Maggie's Birthday Party

Since Magdalyn and her cousin, Hayden, are only 13 hours apart, we decided to have a joint first birthday party. Kristine and I decided on a Mickey/Minnie theme. We started out by sending these cute invitations with Minnie on one side and Mickey on the other:

The party was on Maggie's actual birthday, so that was very convenient since it was a Sunday. We had mickey shaped chicken nuggets and hot dogs for dinner. We also had jello jigglers, chips, and salads brought by family members. The perfect meal for a couple of one-year-olds!

Maggie, enjoying her yummy food

Hayden

The two birthday babies, in their seats of honor

We also had the floor covered in Mickey and Minnie colored balloons, and the kids wore their Disney shirts from the cruise. After dinner, everyone gathered around to watch the videos we had made of the kids' first year. Then it was present time. Kalianna really, really, had a hard time not helping too much. She wanted to tear into those presents, rather than open them slowly, like Maggie was doing.

Magdalyn got bored with presents and escaped to go play for a moment.

Then she returned to finish opening the rest:

After presents was cake time. This is when the night turned around. Magdalyn had the best day! She was so happy! And she was having a wonderful time at her party, which I was concerned she'd be overwhelmed with so many people, but she did awesome and was all smiles. I knew she'd love eating her cake. She Loves cake! Especially chocolate. First, my sister decided to put a candle on her cake, which I didn't know about. Then she set the cake in front of Magdalyn right as I was looking at Kalianna and trying to get her to go sit by her Daddy. Magdalyn immediately reached for the candle and burned her fingers. Her fun night ended there. It was one of those moments when I wish more than anything that I could have turned back time by even a few seconds. So I could have said no to the candle, or seen it placed in front of Maggie and been able to hold her back. Unfortunately everything happened too fast and several people said they saw it coming, but couldn't do anything to stop it in time. I spent the next while running her fingers under cold water and trying to calm her down. We returned to the cake, but she wanted nothing to do with it after that. And I can't say I blame her. Once she was calm enough, my mom gave her an ice cream cone and she did enjoy that. Plus I'm sure the cold felt good on her poor, little hand!

The ice cream seemed to cheer Magdalyn up a good deal, so after she finished, I tried bringing her back to the birthday cake. She ate a little bit, and then started crying again. Then she ate a little, and started crying. It  was so pitiful! She ate a little more, but was done after that. I don't know if her fingers hurt (she wouldn't use her right hand much the rest of the night) or if she was still just upset over the memory.

I wrapped her barely-touched cake and brought it home with us. We tried again the next afternoon and she was finally able to enjoy it! Kalianna "helped" her out a lot too. Such a sweet sister!