Our second report is of Andrew's first birthday. Conveniently, his walking predated his birthday by just a few days, so he marked his first birthday with official toddler status. Of course, his first birthday necessitated a big birthday bash. Trisha (Bubby) and Sarah put together a fabulous luncheon spread for December 24th, replete with such childhood favorites as pigs-in-a-blanket and macaroni and cheese. Andrew seemed to enjoy all of it.

As the theme of the party was "Old MacDonald's Farm," Trisha's brother-in-law, Jim Aikens, generously donated the time and materials to creating some fabulous birthday hats for the birthday boy and guests. Each family was given an animal theme: Dan, Andrew and I were chickens (you can see Andrew's "chic" costume below); Robert and Trisha were a bull and cow; Matt and Laurie were goats, and the Wells family were pigs.











And of course, no party is complete without a cake, so here is the piece de resistance:



Trisha convinced me (with the charm for which she is well known!) that I wanted to make this cake. And of course, I agreed before considering the time and ability that would be required! Flowers, I can and have done, thanks to the Wilton courses, but animals were something new. I still think that the pigs look more like pink dogs than like pigs, but on the whole, the cake turned out better than I had expected. For Andrew, we made a separate cup cake with another pink dog--er, pig--on top of it. I don't think Andrew knew, exactly, what to make of the whole proceedings. As you can see from the picture below, I had to blow the candles out.



He didn't exactly like the cake, either (Jake and Katie were much more impressed with it--between the two of them, I think they ate all the frosting animals). Mostly, he picked at the frosting on top of the cake, reluctantly tried some of the cake, and smeared it all down his front.





And thus concludes Andrew's birthday bash. While we didn't have icecream at his party, this was an omission that Poppy didn't allow to last long. Within a day or two, he made sure that Andrew got his first taste of ice cream. As you can tell, this was much more a case of "I scream," as Andrew did not appreciate his first taste at all! However, the irresistable combination of sugar and cream eventually grew on him, and within a matter of bites he had not only reduced his grimace to a mere trace, but he was eagerly opening his mouth for the next bite.