Cecilia's Birthday

For some reason this year I am out of the birthday Spirit. Maybe I felt like it was a challenge to put on a great party for my kids last year. Maybe I don't want to set a precedence and ALWAYS have to throw an elaborate party. possibly my life is just busy and my heart is not it it. Whatever the reason, Cecilia's first birthday rolled around and I had no plans, no gift, no cake baked.

We had discussed going to our hometown to celebrate with family. This is great for 1st birthdays because all the family wants to see the cute babies and the babies are not at an age where they will miss it if they do not have friends their age at the party. However, we had gone out of town the past, I don't know... SIX weeks, and I was tired of packing! So, I resolved to have a nice, quaint family dinner and cupcakes with ice cream.

I went to the store and got the cake and ice cream. I stopped by and got a birthday balloon. (this was something that we never did growing up, but my kids love the balloons). I picked out something nice to fix for dinner and got the groceries. I even stopped by a department store to get a gift.
Toys? ... nope, we have too many.
Baby gear? ... nope, by the 4th girl, we have all we need.
Clothes? ... didn't I just take a bag full of clothes to Goodwill?
Books? ...
UGH! I can't do it! She is ONE. She can't even open the gift wrap. She won't remember. Here sisters will steal it before she gets a chance to use it. I go home with no gift.

Upon arriving home, my husband tells me that his family was driving up for dinner that evening. Great. They got to join in the cupcake eating and I did not have to pack. My husband has the realization that his dad's birthday is the same week and starts brainstorming ways to incorporate celebrating that into the evening. What better way to celebrate your dad's birthday, than with America's favorite pastime: Baseball. Cardinal's tickets were very inexpensive, so we got some bleacher seats for the 7:15 game.

My inlaw's arrived just before dinner, we had some fabulous chicken kabobs served with a warm spinach salad that we copied from Applebee's and I made Cecilia her favorite meal, crockpot mac and cheese. She ate 3 small servings plus her cupcake and ice cream cone. She was not able to blow out the candle, or even open her gift from grandma/pa but she at least gave that one a shot before her sisters helped her out. We checked the time and realized we had about 15 min to get the dishes in order, kids dressed, and be out the door for the game.

It was a rush, but we made it in time to be in our seat a few minutes before the opening pitch. This was actually Charity's first game. Cecilia had been to 2 before and the other girls each to one. We knew it would be a challenge when the game started near bedtime, but we had a 1:1 ration of adult:child, so we were up for it. WE took a few breaks to go play, got our picture with Fredbird, and they still got squirmy about 10:00, but it was a close game and the Cardinals came out ahead, so it was a good night! (and the kids did not argue about bedtime at 11 PM!)