Sunday, January 27, 2008

Happy 1st Birthday, Claire!

Ladybug cake.

I almost missed the party, but made it home just before people began to arrive. I had scheduled the celebration for 11am, to work around lunch and naps, but that made for a tight morning of picking up the cake and some balloons. Unbelievably, the trip to Costco was faster than the trip to Party City. Somehow I got behind a family who bought $314 worth of SpongeBob Squarepants party stuff. Are you kidding? Sadly, it is true. But it made my $15 bunch of balloons seem so thrifty!

While I was pulling out of Costco, I received a call from Tim. It seemed that he had been enjoying the 70* weather and had decided to take a dip in the pool. Translation: while cleaning the pool filter, he moved too quickly, too close to the edge, and fell in. Luckily he was laughing as much as I was about it.

The party was fun. We had friends and family (from as far as California and Texas!) over to celebrate Claire's first birthday, and there were no disasters. Claire enjoyed her ladybug cake (her hands are still slightly purple), and several of the children present got to try cake for the first time. Kate and Claire are working out the property rights to the new sofa Claire got for her birthday, and Kate is happy to have yet more new toys to play with.




So dainty at first.


Handful.


Mom, did you know ladybugs are filled with a yummy strawberry cake center?



After several handfuls.


It's hard to see the black eye, but it's there! Not to worry, it was only frosting, and it came off with a good warm bath immediately afterward.



Let...me...pick...you...UP!



What? You can't breathe? You're not comfortable? What? I can't understand you, Claire.

Perhaps the best thing that happened yesterday was that Claire decided to take her first steps. She had been leaning/stumbling into our arms for the past week, but yesterday she figured out how to pick her feet up and take steps. She is now taking up to 6 steps at a time, on a fairly regular basis. I guess this is in line with her vocabulary explosion last week: her first word was 'puppy', while we were in Michigan, and by the time we got back home, she was saying 'mommy', 'daddy', 'bye-bye' and 'bunny'. What can I say? She's brilliant!


Post-Claire.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it! Thanks so much for the pictures. Claire is getting so big and Kate is growing so fast. How wonderful to get to spend time with Grandma Lorraine! And snow to boot! It was great to talk to you all yesterday. Can't wait til we can come visit again.
Love to all. Mom

Andrea and Ben said...

Oh Jen, That looks like a wonderful day! Sweet Claire looks like she loves the sweets too :0) Fun, Fun!

Elizabeth said...

My very favorite part of the whole party was the adoring way you and Tim looked at Claire the entire time she was destroying her cake. That is one loved little girl!