First Birthday Party

I can't believe it.  My sweet Miles and Vivienne will be one year old on Monday.  Unbelievable.

Today, we had their first birthday party at Buehler Picnic Shelter at Bond Park.  For the past couple weeks, the weather has been uncomfortably hot - in the upper 90s.  Today, God gave us a perfect day for a party.  This morning, it was in the low 80s with lots of white puffy clouds.

We had our closest friends and family come to celebrate our beautiful babies' first birthday with us.  Grandma and Grandpa (Fox) drove down from Indiana yesterday.  Grandma and Granddad (Smith) weren't able to come, because Granddad is still recovering from surgery.  They were definitely missed.

Grandma and Grandpa (Fox)

Our amazing postpartum doula, Pam

 I made the babies' smash cakes.  After my two rounds of prototypes, they turned out to be very pretty.  I was proud of my work.  =)

We served lunch - deli meats, kaiser rolls, chips and watermelon.  After lunch, we put the babies in their high chairs to get ready for the smash cakes.  I asked the crowd not to applaud or cheer after we sang "Happy Birthday" because I knew Miles would get startled and cry.  We couldn't get the candles to stay lit with the wind, so we blew out pretend flames.  We sang "Happy Birthday" successfully and then the babies began testing the cakes.

Everything was going great.  And then this happened...

And then everybody started laughing - laughing loudly.  And then this happened...

Miles got very upset and started bawling his eyes out.  We quickly rescued him and Jason took him to the edge of the woods to calm him down.  Meanwhile, Vivienne thoroughly enjoyed her smash cake and happily garnered all of the attention.

Daddy is trying to calm down a startled Miles.

Vivienne soaks up the attention while Miles takes a break.

This is the large cake that we bought for the crowd.

She clearly did not enjoy her cake.  ;-)

After Miles calmed down, Jason took his high chair to the side and helped him get comfortable tasting his cake.  With a little encouragement from Daddy, Miles started slowly eating some of his cake. 

See?  Daddy likes it!

After Miles was comfortable with his cake, we moved him back over beside Vivienne so that we could get pictures of them together.

Greg comes over to inspect their work.

 

After about 20 minutes of cake eating, the babies started to go into a food coma.  We decided it was time to get them cleaned up.  Here is the aftermath:

I would like to be sure that it's clear that we did not assist Vivienne in the demolishing of her cake in any way.  She did this all by herself.  I'm such a proud momma.

Miles' cake on the left and Vivienne's cake on the right

Luckily, there was a water spigot at the side of the picnic shelter.  The water wasn't very cold, so we stripped the babies down to their birthday suits (How appropriate!!) and they had a rather pleasant post-cake baby bath.

Pam helps get the water started and Caleb oversees our progress.

Vivienne and Miles loved the refreshing water.

A perfect modesty pose

I completely forgot to take time today to thank everyone for coming and to thank them for all they have done to support and pour into our family.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who love us and our children so well.  We thank God for bringing you into our lives.

Thanks to everyone who helped make today happen - Keith & Lila, Kris, Stephanie, and Melissa & Brad.  Thanks to everyone who came to join us in celebrating the first year of our beautiful babies' lives.  Oh, what a year it has been!

Today was a perfect day.  It was a day we will never forget.  Happy birthday, Miles & Vivienne!