We’re a few days late in writing about it, but this weekend we celebrated Ada’s first birthday. She was born on February 2nd (Groundhog’s Day!) at 12:31am after a perfectly normal, 24-hour, wonderful and hard labor.
On her birth day. You know, the real one.
In celebration of her first year, we decided to throw a tea party. We initially imagined something casual, easy to pull off, unassuming. We were guessing, of course, that we’d have to be the only ones making it happen, and at the moment we don’t have the bandwidth or time to throw big shindigs. What actually happened, though, was something much lovelier than we expected. With the help of The Grandmas, we had more of an afternoon High Tea – complete with more food than anyone could eat, a spread of desserts and a melee of wonderful friends.
Ada with our friends Margot and Griffin, who is almost 2. (His was Ada’s first-attended birthday party when she was just 8 weeks old.)
Our friends Sam (17 months) and Miller (14 months)
Adults plus one baby on the way having lunch together under the watchful gaze of Elmo the Overseer. Only a little bit creepy.
It turns out that what you need is a highly-experienced and highly-motivated party planner to pull it off. Grandma Nikki flew in for the week and helped with all of the preparations. She spent days shopping, planning, and preparing for a feast. Finger foods?, she said. We can do that! Grandma Barb was the dessert procurement specialist, bringing in sweets, treats, and breakfast burritos all the way from our beloved Virginia Wegmans. (Mmm, Wegmans.)
The lovely setup, before even more food came out of the kitchen. “No more food!” Eric hollered.
Adorable cupcakes! Thanks to Uncle Alberto for being our cupcake color consultant.
In the end, we had a party fit for a princess. Decorations, balloons, white and pink roses throughout the house, toys everywhere for Ada and her friends, and of course a hot tea bar. (What kind of a tea party would it be without tea?) The menu included mini quiches, curried meatballs with hummus, chicken salad, brie on crackers, fruit, vegetables, lox and cream cheese, cucumber sandwiches, caprese bites, petit fours, butter cookies, mini cupcakes, and a red velvet/cream cheese cake that was made by the bakery that made our wedding cake. No one went hungry. We also had mimosas for the adults and food pouches and snacks for the babies.
Sam’s daddy Geb blows bubbles for everyone.
At one point we had 13 adults in our space and 4 kids under 2. If you’ve been in our space, you’ll know that that’s no mean feat. We had so much fun with everyone – playing, blowing bubbles, banging on toys, sharing (and not sharing) cars and push-toy walkers. By the end Ada was so excited/overstimulated that she had to retire to the office for a bit to rest. I peeked in to check on her, and found this: Ada sitting on the futon, the laptop with Pocoyo playing in front of her, and a Grandma on either side doting on her and making sure she was happy and had everything she could want. That’s rough.
Living the L-I-F-E with The Grandmas at the Baby Spa.
We all made it through the first year, surviving and thriving!
What not to do? Allow your one-year-old to grab a lit candle. Awesome.
Someone likes cake. No surprises here.
The best thing in the world is grandparents. The second best thing? Noses!
Ada also was the lucky recipient of a number of really cool and generous gifts from near and far. Here are just a few…
Opening her presents and reading her cards later that evening.
Jaymie & the Zurburgs painted a beautiful step-stool for Ada!
Aunt Jess & Uncle Will sent some sweet duds for the springtime.
Great-Grammy and Grampa sent a baby doll that she loves to kiss and cuddle.
Erin, Josh and Nora Barkan sent a cool ball and xylophone set! She’s discovered a newfound love of hammering… everything.
Mama received this baby rocker from her grandparents on her first birthday. To continue the tradition, Grandma Barb got it refinished and refurbished just for Ada.
It’s been an incredible year for all three of us, and we’re often reminded how lucky we are to be surrounded by friends and family who love us and Ada. We’re also really proud of our Ada, who at every turn keeps growing smarter, funnier, more curious and more loving.
Who wouldn’t want to kiss this face?
A few weeks ago, Eric looked at Ada happily playing and laughing in the living room and said, “It’s times like this that I know we’ve done everything right.” Admittedly we still have a lot of time to make mistakes and learn from them, but for now we’re just grateful and happy. That’s more than enough.