Party, Party, Party!!

Mo's party hat which I made and she refused to wear!



Amidst the rain and windy weather yesterday, we celebrated Mo's first birthday! Of course, the weather did not cooperate as we had 21 adults, 2 toddlers and a dog in our townhouse. Yes, there was a very well behaved dog - Dolly who belongs to our dear friends Steve & Lynsay who came to celebrate with all the two legged guests.
Things were a little tight, but the food was yummy, the cupcakes- enormous, and the liquour as always flowing.
The party did start off on a little bit of a sour note. As Bryan and my friend Ashley's husband Chris went to get the food from one of our favorite resturants. If you know us in real life, you know that we LOVE good food! As I have mentioned before, I could never stomach paying full price for clothes or shoes or a purse, but dropping a hundred (or on occasion a few hundred) dollars on a meal is something we enjoy doing. So instead of slaving away in the kitchen, Bry and I decided to have the dinner catered.
Back to the story, Bry & Chris headed to the resturant as I sat here with Mo and welcomed our guests. They left a few minutes before 3, with the food due to be picked up at 3. I really thought nothing as 3:15 came and went and no Bry & Chris. Then it became 3:30, no food or guys. By 3:40 all of the guests were crammed into our tight living room and we waited. Finally a little after 3:45 they come in, barreling through to the kitchen.
Two problems:
1, the BLT pasta (bacon, lettuce, & tomato pasta) is usually made with spinach. Unfortunately my sister is HIGHLY ALLERGIC to spinach so we asked for some other green. The cook had written it down, but apparently forgot. So while Mo & I entertained our guests, Bry & Chris were sitting at the bar in the resturant drinking a great house drink waiting for the chef to re-do the pasta. That's what took so long.
Problem 2 - We had ordered clams casino. YUMMY! However in transit from car to kitchen, Bry spilled the clam juice all over himself. I'm talking down the sweater, and polo and kahki shorts and undershirt. As he went upstairs to shower, all our guests ate! I don't think anyone realized he was gone as everyone seemed to be face down on their plates.
That was our only issue the whole day- weather and clam juice! Not too bad right?
Here's a quick recap of the events:
Everyone enjoyed lunch and liquor.
Mo and Aiden entertained everyone as they ran around and shaked maracas.
Mo was actually demure with the cupcake. I thought she would trash it, but actually most of the cupcake stayed in tact. She ate a little icing and then just stared at it.
Everyone enjoyed my GINORMOUS cupcakes*.
Moira opened her gifts as Aiden helped.
Our friends and family were way too generous. Moira got some adorable outfits, her first American Girl Doll- the Bitty Baby from my parents, a Hybrid Anywhere Chair from my sister, a ball pit from Lynsay, Steve, & Dolly, a giant life size stuffed Golden Retriever from my mother-in-law, and an adorable book from Ashley, Chris, & Aiden. She made a book through Kodak Gallery of Mo's first year. It is a hardback book and has so many beautiful pictures of Moira throughout this first year. It truly is something we will treasure forever.
As my sister always says, Ashley always comes up with the most creative gifts. For my baby shower, she bought me something for each month/holiday of the year. Needless to say, I plan on stealing this idea for a few other friends/family members. For Moira's birth she had a photo she took of Mo in the hospital turned into a pencil sketch and had it framed. For Mo's baptism she bought Mo stock in Tiffany and had the slip framed.
Overall we had a wonderful day! We are so lucky to have such kind and thoughtful friends and family! We missed Uncle Casey, Uncle Bill, & a few others and hope that they can share the fun for Mo's next birthday!


This picture was technically not from the party. It was from Mo's first birthday photo shoot!

Mo & I before the party got too crazy!

*I must explain this one. I enjoy baking and so I thought I'd bake and decorate cupcakes for the party. Since places like Crumbs and Sprinkles are making jumbo cupcakes the fad, I thought to myself "Self, I can do that! How hard could it be? I went to Michael's and bought Wilton giant cupcake pans and the papers too. I had a yellow box cake mix and I was planning on making Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cupcake mix and her easy buttercream icing. (Unfortunately the recipe can only be found in her magazine, however she does have great recipes for other flavors!) I assumed that one cake mix would make 12 cupcakes, since the mix usually yields 24 regular cupcakes. I figured that 12 would be a reasonable estimate.
I WAS WRONG!
These cupcake pans are deep.
Really deep.
How deep you ask?
Deep enough that with the box of yellow cake mix I could make SIX, that's not a typo, only 6 cupcakes with the box. GULP!
Luckily I had an extra cake mix and so we had some unplanned, but yummy rainbow chip cupcakes too! I will add pics of these ginormous cupcakes once someone sends me a picture.