Retrospect: Four Babies and a Birthday Party

Three friends and I all had babies within six weeks of each other last year. That means that they all had their birthdays together this year, and we mommies decided to throw them a combined birthday party. We held the party at one of my favorite playgrounds for ambiance in Central Park; Safari Playground. I chose this location because of all the charming hippos popping out of the ground. They are just cute and I felt they provided the perfect setting for photographing a pack of squirmy one-year-olds.

We gave Georgia a bubble machine for an early birthday gift and it was the hit of the party. In fact, there was another birthday party going on at the other side of the playground and all the kids from that party kept coming over to play with our bubbles. It made me smile because I know we spent much less on the bubble machine than the other party must have spent on the clown they hired to make balloon animals for their kids' friends.

Pete made the birthday cakes, which we designed to be simple 4 inch rounds frosted white with bright colored sprinkles around the edges and a stenciled number 1 on top.   I love the way they turned out.

The cupcakes we brought for everyone else were iced with a very light whipped icing so the sprinkles ended up bleeding in the frosting resulting in a tie-dye look. Not what I was going for, but pretty nonetheless. And oh so tasty!

Of all the babies Georgia definitely has the reputation for being the biggest eater, despite the fact that for several months she's been the tiniest one, so we were all surprised when she didn't dive into her birthday cake like the other babies did. She sat back and daintily dabbled her fingers in the icing and snacked on it rather than demolishing and stuffing.

I'm really grateful that Pete got a few pics of me with Georgie at her birthday party. I'm typically the one behind the camera so I have very few pictures of myself with my kids.

I had originally wanted to do a lot more with decorating, but because of guidelines for parties in playgrounds at Central Park I wasn't able to tie up balloons, banners, garlands or anything else. I'm glad I didn't. It was a perfect first birthday party for four birthday cuties; simple and understated, with lots of freedom to just be babies. It couldn't have been better (except for maybe if I had been able to get some of those giant 36" balloons. Just for photos. Oh, well). Next party.