We hold these truths to be self evident...

After a day of parades,

 and sunshine

Take a listen to this and dedicate 9 minutes of your independence day to listening to the declaration of independence. 

I really wish this were a hypothetical question

So...let's say you are at a patriotic themed dinner party (where you provided this darling red, white and blue salad) and during dessert you were messing with the table and a carving knife fell off and sliced a new acquaintance's foot so that it bled really a lot and possibly needed stitches. What would you do the next day to show just how sorry you were?

And if you have ideas for what you would do for the hostess because your baby also had a leaky wet diaper on their carpet I'd take those suggestions too.

You only turn 1 once...and if you do it right that's enough.

Friday our little lady turned one.  Both of her grandmas came to celebrate with us and we had lots of fun. 

Claire having a photo shoot with one grandma

-

And stealing the food off of the plate of her other grandma.

She was appropriately spoiled by both of them and we were sad to have them go.

Some pre-party pictures.

A freezer stuffed with capri suns and cupcakes

Balloons, Balloons

and more balloons (we followed the balloon rule that we learned at our Valentine's Party.  

Kids care about quantity over quality.)

medals for anyone who attempted the obstacle course 

(york patties for kids, baby num-nums for babies) 

During the party we read the very hungry caterpillar, ran an obstacle course, ate cupcakes and ran around like crazy. Short, kid friendly and we sent extra cupcakes home with the kids. Perfect.

Claire, emerging triumphant from the balloon table
(this was the highlight of the whole event and kids of every age loved it.
You should make it part of your next kid party.)

We topped our balloon table with an homage to our hungry caterpillar friend.

Claire wanting to cry a little bit while people are singing Happy Birthday 

Birthday Cake

And our own afterparty. 
Our friends brought original artwork
and Claire is enjoying the spoils.

What time is it? It's Valen-times

Now that the pressure of having to address our religious congregations is over I can get back to the really important things. Parties. I'm planning a Valentine's party. The majority of our friends have kids so planning a party can be a little tricky. We'd like a kid-friendly event (we're thinking either Saturday before dinner or early Friday evening). I don't like parties where everything is planned out and people make me play games (baby showers...I'm looking at you) but when you have kids coming to a party you have to have some structure.

Here's what we have planned
1. Love potion tasting (unidentified juice with a prize for the person who can identify the most of them)
2. Make a Valentine (with hints for kids and husbands in particular--think fill-in-the-blank (possibly mad-lib style) Valentines for husbands who have a hard time saying romantic things. Hubbs included)
3. Cookie decorating
4. Pot-luck treats

Any other suggestions? What are you doing for your parties?

Sunday Dinner

Last night a couple of friends came over for dinner--6 adults and 4 kids.

The menu was a little eclectic. Orange-Almond Chicken (from this cookbook which we were given for our wedding and I love. Simple, quick recipes), whole-wheat pasta with pesto and a green salad. One of the families who came asked if they could bring sweet potatoes with apples and the other called to see if they could bring homemade bread and cookies. Why yes...yes you can. Here is a picture of the table after we'd eaten. The Chex and sippy cups weren't actually part of dinner but little hands almost never say no to a Chex after-dinner snack.


After dinner husbands and wives seemed to congregate in different areas and we talked for a long time. A highlight of the evening was when one of the mom's asked about Claire. I said, "oh. She's going through one of those phases where she isn't really eating."

I swear you could hear crickets chirping. After a long pause someone said, "like she's just drinking formula* because she's not interested in solid food?"

"No," I said "like she's just not eating."

Crickets again people. Crickets. Finally one of the dads said, "Yeah. Our baby never did that."

Claire seems to be well adjusted and happy so I'm not going to dwell on it too much.

This morning as I finished washing the dishes (yes, I didn't finish cleaning up until this morning. Feel free to judge) Claire was playing on the ottoman. The slanted light coming through the living room was so lovely and her cheerful singing was such a nice sound that I had to take a picture. It turned out a little grainy. She is wearing my favorite pajamas (from here). When I first got them I didn't think they fit because they were so hard to put on the feet. The tag, however, explained that this is on purpose and is to either help them not suffocate or not catch on fire. I don't remember which. I love these pajamas because they really show off her physique. Skinny arms and legs; big tummy. Takes after her mom.



*Yes I feed my baby formula. I know that nursing is better and I'm sure that I'll have to pay for counseling or something at some point but really, if I were a dairy cow I would have been slaughtered.