Sarah turns one year old today! Hooray! We can't believe the first year of her life has gone by this fast! I intended to do a whole retrospective thing this week leading up to her big day, with photos of her over the months, but due to illness, internet problems, a busted pipe and trying to pack for an international trip . . . yeah, that didn't happen. BUT, I did manage to throw together a little shindig to celebrate Sarah's birthday with some of the other families in town out at our apartment complex's playground. It was pretty low-key, but still really fun!
First though, here are some photos from the morning before Sarah's party . . .
The mound of presents . . . how could she possibly resist??
"Mommy, can I please open just ONE?"
These are the cupcakes I made for Sarah and her guests. Yeah, so I went a little overboard with the decoration. Our internet was out, and something wierd just happened to me and I felt compelled to do something memorable and special for Sarah's big day, so I used a cupcake decorating kit my mother-in-law had sent, and voila! Oh, and I also enlisted David's help to help me build this three-tiered cupcake stand . . . but I promise, the rest of the party was soooo low-key!!!
The cupcakes and stand had exactly the intended effect on the kids at the party.
A quick family photo before Sarah's great cupcake adventure begins!
She was very intrigued by this fire-y thing in my hand as everyone sang to her. I had to hold it quite a ways out of her reach.
She tasted the icing first, and was definitely a fan.
Next, she really dove into the cake, picking it up with both hands to get some good momentum as she shoved it all in . . .
The aftermath . . .
The result . . . one happy but exhausted one-year-old!!!
For video of the above-described events click
here and
here.
We just got back home from a wonderful, relaxing vacation in Thailand. God is so good to give us rest when he sees that we need it! It was our first vacation with Sarah on board, and since she still naps twice a day, that kept things pretty low-key. During the day we'd mostly play in the pool and then relax or read while Sarah napped, and then in the evenings we'd go out to the beach or to dinner with the two other families we were vacationing with. I also took a Thai cooking class with my good friend Ashlei, and the other moms and I made several evening trips to the Night Market for a little shopping!
Sarah loved the beach and loved, loved, loved playing with Will and Grady, the kids of the other two families staying with us. A funny story happened the first morning. Sarah and Will, who is 3, were playing together happily when suddenly Will started backing away from Sarah and saying, "Baby go out! Baby go out!" When one of his parents asked him what was wrong he said, "Baby go out! A little stinky!" Thankfully Sarah and Will's friendship recovered from her embarassing stinkiness once we got her diaper changed that morning.
Because we Deans are as white as white can be, we spent a lot of time each day putting on sun block. Sarah quickly adjusted to this routine, and would often come over to "help" David put sunscreen on me! She'd see David rubbing my shoulders, so she'd start rubbing my arm or my hand or whatever. It was so so so cute!
We really enjoyed the chance to spend extended time with the Warrens (above) and the Bakers, good friends who both live in other parts of Asia.
Haven't seen enough? Go here to see the full album (150 photos!) from our vacation.
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