reading party!

When the day finally came last month to put a red star on lesson 100, Emma was so excited.

She was excited she had learned to read.  She was excited that she got prizes.  

But she was really excited about cake.  She truly is my daughter. 

I was excited too, because I was proud of her and also because of the cake thing.  (So shoot me. I like cake.)

Emma wanted a "reading cake", which doesn't leave a lot of room for flexibility.  What exactly can you do with a reading cake? I decided to go with a book.  An open book.  You know, because Emma's reading the book.  

It all started out well.  I made a chocolate cake, and had some vanilla icing on hand.  I was prepared to make the cake into a book. 

Yes, everything was going fine until I had to write on it.  I cannot write on cakes.  It can't be done.  Will someone please have pity on me and send me those freaky little sugar letters you can stick on cakes?  I. Need. Help.

It so happened that on the day of her reading party, all of our local friends were out of town or otherwise engaged.  All her family members were on the other side of the ocean, and even our house helper had the day off.  There was no one to celebrate this reading accomplishment with us.

So...since we weren't waiting on any guests to arrive, we decided we'd have our reading party as soon as everyone was awake.  And that was....um....about 7:15.  

Emma had to read her Lesson 100 again, just to "prove" to everyone that she could read:

...and then we ate cake for breakfast.  Yes, there are advantages to not having to wait for guests to arrive!  

Emma got a few new books, a music CD and a little princess doll for all her efforts.  That day, we read our fun new books and did lots of activities about books.  It's such a wonderful thing to read and learn new things.  This poem, from one of our children's poetry books, sums it up well: