Yes, I'm a bit late posting. But, hey, I'm doing it now, right? Our busy little girl is a whole year old, and she had a lovely birthday party with the family. She was a bit sick at the time, so please ignore the red eyes. She's all better now.
Cake! Mommy, Daddy, and the big sibs liked it. E did not. The icing made her fingers sticky, she tried to shake it off, and that was pretty much the end of it.
M and V helped with all the preparations. They were much more excited about the birthday party than E. I let them decorate her cake with a little help. Yes, that's a LOT of icing.
E's first experience with ribbon. We haven't put up the Christmas tree yet, or put out any presents, but I anticipate a lot of baby fun when we do.
This is probably the favorite toy, one of those classics. Animals pop up when you push the buttons or levers. The Tinky Winky in the background is pretty great too. He says stuff when you shake him, or even honks sometimes.
Bonus shot -- when traveling with the kids, I love to get candy/toy combinations. I visited the novelty candy section at ToysRUs this summer and found this gem -- the gummies glow! It was on clearance, possibly because no one else wants to eat something that glows, but I think it's pretty awesome. The tweezers have a red light that activates when you squeeze them, so they work with any clear gummy candy.
Now, for an even older event. Nathan had a birthday in November, too! We had all the traditional festivities, plus some bunny-shaped balloons.
For his sixth birthday (see the candles above -- 6 plus one to grow on), I gave Nathan tickets to the Pet Shop Boys concert last night. They're his favorite band, so it was quite serendipitous that they were coming into town at the right time. The show was great, lots of clever games with a bunch of white cubes on the stage. They projected movies onto the cubes, and arranged them in different configuration. Dancers threw them at each other during a song about a relationship gone wrong. They also wore cubes on their heads for much of the show. Quite cleverly, 2 of the 4 dancers/backup singers didn't show their faces until toward the end of the show. When revealed, they were twins with punk white-blond hair. They got a big cheer. The lead singer, Neil Tennant, sounded great. Seriously, I don't know how you can sound the same after so long. Their first hits were in '85 or '86, something like that. In fact, it was a great evening, with the downside of it being terribly cold! The arena is apparently a hockey arena, and wood was just thrown over the ice. Brrr. We were fine due to our winter gear, but I'd have worn warmer socks if I'd known!
