birthday bash

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Nate with a bunch of his kid friends. We intended on having something pretty small, since kids are exponentially loud when together. But our plans were foiled when we invited more than two people, so our intimate gathering ended up including eight kids and twice as many adults. I have to admit, I had pretty low expectations and figured that someone would be crying at all times, just because that's what toddlers do. But the kids were absolutely amazing (and most of their parents were good too!) There were a couple of minor breakdowns, but nothing longer than a few minutes, and everyone played together really well and even [gasp!] shared. Hooray!

I made this sad cake that tasted good but looked kind of goofy. We realized at the last minute that we didn't have food coloring so we had to improvise writing and settled on jam, which worked but was a little messy. Nate needed a little help with the birthday candles from his buddy Loula because he doesn't know how to blow forward (just down). The lack of color also impacted our play dough, which was an imaginative white. In conjunction with the quiche and scones Thad made, it was a very chic event.