Saturday, January 09, 2010

Let the celebrations begin!

Evie's first birthday is coming up and she had her first of several celebrations today, along with her closest baby friends: Oliver, Oliver, Holly, Zoe and Niah (they were missing Elodie, Sorrel and Eden, who were off having international adventures and attending weddings). A bunch of other baby friends also came to celebrate and Holly's mom, Amy, cake maker extraordinaire, made several cakes. This one was the main cake, which went along with The Hungry Caterpillar party theme. Very impressive (and delicious!)


Evie brought her pink ball to share with all of her friends and the party started off calmly on the floor. The great thing about these babies is that they really are all friends. They have been together since they were born and just happily co-exist.


Everyone contributed food and drink to the spread, but I have to hand it to my friends, who were super organized and really decorated and made the party really nice. I contributed by bringing some oatmeal cookies, but it was the other moms who really made the party look professional! Here Melissa and Poppy pose in front of the spread.


The big fun started when we got to go into "Treetops" a toddler soft play extravaganza. Evie threw herself into the fray with her usual enthusiasm for such things.


Evie and Jim prepare to conquer Treetops from the first ledge.


At first I thought we had gotten in over our heads. Treetops is definitely geared towards older toddlers and if any actual older toddlers had been there, our babies would have been completely trampled. But I also underestimated the fearlessness of our babies. Although Evie was a little nervous about some of the rope bridges, she quickly got over that.

We made our way across the first treacherous bridge, hand in hand

After that she was very pleased.

Evie, Niah and another guest baby in the tunnel:

And Oliver, looking especially ethereal.


Evie and Jim crossed that bridge when they got there.


Good times in the ball pool (balls are a favorite these days):


Time to eat! The food was YUMMY. Evie especially liked a little quiche which was actually for the adults. She was also very interested in eating Niah's food.


And finally the fabulous cake! The dark room plus the candles plus the singing created a very SCARY effect (for Evie). She wasn't too sure about the whole situation and refused to eat the cake so Jim and I ate her piece. It was delicious!



It was a happy time and a fabulous way to kick off Evie's birthday week! We are lucky to have so many wonderful friends here who make things so fun for us and for Evie. We will keep on celebrating Evie's big day for as long as we live...what a fun thing to look forward to!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It has been so wintry around here lately! Yesterday, Evie and I joined Kate and Oliver for a traipse across Hampstead Heath. It was incredibly beautiful and, unlike the streets and sidewalks, not icy yet.

Evie and Oliver posed in front of one of the frozen ponds.



Cotton snow in the trees:


This guy was walking 14 excited dogs in the snow. Evie was delighted.


Sun on the snowy Heath:


A rather large snowman outside of Kenwood House.


Evie found her snow legs yesterday and toddled around Kenwood House in her hot pink snowsuit, much to the delight of many spectators. We all were thrilled with the snowy wonderland that was the Heath and I think she would have wandered around in it for hours if I hadn't been concerned about her getting frostbitten feet.



We are supposed to get more snow tonight and tomorrow and Jim is planning to build a homemade sled, as all of the stores have sold out around here. Should be interesting. Hopefully no one will end up in the A&E!

Evie in the winter

Come and get it!


Hot pink marshmallow hits the paths of Kenwood House:


Snow baby: