Lily, just turned ONE!  I can’t even believe it’s been a whole year since she was in my belly. Just blows my mind how fast time goes by these days. Last year Lily’s due date was Maddox’s 2nd birthday. So of course this year we had two birthdays to celebrate back to back. They each had their own day with special activities and gifts, then we had one big party on the weekend in between their special days. Maddox is now a 3 year old! Wow.

Rainbow cakes and rainbow parties have been kind of big in the world of the internet this past year.  So of course we had to up the ante and make not one 6 layer rainbow cake, but rather two 12 layer rainbow cakes! This of course was the feat of the year for this dear old mom. Baking 24 different colored layers, while planning a party, tending to out-of-country house guests, and caring for 2 children took a bit of work. But I did it!  Of course I couldn’t have done it without the help of some very special people (you know who you are!), thank you!

So to the best part… Cake photos!

We invited many of the kids’ friends, including Maddox’s entire preschool. Of course not everyone could make it, but we still had a really good turn out and much fun was had. I was warned that the birthday boy or girl always has a meltdown at the party. The kid gets overstimulated, is jacked up on sugar and adrenaline, there are tons of kids playing with/re-arranging/breaking their toys – its just a recipe for disaster. I’m happy to report that we did not experience the dreaded break down. As far as I saw everyone enjoyed themselves and got along splendidly! Yay!

In the kitchen we had two rainbow “pearl strands” of ballons in arches. It was really the only indoor decoration I had (aside from the take-home gifts and the cakes). I wanted to keep inside fairly clean and uncluttered looking. Outside was quite the different story!

We had a large banner made of ribbons in rainbow colors that flew above the party in a very fanciful way.

In keeping with the rainbow ribbon theme, we also decorated the tree trunks and branches of our scraggly plum tree (who btw is short lived for the garden, its replacement is already being plotted).

We had “Rainbow Brite” come by and do rainbow magic, twisted balloon animals, bubbles, and rainbow glitter tattoos! Maddox went with a rainbow glitter T-Rex! Perfect choice!

The party was so fun to plan and decorate for! I can hardly wait till next year! Thank you to all of our friends and fellow parents who came to play with us and were so generous with gifts! Yay for parties!!

Lily Alice

[photo by Aubrey Trinniman]

Larva of the White-lined sphinx moth, Hyles lineate

[photos by John Kashuba]

If you ask him to “smile” when taking his picture, this is what you get.  nice eh?!

[Fort Funston - Dog Beach]

Lily 4 1/2 months

This is Lily wearing her hair thing that was given to her by the Dunst’s. Thanks!