Let Them Eat Cake Twice

I swear, this is my last post in which I will wax nostalgic over Violet turning the big -1-. I make no promises about what I will do when she turns 18 months or 2 years, however, and I fully reserve the right to ooo and awww publicly over each new milestone if I so desire.

Anyway, the last week was full of fun birthday celebrations for Violet. First, on the 12th, we had a family dinner of spaghetti, her current fave, and of course a birthday cake to ring in the actual day. Then, despite the fact that Shawn and I agreed there had already been quite enough fuss made for a person who didn't even realize it was her birthday, we had a party with all of "Violet's Friends" on Saturday. I'm glad we did the friends birthday party, too, because it gave us a chance to see people we don't usually see and Vi got to visit with the Pierce side of the family.

Violet had a great time at her party which we held at a park. She definitely did a better job making a mess of herself on her second go-around with cake. The first time, on her actual birthday, she picked tentatively at the frosting and barely made a mess at all. She seemed way more into it on her second try, smearing frosting everywhere and licking her palms and the table regularly. I'm sure it was just the result of having a little practice, but I'll attribute it to the fact that she prefers Mama's homemade cupcakes (no mix, the real deal!) to the store bought cake we'd had on Tuesday. The paper wrapper surrounding the cupcake probably didn't hurt either. Paper is the base of Violet's food pyramid on many days.



The weather was sorta yucky but we made due. None of the kids seemed to mind the cold temps or intermittent drizzle. When do those things start to bother you? Must be after the age of 6...The park was still better than doing it at our house for a lot of reasons not the least of which being I didn't have to clean up smashed cake when it was all said and done.

I am going to have to remember to put "NO PRESENTS!" on any future party invites we send out, however, because after a certain number of parties in your honor (wedding showers, wedding, baby showers, 30th birthdays, all in the last 2 years!!!), I feel like a lot of our lesser-seen friends only see us on occasions when they feel required to bring a gift. Hopefully, we'll get to reciprocate for all of our friends and their kids if we haven't already.

The other reason we need to adopt a strict NO PRESENTS policy is because we are out of space. Playskool and Fisher-Price have taken over our house and I am starting to think I should have gone with a decorating palette featuring more primary colors so all the molded plastics would fit in. It is pretty hard to disguise the ball poppers and bubble mowers (both toys that she loooooves, by the way) among our current theme of muted earth tones. The good news on that front is, we just accepted an offer on our house so it looks like a move is in the works for us this summer. Priority #1 in the next house: PLAYROOM!!!