HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling up for Em's scheduled party for so many reasons.  I felt rather crushed that Em's first birthday would be celebrated on the wrong day (we moved the party to Tuesday) and that she would only get Mom and Dad.  Then I remembered that my first birthday was just my sister, my mom and I with my a few grandparents because my mom's father passed away.  I have this great picture of me with a HUGE red candle (the kind you have on the table at Christmas) because my mom wasn't up to getting the 'normal' cake candle.  So, I figured I survived and actually look fondly at those pictures, so Em would too.  We kept with tradition and used the candles that are for power outages and even went for the easy clean up (thanks to the Bernsdorf family) of chocolate pudding, chocolate graham crackers and melted marshmallows (how else do you get a candle that big to stay standing?!).  Em wasn't too sure about not being allowed to dive right in- such an impatient personality this little one has when it comes to food!

However, she LOVED the marshmallow side of 

the candle- you'd think this kid had never had sugar before... oh, wait, she hadn't!

She also had a great time using the pudding as finger paint (an added bonus was that we found out pudding is a natural wood polish).

She couldn't go to bed without a huge hug for Daddy, even if she did look like a chocolate dipped Oreo!

We had a lot of fun with just the three of us, trying to Skype family back in the States (not too successful- weather wasn't that fantastic here I guess) and just hanging out. 

I think I now understand why so many people choose low-key birthdays:  they just lend themselves to enjoying the moment rather than running around.  We got some great video, which is rare for us since we ALWAYS forget to record her (we're horrible parents, we know), and we had fun not having to worry about presents getting messy or anything like that.  I hope Tuesday evening with our budding South African friends will be just as fun and just as enjoyable as pudding on the coffee table for three was! 

Disclaimer:  No clothing was harmed in the making of this birthday- it was all washable!  Yeah!!!