A Snake and a Cake

We had Lass's birthday party on Saturday. We are at the Farm, and are so lucky to have such a wonderful place to have a party. A perfect example of how things often happen here is that one of the girls' cousins found a snake shortly before the party started and brought it up to the house. Everyone was shying away from it, except Miss of course.

She thought it was pretty cool.
It was a dead snake,

but she didn't care. I love, love, love that my girls can have experiences like this. Miss was not squeamish in the least about holding that snake, and that makes me smile.

Something else that makes me smile is a first birthday party. I like birthdays. I like celebrating my girls' birthdays, but there is something just a little extra special about a first birthday.

It's seeing the look on the face of my littler girl, who has never really had cake before, when she sees it for the first time. A special little cake just for her.

It's feeling her excitement when everyone sings a song all together, just for her.

It's this look of "Can I really? Really?"

And then the laughter and joy in watching her gradually try it out

and finally dig in.

She spent a few minutes just squishing her hands in the cake, loving the feel of it.

And then she remembered, "Oh yeah, this stuff tastes good too!"

I love this!

Getting ready to dive in...

Yum!!!

Washing it all down.

How many shots does it take to get our little family photo with everyone looking at the camera and smiling? Not so easy with a 2.5 year old, a 1 year old, and a cake sitting in front of both of them. In the first attempt, we did pretty well. Lass had already had her fill of cake. Unfortunately, Miss hadn't gotten her piece yet, and she couldn't take her eyes off Lass's totally destroyed cake.

Second try? Miss stole a pinch of cake, and Lass didn't like it too much.

Third try? Lass decided she's better eat more before her sister got it all.

Oh well. They're great photos anyway. Thanks to my Auntie for taking them (and for coming to the party from 3 hours away... and picking up the cakes...)

Big sister finally got her cake and ice cream.

She even shared with Grandpa.

And the clean up effort.

It was a wonderful day and a perfect party. So many family members came to celebrate with us, and that always means so much to us. Huge props to my in laws for letting us have this special event at their Farm. I know Lass won't remember this day, but I'm thrilled to have these great photos to show her when she gets older. And the day is indelibly imprinted in my memory, just as Miss's first birthday party a year and a half ago is. I love a first birthday party.

Happy Birthday Lass!

My baby turned one today. She has been such a beautiful addition to our family.

She is the perfect sister for Miss. She laughs at her at all the right times, gives lots of love and hugs, and tolerates Miss's ever increasing "muggings," I mean hugs, fairly well.

She is such a happy girl and brings so much fun and laughter to our family.

She's my little snuggle bear and I love how much she likes to cuddle.

The past year has just flown by. Today was for celebrating our beautiful Lass.

So, we went to the small local zoo for a play date. It was kind of dingy and pitiful, but the girls didn't know that.

Goats and cows? Right on!

We also saw llamas, a wolf, elk, a lynx, and some monkeys. Lass is not a huge fan of her stroller, so I was really happy that she was riding in it at the start of the outing. Then we got to the monkey cage, where those noisy things scared the crap out of her, and I had to wear her the rest of the day.

I just had to share the photos of Miss climbing on this turtle. The park I went to when I was little had a turtle just like this, which I had completely forgotten about! Ah, the silly things that will make me nostalgic...

After dinner we had ice cream for a birthday treat, and then Lass opened a few of her presents. We are going to the Farm on Friday and having her party there on Saturday, so we'll take some of her presents there with us, but today she opened the bigger ones that we don't want to take.

She really didn't even seem to care that we didn't get this put together yet.

I got this Dora dollhouse from Ebay for a steal! The girls played with one of these a few months ago and loved it, and I loved that they could both easily play with it together and that it folds up pretty compactly. Score.

Naturally Lass tried to climb it.

Happy Birthday Lass.