Once all the guests had arrived for my daughter’s first birthday party, I brought out
her special little birthday cake (which was consequently bigger than the cupcakes) adorned with a raspberry glaze, an Italian meringue buttercream flower, and a single white candle! My husband was in position to take a video and I lit the candle and everyone began singing to her. When coaxed to blow out the candle, she looked at me with a concerned face. Her brother quickly and very willingly blew out the candle for her. I did not know how she would respond to eating cake with her hands (her cousin had no problem making a huge mess. She tried to pick up the flat cake plate to take a bite holding the plate instead of the cake. I put it back down on the table to let her try again but she had no interest in grabbing the cake with her hands. Once it was clear that she was not going to dig into her birthday cake, I used a spoon to give my daughter her first taste of chocolate cake! She LOVED it!
After the moment was caught on film, everyone else helped themselves to cupcakes (which were a huge hit, especially the raspberry puree frosting) and freshly brewed coffee, freshly steeped tea, or water. Meanwhile, I got my daughter ready to open her presents. I was not surprised when she showed very little interest in opening her gifts. I sat on the floor with her in my lap and together we opened her gifts. Whenever the package was bigger and more “box” like, my daughter felt the need to sit on the gift! I think that was her favorite part of opening presents; sitting on top of some of them!
After she had opened all of her gifts, she and her brother and cousins set out to play with all of them including the boxes that some had come in. As the party began to wind down, the birthday and her brother took a nap
amidst their many aunts. I think she had a very good first birthday!