Beethoven's Birthday

About a month ago, Ellany informed us that Beethoven's birthday was on December 16th. She got this piece of information from a Peanuts comic strip. In the comic, Schroeder has a conversation with Lucy about Beethoven - his favorite composer. Ellany already knew who Beethoven was because she is familiar with some of his music, and plays a few of his pieces on the piano. After learning about his birthday, she started counting down the days..."20 more days until Beethoven's birthday!", etc. We knew having a little celebration on that day would make her happy, so I put it on the calendar.

A few days before the 16th, I made a birthday cake for a friend. I tried a new strawberry cake recipe which tasted good, but was very dense & heavy (thanks a lot, Martha Stewart!). So I made a new strawberry cake for the friend. Brynn had the great idea to make the first cake into a piano for Beethoven's birthday. I also gave her my leftover cream cheese frosting, which happened to be red. So here is the cake that Brynn constructed and frosted (I did the writing). Beethoven would be 239 if he was still alive!


Doesn't Ellany look excited? :0) We sang "Happy Birthday" to Ludwig and she blew out the candle. Here is our guest of honor:

After the cake, Ellany played two Beethoven songs for us. The notes aren't perfect but considering that she doesn't read music or take lessons, we were impressed. Here is her rendition of "Fur Elise":