Sierra’s First Birthday

Killer smile!

Sierra’s first birthday was a resounding success (that’s what she reported).

The formula to a successful birthday is calculated as such:

Sleep in an hour later
Have a killer breakfast
Have a party where you are the center of attention
Have some icing
Open some gifts
Go for a three hour nap in the afternoon
Live like a queen for the rest of the night
Don’t get bit by a mosquito while sleeping

Vero spent the past two weeks planning Sierra’s birthday and it paid off in spades. The only thing I felt bad for was how she spent so much time trying to figure out how to make a cake that doesn’t contain milk or soy…and then Sierra just ate the icing and none of the cake! Ah well, she looked like she was enjoying the icing.

Super special thanks to everyone who showed up for the party. It was a fantastic afternoon to hang outside (other than the million mosquitoes) and I’m glad that everyone seemed well fed. I have to say it’s a lot harder to make sure everyone is well fed at a one year old’s birthday party compared to the Christmas party where it’s basically a potluck.

Some highlights:

When a kid comes upstairs and says that something is broken downstairs, you know it’s going to be bad. Turns out it was Uncle Greg’s record player. The hinge broke off while the kids were playing around there. I’ll have to fix that up. At least it wasn’t the TV!
Ethan, who generally is the go-to drummer in the gang of kids, comes upstairs and declares “It’s much too loud downstairs!”. It definitely was. I’m pretty sure we’ve created a new kids band.
Sierra loved the cake icing! I was quite surprised at how much she was into it.
Rob pressure washing my lawnchairs (aka, getting around to something I needed to do) was a good sight to behold.

Onto the photos, taken mostly by our resident photohound Mike!

It’s pretty lonely waiting for your party to start.

She wasn’t eating too much lunch as she was eyeing up the feast about to come her way.

Sierra was super lucky to have a lot of friend visit and shower her with gifts. Please note that the shirt I’m wearing was the same I wore a year ago when she was born!

The main event!

Keep the eye on the prize kid.

I’m surprised she hasn’t dug into that cake yet!

I made a comment about all the people who wandered in behind Sierra during the photoshoot. Then I realize I was as guilty as the rest. Ah well, focus on the happy girl!

Yummers!

Has there ever been a happier birthday girl? Nope.

At one point Sierra threw the cake off the side of her tray and Vero caught it. Vero thought it would be funny if she smeared icing on my face. It wasn’t funny.

This is the point of the day where we are wondering when she is going to dig into the actual cake. Spoiler: she doesn’t.

One year old!

Ok, enough photos of Sierra, let’s take a look at who else was around…

Grace, who was clearly happy about being here.

This photo probably has a limited life on this site as Ferda will email me and say “For Pete’s sake, take the photo of Kaya picking his nose off of your site!” Get it while it lasts folks! Let’s also remember how Cora was in behind Ferda and somehow managed to make her mom fall down on the floor, head over heels.