Beauty for All
Walks of Life

The other day, our family celebrated my daughter’s birthday.

After dinner, it was time for cake.
The cake was My Melody, my daughter's favorite. I had pre-ordered it!
Every year, I really enjoy searching for a cute cake.

I got confused about which side of the candle was up and wasn't sure how to place it.
As long as it lights up, it doesn’t really matter. No, actually—as long as we can eat the cake, nothing else really matters.
We lit the candles and sang the birthday song.
I used to be the one singing for them, but now they can sing it themselves—it made me realize how much they’ve grown.

For the present, we gave her the Sylvanian Families set she had chosen earlier.
When she received it, she said, "Oh, yeah, this."
I think she was happy… probably.

The next morning, my son asked me, "How old do you think I am?"
He had somehow misunderstood and thought that eating birthday cake makes you a year older.
So now, he was convinced he had turned five.

Explaining the difference between "eating cake because it’s your birthday" and "having a birthday because you ate cake" is surprisingly tricky!

Yoshiko Kuno