The Birthday Celebration (at least SOME of us celebrated)

We had Norah's birthday party last Saturday. And what I guess I can say about it is that it is over. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome to have so many of our friends and family to help celebrate, but the birthday girl was in rare "no-nap" form. That's right - she decided to completely skip her nap on her birthday. Literally would not go to sleep. When this has happened occasionally in the past she has been fine. Not on the day of her birthday party! This picture says it all.

And what you see on her face is as much of her cake as she ate, WHICH was prepared with extra love by her mom, by the way. She got more enjoyment out of gnawing on a paper plate than eating her cake. I even offered her a cupcake as an alternative to her sugar free carrot cake with cream cheese and honey frosting (which she has since been eating the extras of for breakfast... without the frosting), but she couldn't have been more disinterested.

No, at her first birthday party Norah pretty much moaned and fussed unless someone was holding her, which is definitely not typical. I desperately missed my happy, smiley daughter. There were some moments when she wasn't completely miserable, but she was so obviously tired, the poor thing. Seth's parents were visiting, so it was really helpful to have all hands on deck.

Her mom was exhausted, too. We had to have the party at the park because there is no way we could handle that many kids at our house. A destination party is not easy to plan or execute, however. I thought I had things pretty well covered until we tried to do her cake and realized we took her chair but not her tray. We were able to come up with a solution, so problem averted.

Luckily it was a beautiful day and the park provided some good entertainment and fun for the kids. I can't help but be a bit (okay a lot) disappointed that Norah wasn't feeling more up to the festivities, but I also realize there isn't anything we could have done differently. Next year will be better.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the day!