Birthday Girl

Molly’s birthday has come and gone, leaving a trail of crumpled wrapping paper and pink frosting in its wake. Because Molly’s birthday was on Wednesday, but her party wasn't until Saturday, she actually got to celebrate twice! It just didn't seem right not to have her open presents and taste some cake on her birthday proper. So, Mom took the afternoon off of work and we had a little family celebration. Since I was making Molly a big birthday cake for her party, I decided to make cupcakes for her actual birthday. I tried the famous Magnolia Bakery vanilla cupcake recipe and was moderately pleased with the results. The cupcakes themselves were a little dry and eggy tasting – I probably could have shaved a couple of minutes off of the baking time. I have yet to make a yellow cake recipe that I really liked – there must be a good one out there (or maybe I just don’t really like yellow cake after all)! I really liked the vanilla buttercream – it was easy to make, easy to work with, easy to store, and tasted delicious. It was a super sweet, sugary frosting, but I like my frosting really sweet – sometimes regular buttercream tastes too greasy and bland.

Molly’s day started out pretty typically – she got up early (around 6:15 a.m., as per usual). As soon as I heard her moving around in bed and calling for me, I got up and went to get her. She was all smiles as soon as she saw me and enjoyed my a cappella performance of "Happy Birthday." Max got up shortly thereafter and I whipped up some baby breakfast. I had originally planned to make pancakes, because Molly hasn't ever had them and I thought she might enjoy them. But, I forgot to buttermilk at the store, so she had Cheerios, yogurt, and fruit instead. :P After breakfast she played until her morning nap and after he nap she played until lunch. After lunch, Max and Molly both went down for their nap and Mom managed to sneak in a little early afternoon snooze as well (ahhhh, I wish I could do that every day!). Although Molly didn't take a particularly long nap, Max did, so Molly got to have "Molly Hour" with Mom for the first time in a while.

When Max got up we had Molly open presents. She was intrigued by the ribbons, bows, and wrapping paper, but didn't quite know what to do with them. Max was more than happy to "help" Molly open her presents – we had to hold him back so she could do a little of it herself. He was also more than happy to test out her new toys for her – he'd sit down to play with them and tell her, "No, no Molly" when she came over to investigate. As far as Max was concerned, it was payback for a whole year of HER stealing HIS toys. ;) Molly now has her very own monogrammed bath towel and her own Uglydoll – these appear to have become important first year rites of passage at our house. She also got a little activity cube (which Max LOVES), a soft toy birdhouse and toy birds (she'll spend ten minutes at a time putting the birds into and taking them out of the house), and a copy of The Grouchy Ladybug.

After presents, we stripped Molly down to her shorts (why we didn't take off the shorts, I have no idea – big mistake) and put her in her high chair for the big birthday cake presentation. She was totally fascinated by the candle on her cupcake and kept trying to grab it. She seemed a little unsure of what to do with the cupcake, so she proceeded to knock it over, stick her hands in the frosting, and start making a mess. She did eat some of the frosting and tried some bites of cake (most of which ended up in her lap). She wasn't as enthusiastic about eating the cake as Max was on his first birthday – maybe she's watching her waistline. ;) Max, however, was totally into his cupcake. He devoured it while saying, "MmmmMmm" every 30 seconds or so. When it was gone he asked for "more cake" and seemed disappointed when we wouldn't oblige him.

Molly seemed thirsty part way through the cake, so we gave her a sippy cup full of water. The water she spilled mixed nicely with the dabs of frosting and bits of cake – by the time we took her out of the high chair she was covered with a light pink paste. Sticky girl! Of course, her shorts were totally covered with cake and frosting. Needless to say, Mom took her right up to the tub for a birthday bath. We went for a nice birthday walk, had a little birthday dinner (Max was hungrier than I thought he’d be), and then went to birthday bed ... or tried to. Molly apparently was still in a party mood and would not go to sleep. So, she ended up back downstairs with Mom for a little while and finally got a chance to play with all her birthday toys without any interruption from Max. She seemed to enjoy some extra quiet time with Mom and enjoyed her birth day to the fullest!

I'm behind in my photo processing (that's what happens when you're crazy enough to take 576 birthday-related photos -- gotta love the digital), so the exciting party recap is still in the works! ;)