Elephants, Giraffes, and Turtles, Oh My!

Can I first say that Bennett hates getting his diaper changed? Because I don’t feel like I have ever said anything about it and it is a major inconvenience these days. I dread it. So does he. He absolutely screams bloody murder and he twists around and kicks his legs and does everything in his power to not let you change his diaper. Many times, it takes two of us. Crazy.

Okay, now on to what I wanted to write about. Bennett had his first birthday party yesterday! His birthday is not until Wednesday, but we went ahead and had his party yesterday. Wednesday will also be a big day, though, because that’s the day we go get his haircut. I think I am more nervous than excited. Even though it is a total, total mess and very close to an embarrassment, I love that little boy’s hair. It’s him! He wouldn’t be the same without it. But, I have been going back through pictures of him and of course the farther I go back, the shorter his hair is. And we loved him then, and that was him then. So, maybe it won’t be so bad. He’ll just kinda look like he did several months ago, only a little bigger and a lot more “little boy” looking. That’s how I’m able to convince myself that it’s going to be okay. Listen to me! I’m the one that’s been wanting to cut his hair for months! And now that it’s time to actually do it, I’m totally stressing out.

Anyway, on to birthday party fun!

The invitations were these little wooden animal figures Mama and I found at Michael’s. There were elephants, giraffes, and turtles. Actually, there were many more animals, and I had a hard time narrowing it down. There was a really cute zebra, lion, monkey… but I couldn’t get that many. So I chose my favorites, and also the ones with the largest bodies, because I turned them over and wrote the invitation directly on the back of the animals. Then, I bought some little magnet strips and adhered them to the back of each animal, making the invitations magnets.

So when it came time to do the cake, I wanted to make the cake match the invitations. Mama made an adorable little elephant that looked like the elephant invitation, and that was Bennett’s personal little cake that he could do with what he pleased. For the cake for the guests, we took gumpaste and traced each animal and cut them out, then piped on some extra icing to make them a little more cute and fuzzy. I was very pleased with the way they came out.

So we lit the birthday candle and sang to Bennett, and then placed the elephant cake on his highchair for him to devour.

Let me first say that when I turned one, I had a cookie monster cake (also blue), and with no hesitation, dove face first into the thing. I was a mess. Jeff and Greg, however, had Bert and Ernie and just sat there and with two fingers, picked at the icing very gently. Well, apparently Bennett has a little more of his uncles in him than his Mama when it comes to birthday cakes, because he was not interested in making a mess at all.

He wouldn’t even put it in his mouth! I finally had to put a little taste of icing in his mouth.

He spit it out.

He finally did eat some of it, but very neatly, piece by piece with his two little fingers. No big dramatic face dive, and no mess for Mama to mop up.

Our kitchen floor has been in need of a good mopping for the last couple of days, but I have intentionally put it off until after this party, because I just knew that there would be cake and blue icing every where. I almost bought a little plastic tablecloth to put under his highchair so we could just scoop up the mess and throw it away. Boy, am I glad I didn’t waste that money (a whole $1.99, but still).

Then for the second part of the party, which was actually the first part of the party, because I thought that we’d have blue icing all over our floor if we did presents after cake. Yeah, that would not have been the case. This part, I had totally not even thought about. When I sent out invitations, I was not at all thinking about people bringing gifts. I guess just because he’s a baby and also because it’s been a long time since I’ve been involved in a birthday party where there were actually gifts. But soon after I sent the invitations out, people started calling me asking what he needs and what size he’s wearing. So now, of course, I feel bad. That’s just the way I am. I get all worried that people think I invited them just so they’d buy something for Bennett. I’m insecure like that.

Anyway…. So we opened presents.

I helped Bennett open them, and his cousin, Elizabeth helped him play with them. They had a good time. I’m really surprised at how well they interact with each other. They take things from each other, then take them back, and so on, but neither of them ever gets mad. They just move on to something else.

So that was his party! He was such a doll. Never got fussy once, and this week has been a hard one since he is getting four molars in right now. Two up top, and two on the bottom. That makes twelve teeth now! Big boy. Anyway, I think he enjoyed all the attention. He got lots of great things; thanks everybody!