The Party

Well, I have to say, I was proud of myself for not getting "out of control" planning Gianna's first birthday party. Not that there's anything wrong with an Extravaganza, I just know how I get when my ideas are bigger than my abilities, time available and energy level. I firgure that if I started out big, then I'd not only wear myself out (and make my husband miserable), but I'd be setting a precedent.

So it was fairly simple - no real theme...just pink, white a black color scheme to match her dress and hat. My mom said it wasn't simple - we had way more food, dessert and drinks than we needed, but that's small potatoes in my book. Maybe now I can just consider myself a "recovering over-planner and perfectionist." Everyone came with the exception of one family who was traveling. The party was from 1-3pm.....evertyone stayed til after 4pm. That's a pretty good sign.

Gianna was passed around, played with, enveloped, stalked, overstimulated - and managed to survive it all with a tremendous amount of grace and little fall-out. She was such a trooper and was so happy, with no melt-downs. Couldn't ask for better.

The practice cake turned out better than the actual cake in terms of looks. The biggest snafu was that one of the layers collapsed like a pancake the night before, so I had to re-bake then night before. I decorated an hour before people arrived, and it wasn't level...but it was done. (You see how good I'm getting in overcoming my perfectionism?) It actually tasted great.

I did make some awesome cupcakes from scratch, too (I'll share the recipe later.) And cakeball lollipops - which were the surprise hit of the dessert table. That was WAY more fun than I expected. I always liked to cook, but who knew that I'd enjoying baking as much? Hopefully by birthday #2 my skill will have improved.

Even though her first cake experience was on her actual birthday, we did it again for the party. It was almost more fun watching the reactions of the guests.