Michael’s First Birthday Party

 ... the boys rest ... Miranda decorates ..

The pulled pork had been in the slow cooker all morning.

Joan Turnbull arrived an hour before the party to cut vegetables.

 I was enjoying cutting the fresh pineapples, since it also gave me a chance to sharpen my kitchen knives.

Richard and Miranda were busy decorating the front and the back yard with balloons and streamers. Michael was busy breaking the bamboo sticks to which the streamers were attached.

"You mean I can put my whole face in this?"

We discussed how long it took to get the party ready, thinking there is some merit to the families who buy an ice-cream cone, put a candle in it and sing happy birthday: done and over with.

Richard believes that having a party is just an excuse to clean up one’s house, and to put a new rail on the back porch.

... a grand hello to all our other cousins ...

Anita has been away for 17 days, so the Johnsons from Citadel arrived without her.

I wouldn’t have known she was gone, but I emailed Doral to see why he had quit blogging, worrying that he has said all he is going to say about gaming.

No, he said, it is just that being a one-parent family left him no time to get to the internet.

Dalton grew 2 inches.  Arta shrunk 2 inches.

I had to measure up to Dalton, for it won’t be long until he shoots past me in height. We discussed the fun of the summer – and they said, no more!

No more having such a long summer with so few cousins out there.

They said I should get Alex and Duncan back next summer, the Brooks kids and the Jarvis kids as well.

I said I would try.

We watched Michael in his high chair as he investigated the icing on his First Birthday Cake.

... small, medium and large cupcakes ...

There is a saying that goes, you cannot have too much icing.

If this is true, Miranda choose the high road and took off his clothes, so that she only had to bath the baby, and not do a full wash of his clothing as well.

"my new car that breaks my mother's back to push"

I leaned over to Doral and told him that when he was a child, I didn’t let him hold his own spoon until he was five years old, let alone make his way through a cake with his hands.

 ..."this railing wasn't here yesterday"...

Doral said he is an old-fashioned parent as well, for the minute his kids got even a spot of chocolate on their faces, he made sure to wipe it off, as if it was his duty to protect them from having permanent chocolate stains on their skin.

Kalina, having just stepped off the tractor in her new tutu

Kalina came to the party.

I was worried when she rode the tractor in his tutu, thinking she might get some gender confusion.

 Not so, said one of Richard’s boarders.

Nowadays, all that does is create Warrior Princesses.

I sat in my own backyard for 3 hours today, a first for me.

The weather was pleasant and good friends sat and talked, swatting the occasional wasp away from the food and enjoying some of the last warm moments of the fall.

Happy birthday, Michael.