Ruby's First Shindig

When Lehr and I started to plan Ruby's first birthday, we initially thought of keeping things small, as I usually prefer to do. But individually, the wheels started turning for both of us in the direction of including much more of the larger "Team Ruby". That type of thing always stresses me out because we do not have a basement or any other adequate space in our house to host such events. Even with our plan of the backyard as location, the threat of rain is always a factor. Lehr assured me that summertime travel and weekend schedules would keep our numbers small, so we'd be lucky to have even half of our invite list attend.

After one day, five families had already responded 'yes', and halfway through the week, we were up to ten.

The night before her party, only one family had responded in the negative and our number was 51. AND the forecast was for rain.

Thankfully for my sanity, we woke up to a breezy but sunny morning. Grandpa Jim and I blew up 50 helium balloons and put them all around the yard. We set out muffins, protein bars and fruit cups on the back porch and hung a few clothes lines of Ruby pictures for decoration.

Starting at 9:30, all of Ruby's guests arrived and enjoyed our outside accommodations while Lehr and I tried to make the rounds with her. We centered her high chair in the midst of her fan club and let her have her own cake. She was very observant and quiet during the whole singing and candle blowing fanfare; I can only imagine how confusing that must be! Regarding her response to the cake, she didn't have much of one. She slowly and methodically picked up pieces of frosting and sometimes a little cake and ate them, very much like she would any other food. The kids surrounded her for the whole process; they wouldn't even be swayed by a cupcake of their own!

We let her go at it for about thirty minutes until most of her guests started to clear out. When we took her out of her chair, much clean up was necessary, as she had the orange frosting everywhere. The timing worked out perfectly for her to sleep off the party excitement just after the last guest left.

When Ruby woke up, the kids were chomping at the bit for her to open her presents. They each got her a personalized stuffed 'doll'. (They drew themselves and I found a woman to create a doll based on their drawings.)

All joking aside, Lehr and I were so amazed and humbled by the response to Ruby's party. Most of the families that came had one, if not two, other commitments that day, but they still made sure to come by, even if just to see Ruby and her cake. The amount of love and support we have felt from Team Ruby is unparalleled and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect celebration.