Happy First Birthday Elena!

This Thursday was Elena's official birthday.  We had the party for grown ups and big kids a couple weeks ago when my family was still here, but I wanted to do something on her actual birthday as well, so I invited over all the one year olds we know for a morning play date.  Of the six I invited, three had nap times that fit with Elena's, so that's who showed up.  I think it was a good number.

I got Elena dressed up, and she even let me put a little bow in her hair, but when I tried to take a picture she zoomed away.  She thought it was a hilarious game we were playing.

I finally bribed her with a bowl of snacks to get her to stay still.  I wasn't sure how long the bow was going to last, but it made it through the whole party.  Vivian used to pull them out, but Elena doesn't seem to mind.

When the other kids started to show up and play with her toys, Elena wasn't quite sure what was going on.

Luckily, we have so many toys, that there were hardly any issues.  The only one that caused a bit of a fuss was the elephant,

but snacks saved the day again.

I had put out the colored bowls and some of Elena's favorite snacks, and sure enough they were a hit with the little people.  Young had made spring rolls, wontons, som tam, and mango sticky rice for the adults, so we were all happy too.  Two of the guests brought their nannies along, so there were enough adults for everyone to be able to relax and snack a bit.

Elena is the youngest in the bunch, and all the other kids are walking already.  She's getting close, but she still needs some hand holding.  The funniest part is that she often leads with her stomach, so she juts out her stomach, and then brings her feet forward under it.  You could tell she wanted to walk like everyone else, because she kept demanding hand holding help.  Young and I took turns to save our backs.

After the kids had played and the moms had snacked for a while, I brought out the cupcakes.  I made yellow cake with no frosting in an attempt to keep things simple.  Elena had not really been interested in her chocolate birthday cake at the last party, so I thought it would be good to try another flavor.

We did a quick happy birthday song, but I didn't want to do the candle thing, so I had Elena kiss her cupcake for her wish.  She wasn't sure about that, and licked her lips to see what just hit her.  The adults unwrapped the cupcakes and put them in the snack bowls for the kids to attack.

Young coaxed Elena into eating a little of hers, but Elena wasn't really interested.  She seems to like sour things a lot better than sweet things.  Maybe next year I'll make her a lime cake ;-)

Elena usually has her afternoon nap around 1pm, and I guess the other kids were on the same schedule, because around 12:45 everyone started getting fussy.  By 1pm, everyone had left, and I was putting Elena down for a nap while Young made all evidence of the party disappear.  

As one year old birthday parties go, I think it was a success.  Everyone seemed to have fun, and I got to meet a new neighbor with a daughter about the same age.  I think it's good for Elena to "play" (as much as one year olds do) with other kids, and it's definitely fun for me to hang out and compare notes with other moms.