Monkey and The Gorilla: Happy birthday, boys!

With fingers crossed that James was all better and that Bobby wouldn't now get sick, we celebrated the boys' first birthday as planned on Saturday, the 20th. In a bit of background, let me say that I have never been hugely into birthdays. They're fun, but my family was never one to make a massive deal out of anyone's birthday (nor do I think you should), and I lately have felt like if I start to build up a birthday in my mind, I get really disappointed. That said, Peter encouraged me to go all out for the boys' first birthday, and I found myself thinking, this will be different. Right. I planned on a food truck (the food truck phenomenon is sweeping Houston, and they're so much fun for a party - they come, feed you, provide something to talk about, and take all the trash with them. What could be better?) Well, the truck I really wanted was booked for a private event already, and the other I talked to wouldn't head out to our suburb for an event of less than 100 people. For a first birthday? I don't think so. But I absolutely refused to cook, so I had Central Market do some trays, and they were quite good, I must admit. Moeller's bakery did the cookies (for party favors), the big cake decorated like a zoo, and the smash cakes for the boys. Another minor screwup - the cookies were supposed to be dinosaurs, but as you can see below, they're pumpkins. At least the boys were little - it made no difference to them! No one from Peter's side of the family was able to come; I felt really bad for him, but he didn't seem too upset about it. So we ended up having a much smaller event than originally planned with my parents, sister, grandmother, and some friends. I think the boys had a blast, though, and all four of us took a three-hour nap afterward!