Happy Birthday Roanie

Saturday we threw Roan a little birthday party here in Denver. Gramps and K flew in from Miami Beach as well as Grandma Fifa from San Francisco. Several of her friends were on hand to help celebrate, and their parents downed some margaritas and sangria with us.

So I'm sure you won't be shocked to learn that Roan *loved* birthday cake. She snarfed down half a cupcake before Dada cut her off. I'm not sure whether it was the cupcake or the general excitement of the day, but that night was her worst night of sleep ever in her life. She woke up at 1, 2, 3 and 3:30! That's AM people. Oh what a night...

It just so happened that only girls showed up to the party. It was fun watching them play together in their cute little outfits. All the guests went home with pinwheels and balloons. What a blessing it is to be able to entertain them so cheaply at this age!

Here's another shocker for you: Roan enjoyed opening her presents. To a point anyway. It is true she was generally more interested in the packaging than in the contents.

It will probably take days for her to absorb the new goodies that have been added to her stash. She keeps picking up new things and marveling at them like "Oh wow, where did this come from?"

Long after the presents were opened, she marched all around the house that evening with gift bags filled with nothing but tissue paper, as if she were showing off something very important.



One of her big presents was a rocking chair restored by Gramps that's been in the family for over 70 years. His father rocked in it as a child, as did he and his brothers. It was in pretty bad shape when he got his hands on it, but it's as good as new now (even better!) and he restored it with a finish very similar to its original barn red stain. He fashioned the cowhide seat himself!

Roan loves the chair, and instantly seemed to appreciate that it was just her size. Every morning when she wakes up and comes into the livingroom it's the first thing she goes for.

One thing I was truly grateful for was the weather. We had had some chilly overcast days earlier that week and the forecast wasn't looking good. But we had warm temperatures (for Denver in March) and sunny skies all day. It was warm enough that after all the guests had gone home we put Roan into her swimsuit to try out her new water playscape. Unfortunately it wasn't all that warm, especially as far as the water temperature was concerned. If Roan ever wants to allege parental misconduct in the future she can point out that I subjected her to this activity less just a few hours before snow actually fell in Denver!

You can click here to see all the pictures from the party.