Birthday Party!

It was a happy morning. She was fresh and ready to go!

Birthday breakfast was a yummy pile of fresh mango, blue berries and waffles.

By the time we had driven 40 minutes to Ryan's parent's house, she had cried for 20 minutes on the way, naptime had arrived, and she was remembering that she had a bad cold.

Great Granny Leilani, Great Papa and a new monkey were happy momentary distractions.

Then she refused to take a nap, her nose ran thoroughly and some spit up happened to her pretty birthday clothes.

But the deserts were just fine. Glorious in fact.

And so were the decorations that her aunt, grandma, thatha and great uncle had worked so hard on. 

(Not shown are about 100 tissue paper pom poms made the day before and hung about the house.)

Uncle "Fitzgerald" came and practiced burping and growling with the now cranky little lady.

Aunt Esther came too.

Despite poor predictions, the weather turned fine and she made a happy escape outside with Grammy and Aunt Hanna.

Grandma had worked hard to make a beautiful table full of delicious food for everyone.

It was almost birthday cake time! Leilani had never had cake before. Tradition holds that we all have our first bite on our first birthday, but sugar and colds do not mix well. So I covered it with familiar kinds of sweet, hoping that the cake would be forgotten under all the fruity goodness.

This pretty much captures her, for the rest of the afternoon. Partied out already!

By mid lunch time, everyone else had discovered the nice weather too!

She felt better outside.

The house started to empty as everyone came outside to sit in the sun!

The presents moved outside too...

Cake Time!

My plot worked. She dug right into the fruit!

She wasn't quite sure at first, but with a little bit of icing and cake crumbs, those strawberries were the best ever!

Gift opening was fun at first!

But then Aunt Hannah Banana had to come save her.

So mommy and daddy got to open the rest!

Grandpa really got into the party spirit.

This was happening upstairs afterward, while the birthday girl tried to nap downstairs... to no avail. Let the party continue! 

The ride home was 40 minutes of unhappy, screaming little Lei, then a good 20 after we got home. But once she had a good cuddle, and started to discover her new books and animals, she decided it was a pretty good day. 

After a surprisingly giggle filled evening, the birthday girl went to bed on time, to sleep soundly through the night to only wake up twice that night.

It was a terrific party and a beautiful day, crankiness and all. Thank you to everyone who made it so special!