Madelyn's First Birthday - 7/26

A few weeks back Holly and I headed over to Naomi and Madelyn's place for her first Birthday party. We know Naomi from book club and we totally hit it off.Joel wasn't able to join us because on this particular weekend he was hosting a Ludem Dare 48 programming contest. But we have plans to head to there place for a game day soon, so he will get to meet them.The party was finger foods and lemonade in the back yard. The lemonade was made from fruit in their trees, and was really good. Holly loved it.The backyard was multi level, so Holly really enjoyed climbing up to the second level and exploring. She found this ball to play with and entertained herself.Here she is asking for more Lemonade. We also had some fresh fruit and crackers. It was a very nice Sunday afternoon, not too hot and perfect weather for a party.I had a lot of fun meeting new moms and dads and watching the babies play with each other.As a gift we purchased a Melissa and Doug Fruit and Veggie Crate with a Cutting knife, these are all wood toys that are fruits or veggies velcro'd together and you can use the wooden knife to separate the pieces.We found it shopping on Forth Street at a little place called the Ark. Hopefully next time we go over to play, Holly will get to play with it, as she doesn't have a set like it.Here is Madelyn the Birthday girl, isn't her dress so pretty, it is very vintage looking. Her mom had on a dress that was also very stylized they looked so cute together, they both also had bouncy skirts.Here the girls are playing with these cool wooden animal shakers. They were given out as party favors, a horse or an elephant in green or in purple. Holly had a lot of fun with them.After some fun mingling with everyone they laid down a fun white blanket to have circle time. Naomi's sister was in town from New York. In New York she has a business similar to Music Together where kids go and play music and sing songs in Spanish.So the next section of the party was singing and learning a lot of fun new songs. It was really cool.Here is Kai, Sam's little guy, whom we also know from book club. He is about 10 months old.This is William, I know his mom from Swim class, its amazing what a small world it is, and how different moms all know each other one way or another.Here is the Birthday girl and her mommy passing out the favors. We had a lot of fun using them as part of the songs.Here is Sam and Kai again, he is chewing on the shaker, it did make a tasty toy.Sadly I forgot this mom's name. But I have met her several times at both the pool and Sadie Dey's. I was surprised to see her here at the party, which speaks to what a small world it is.I wanted to show pictures of all of the gusts, but now that it have been a few weeks and I have mommy brain I have forgotten many of there names. Part of the fun for me in going to parties is meeting new babies and watching Holly interact with the various personalities and ages, it is so fun watching her make new friends.This is Naomi's sister in the back ground, and holly is sitting in front of me and we are singing and learning a new song. many of them had hand gestures that went along with them, and they were a back and forth style. She would sing the line, then we would all repeat the line, and so forth and so on.The kids loved the singing and it was really cool to be in Spanish. Some of the words I recognized from My Baby Einstein tapes (I have language Nursery, and Signing in Spanish also) and from hearing Isabel talking to Sarah. It was easier then I thought to repeat the words and learn the tune.Instead of a big cake they had cupcakes, and there were mini ones for the babies, what a wonderful idea. They were "semi-healthy" one vanilla, the other banana, and they had a sour cream frosting, so so good. The full size grown up cupcakes also came in chocolate and swirl.We had a wonderful time and a fun filled afternoon, but before long, Holly was eager to run and explore beyond the confines of the back yard and she was off. the party was dying down, it was about two hours, and just perfect.