First Birthday Party

Alex's first birthday is coming up on Tuesday, but she celebrated the occasion today with her first birthday party. The invitations, sent to family, friends, and baby friends, were made by mom and aunt Tracee. They are based on the Ed Emberly-inspired paintings I made for her room. Tracee lined the envelopes and helped mom cut circles and triangles out of construction paper to create the lady bug, baby chick, and owl you see below.



Mom made a colorful banner that read, "Happy Birthday Alex!" that was hung up in the backyard where we held the party. We purchased over twenty balloons, and set up the kiddie pool. For the first time in weeks, the day was cool and breezy, and while it was a welcome respite from the hot weather we have been experiencing, it meant the pool went unused.

I made a devil's food panda bear cake and a banana brown bear cake. The panda bear was made from the same mold that was used for my first birthday cake in 1976.


Pictured above are the birthday cakes made by me with the mold from his first birthday cake.


And above are pictures of my first birthday party with the cake made from the same mold. You can see mischievous baby me putting my frosting laden fingers in my sister Tracee's hair.

In addition to the cake we had chips with home-made salsa, watermelon, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and apples. Guests included uncle and aunt Andy and Rachel with cousins Eleanor and Vincent, dad's cousin Scott with his wife Rachael and their seven month old daughter Fia, friends Dan and Ashley with their son Pete, friend David, friends Claude and Sara with their son Atticus, aunt Tracee, grandma Lael, grandma Pam, and great grandma Evelyn.

As you can imagine, she got lots of great gifts. It was a great day and we're looking forward to her actual birthday on Tuesday.

Here's some video of everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her:


Photos of the party were uploaded to our Photobucket Account. Here's a few of our favorites: