Let Her Eat Cake-- Eliza's First Birthday Celebration!

I have other birthday/first year things I want to post (sorry for the delay, we've been without our internet for a little while), but I thought I'd start with our little celebration. We kept things pretty simple (no pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or party hats), just the important things: cake, ice cream, and our birthday girl. For all of you cake decorators out there (ahem, everyone else in my family), if you're wondering what tip I used to do the detail work on the cakes, it's called "ziplock bag with the tip cut off." Classy, I know.

Eliza stood at the door awaiting our guests, a few law school friends.

Although she looked really cute in her little dress, we stripped her down for the main event.

Eliza was a little bit timid about the cake at first, but once she realized that digging in and making a huge mess was allowed (and encouraged), she didn't disappoint. She loved getting cake on her hands, then clapping wildly so the cake flew in every direction. She was having so much fun that I was afraid the cake would be on the wall before she realized it was for eating, so I gave her a taste of the cake (I made a banana cake because she LOVES bananas). She didn't need any help after that.

We took lots of pictures and video, too. Here are a few (okay, more than a few) in chronological order. Maybe if you scroll down fast it will be like a flip book. Eventually we'll upload the video so you can get the full effect.

I used the extra piece of plastic tablecloth as a dropcloth for under Liza's chair. I hadn't planned that, but thought of it at the last minute. Well, that was probably the best $1 purchase I have made in a long time. It caught a lot, but I seriously underestimated Eliza's cake-launching abilities. Looking back I would have gotten a whole table cloth just for the floor, instead of using just a scrap.

Don't do a double-take of this next picture. I promise (and boy am I glad) it's just cake.

After an extra thorough bath, she was ready for bed (even though it was still early). I was afraid she was not going to be able to hold down that cake, but fortunately for everyone, she did. I finished scrubbing the floor (and cabinets, and walls, and furniture, and appliances) by 9:30!