How did a year go so fast? How did my little tiny baby, turn into this toddler? We are still in shock that she is one. It is impossible that she has made this rite of passage already. The honest truth is that yes, she has. Last night at 6:24 p.m. she was exactly one year old.
She got to celebrate one day early, though. We partied all day on Monday due to Daddy's schedule. You must have your Daddy present to celebrate your birthday, so we bumped it up a day.
Gigi and Special Friend drove down to be a part of the festivities. Pumpkin decided a morning nap was in order for her day. Any good woman knows you must nap on your birthday! She was sleeping soundly when her guests arrived, so we woke up our smiling little bundle and took her out for lunch. She requested pizza for her birthday lunch. (Ok, so really her big sister translated her request for us as we weren't quite sure what "Ba," meant.) We took her to a nationally recognized pizza joint here in town for some killer pizza. Special Friend even said that it was the best pizza she had ever had!
After our filling our tummies with pizza and garlic bread, we headed to a HUGE park to play and work off some of that pizza. The girls both had a ball playing. It was a gorgeous day and it felt so good to be outside and to be with family. We spent some time walking along the beautiful creek that runs through the park. Pumpkin thoroughly enjoyed watching the water.
We then headed back to our home. The girls enjoyed some special Easter marshmallow treats that Special Friend brought them.
Pumpkin opened her presents with lots of assistance from Peanut. She got some really neat things...some new books, an activity schoolhouse, MegaBlocks, clothes, her own phone and her very own baby doll.
I made a special birthday supper for our evening together. The menu included spinach salad with strawberries (Gigi was unsure about the strawberries in a salad, but we assured him this was an ok thing), baked salmon, roasted asparagus with parmesan, and baked macaroni cheese.
After supper we let Pumpkin have her cake. She was very cautious with it which really surprised us. We thought for sure there would be a big mess and she would eat it FAST! She took her time and just enjoyed it. She did eat almost all of it. She requested a dark chocolate cake with buttercream frosting for her birthday. It was a good choice.
I chose the Baby Einstein caterpillar to decorate her first birthday cake. We have one Baby Einstein dvd that has been my salvation throughout our first year together. She loves this little DVD and it can give me 20 minutes when I am desperate to make dinner, clean, or just collapse for a bit. I can put her in the exersaucer put on the movie and say, "Here's the caterpillar!" She gets so excited to see that crazy little caterpillar at the beginning of her movie so he graced her birthday cake. He was super fun to make too and very easy!
I am so glad that my mom passed on the cake decorating tradition and skill on to me. I love that I can do this for my little girls for their birthdays. It is alot of extra work, but it is fun and worth it.
We had a fun evening together. Gigi and Special Friend took Peanut out for a bike ride for a bit. We played. We chatted. It was so nice. I think it was a great first birthday for Pumpkin. The only thing that would have made it even better would have been to have Dobbie and Papa with us. Our thoughts were not far from them. I really missed having them here to celebrate with us. We love them so much too!
We spent her actual birthday just resting and recuperating from our celebration. I think we wore the birthday girl out!
."A little girl can be sweeter (and badder) oftener than anyone else in the world. She can jitter around, and stomp, and make funny noises that frazzle your nerves yet just when you open your mouth she stands there demure with that special look in her eyes. A girl is Innocence playing in the mud, Beauty standing on its head, and Motherhood dragging a doll by the foot."
-- Alan Beck
-Mama
