Aydin's Birthday Party!

Aydin's second birthday was so much fun. We knew we wanted to throw her a party, but it was only when we started planning that we realized that Aydin had NEVER been to a birthday party before! (We missed all the fun last fall when we were in NC during the lead paint / moving fiasco.)

Baba and I spent time every day talking about birthday parties with Aydin, explaining how to blow out the candles, how everyone would sing happy birthday, etc. We put the Elmo and Gabba birthday episodes on heavy rotation and told Aydin that it was going to be HER birthday soon. Still when the big day arrived, we weren't sure what to expect.


Well, Aydin totally "got it." At one point during the party she told Caroline, Gavin's mom, "It's my birthday." !!! She put on the party hat without batting an eye and was only shy when Ben Rutter showed up (I think because she thinks he's cute).

Ozan and I made the birthday poster and hung streamers the night before her birthday, so when she came down in the morning she was greeted with a festive clue to the party coming! We told her that all her friends would be coming over after nap. She didn't really seem to register anything, but she really liked the streamers, calling them "beautiful" and "different." Of course, while she was sleeping we got two dozen balloons, decorated the cake, put out the treats, and got out the goodie bags for the guests.


I had kicked around the idea of getting a store-bought cake from super-fine vegan bakery Babycakes, but after an extensive (and very fun) taste-test with Aunt Laura and a bartender at Spitzer's (and later with Ozan at home), I decided that I could do just as well baking a vegan cake on my own. So the plan was hatched: chocolate cake with polka dot icing. At first I was going to do the cake turquoise, but then decided yellow was better -- it made me think of bright, cheerful sunflowers. The only reason we had cupcakes too was because I goofed the recipe at the last step and mixed in too little water. So I just made a second batch, threw the questionable batter into muffin tins, and figured hey, two-year-olds don't have too refined a palate. But for the cake I knew it was going to have to be a home run -- there were just too many vegan cake skeptics coming and I knew I had to prove them wrong.

That would also include our little one. She wouldn't touch her cupcake last year. No different this time around. She woofed down dried chickpeas and cornichon pickles but I couldn't pay her to taste her own cake.

Note: the next day Aydin asked for a cupcake, picked out the color [purple], then ate the icing off the top. When she asked for another [blue], I gave it to her but told her she had to taste the cake too. She ate a big bite but seriously, it was no big whoop to her.

When the kids started arriving things really got fun. Below are Axel (in the hat), Eve (brown hair), Ella (standing at right), and Sofie (sitting, in the tutu). Those kids were BUSY. And it looks like Ella's sneaking some of Aydin's Cheerios out of her snack trap.


Eve found the rocking horse and had a blast.

Aydin was really into sitting at the table. Here she posed with her buddy Alex, who had just finished dragging the Talking Elmo over to the dining room. Aydin's only smiling this big because Aunt Deena (her new BFF) asked her to.


After pizza, it was time for cake. The kids were getting a little tweaky.




YUM.


Aydin eating ice cream with her fork.

Miss Sofie wanting cake BADLY!

Jason (above) bummed there's not another scoop of ice cream on his spoon and Ella (below) just looking adorable eating her cake. Of course, she's had practice -- since her birthday's two days before Aydin's.

Axel (by Aydin's green chair) chilling with his mom, Kacy (seated in blue), Caroline (on the couch) and her son, Gavin, and Rebecca and Alex. Axel was pretty scared of the balloons at first. You can't see them here but they were all over the ceiling!


For those of you wondering what Kitty was doing / thinking about during all this? Well... Kitty went into exile on the rooftop behind the kitchen. She was none too pleased about it, either!