    But the memory was so sweet.