Dory's first birthday party!
Somehow she managed to contain her excitement.
I, however, had a harder time. It was her first birthday party- this was a day to be done up in style! I grew up having truly fantastic birthday parties, though, by what I hear about parties these days, with ponies and bounce houses and the entire Disney on Ice crew in attendance, my parties were still fairly casual events. That was our intention for Miss D's big day. Fun, but not overwhelming.
We invited family and a few close friends. Gram Mojo offered up her home as Party Central and Granny S took care of the party decor and together they created the perfect festive atmosphere.
(Granny S, my Step-Mama, in the blue shirt, and Gram, my Mama, in the black-in serious party planning mode. They are, honestly, the two coolest women on the planet.)
Friends and family came
and they brought quite the haul...
I remembered, from the kid's point-of-view, the benefit of being an only child.
While she did spend quite a bit of time on various laps, being cuddled...
she wasn't afraid to get out there and mix it up with guests.
The food was phenomenal. Again, I give credit to The Parents. Gram and Granny S provided an array of side dishes while Grandpa brought about one pig's worth of pulled pork, that he smoked and pulled himself. How we did not get a picture of that, I couldn't say. It was a glorious thing and people who came with no intention of eating could be spotted throwing away plates, a little BBQ sauce around their lips. Here at least is a shot of a prepared sandwich.
If pictures don't lie, I am one focused person when food is (pardon the pun) on the table.
Granny S found the best party hat, a cupcake hat, with a pretend candle on top. And Dory did wear it.
For about two seconds, while crawling, and then she was done. Still a really adorable hat.
Speaking of cupcakes, this was my big contribution (besides, you know, conceiving and birthing the child). Really loved making these treats, but the fact they were homemade (from scratch! no cake mix! my first time ever, from-scratch, home-made cupcakes!) might have gone to my head and I might have ended up mentioning Martha (as in Ms. Stewart) every fifteen point two seconds as in "well Martha says..." or "You should talk to Martha about butter..." followed by a wee bit of a pompous chuckle. My apologies to the party-goers.
But they were some damned-fine, home-made, from-scratch cupcakes.
Matthew ran the opening of presents and he was wonderful. He helped Dory, he did not rush her, he opened every box, he let her investigate all her toys- he was patience and love embodied. I kept track of who sent what for thank-you card purposes. We decided we each had the perfect job, as I might have rushed her through opening gifts and, had he been writing down who-sent-what, our thank-you cards would all say "thanks for the stuff."
Even after the party, while we adults resisted the urge to curl up around Gram's house and take naps, Dory had energy.
I think she enjoyed herself.
And when it was all over and done with and the floor of our family room could not be found through the presents...
Dory's favorite toys (so far) proved to be the cups, plates, napkins, and spoons leftover from the shindig.
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