Alice’s First Birthday

Alice turned one yesterday and we had a little birthday party in her honor. I was trying to keep things simple: cake and ice cream + next door and across the street neighbors. Minutes before we were expecting our friends I was applauding myself and taking pictures of Alice’s cake. I was so pleased with how it turned out and feeling grateful to Real Simple magazine for both the chocolate sour cream frosting recipe (amazing) and the idea to decorate with strawberries – beautiful yet easy – one might even say “real simple.”But oh how the mighty fall! I thought I saw a few bald spots on the cake and started slipping a few more strawberries in and then I got frosting on the cake dome and as I was trying to wipe it off my slick strawberry juiced fingers fumbled and the dome slipped and smashed onto the table, making a deep scratch on the table and shattering glass onto the cake and strawberries. Our sweet little birthday girl, who already on edge because it was close to bed time, burst into tears. Norah, who had been waiting all day to eat cake also started to cry when she realized the cake had been compromised. So while both kids were pretty much hysterical Bryan and I cleaned up the glass and scrapped off all the frosting on on the cake. Mercifully, I had left over strawberries and Real Simple had quite the generous frosting recipe so there was enough to re-frost the cake. We let Alice/Norah open a present to cheer them up and all was right in the world. Harper and Willa adore Alice and came over to wish her a happy birthday. They told us many times that they were “so glad Alice is finally 1” and “don’t call her baby Alice, she’s not a baby anymore.” Oh they crack me up! You might remember from past posts that Alice is not allowed in the playroom with them for safety reasons. I’m always getting after them for hugging her too tightly and telling them to be more gentle and I think they were hoping now she’d allowed to play with them. . . not going to happen. I know they love her but the temptation to put her in the doll crib is too strong lol.Alice loved her cake, especially the strawberries, and tried to eat it with a fork. She’s been insisting on using a fork lately and even tries to pick up her cheerios with a fork.And here she is in new birthday jammies with her shopping cart and dolly. She is really enjoying her birthday presents and Norah has been very good about letting her play with them first.Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes yesterday. I was really touched and gave Alice extra hugs and kisses on your behalf.