9:07 a.m. - June 12, 2006
Mmmmm...Cake!
It was the day for Kristin�s first birthday party, and it got off to an auspicious start.
The annual Strawberry Festival was this past weekend, too, and Liz, being Ms. Civic Minded had some volunteering to do. She agreed to be at a couple of booths to hand out literature and talk about the League of Women Voters and the Youth Service Bureau.
And I was going to take the girls down there and soak in the sights for a while, then walk back with them and get ready for the party.
Well, it was a rainy and cold day, so Liz gamely trudged down to the Lane Place, we stayed inside. Hopefully, the weather was not going to be an omen of how the party was going to turn out.
Thankfully, no.
As usual, the first birthday party is filled with good memories for the adults, and lots of cake smeared all over the face of the little one. This one was no different.
The attendance was small, because of a few factors. First, cousin Dru was acting up, so she was not allowed to come. Second, Niece Nurse�s family all had games scheduled and they couldn�t make it � and I totally get that.
Of course the games got rained out, but Niece Nurse realized too late that they could have made the party. With two kids myself, I totally get THAT, too!
So it was a small, yet festive gathering.
Everyone was surprised at the pile of presents for Kristin on our table. However, there was a good reason for the mound of booty.
Katie went through her books and decided to give Kristin some of her baby books, and then she wanted them wrapped up. So Liz and Katie wrapped up about a dozen books. Katie also gave Kristin a stuffed tiger from her plethora of stuffed animals.
Katie was also quite involved in the preparation for the party. Here� Katie decorating the back staircase:
As normal with first birthday parties, you open the presents first, because, well, you know, cake. So Kristin dove into her booty. Well, actually, Katie was the designated present opener, since she�s the grizzled veteran and all.
Kristin loves the phone. Uh-oh. It�s going to start early.
So now we move from presents to the main event. The first birthday cake!
Let�s get the show on the road, people!
The cake was trotted out, but first we had to make a call. Liz wanted to get her mother on the phone so that she could hear everyone sing happy birthday to Kristin. So after a couple of false starts (where the one candle looked like it was going to melt all over everything) a connection was made and happy birthday was sung.
I didn�t pay any royalties for it, but does a cell phone call constitute a public performance?
At first Kristin was just all about the icing on the cake, so I took it upon myself to give her a nudge and reveal to her that yes, Kristin, that is cake under the pink icing.
Then she got the hint. A fistful of cake-ity!
So we had cake and ice cream and a good time was had by all, as you can see. Here is yours truly and the birthday girl.
Of course, Katie got into the act.
Still time for more cake!
Finally time for bath!
And that was the end of it, a very short, sweet, sedate, yet fun first birthday party. Because we were thinking somewhat ahead, cleanup was a breeze. The icing was a creamy icing, so it came up reasonably well from all of the nooks and crannies. We put a plastic bag down on top of the carpet where Kristin was sitting, so all we did was wad that up and throw it away.
The upstairs bathtub does still have a pinkish caste to it, though. Ah, well.
So there you have it, a festive day, with the only aftermath a couple of sugared up girls that had trouble sleeping Saturday night, and a lot of leftover cake in the fridge But you know, Saturday night�s all right for�cake!
