Pig Party #1!

Wow.  Almost a whole week away from Our Messy Messy Life! 

 2 words:  Birthday Party.  

While planning a birthday lunch for the family shouldn't be a week long effort in Normal Land, throwing a birthday party lunch for a one-year-old and a three-year-old implies the said one-year-old and the said three-year-old are underfoot during the planning, cooking and cleaning stages of the party.   And, since I shut down immediately after Liza's bedtime....the past week's days were filled following my children from room to room with my spray bottle of homemade cleaner to scrub toddler high surfaces and um, shove things that have no neat and tidy home into closets and random drawers.  Don't forget the cooking in short spurts during Liza's naptime and the endless trips to Kroger and the Evil Empire because you know, it's a tough assignment to make a comprehensive shopping list when you are distracted by your two children that at times seem like at least ten children living in your house.  And, I'm pretty sure the story of Henry's birthday shirt deserves a post of it's very own.  I'll just say, I don't sew and for some unknown reason, I chose to sew.....

But, as always, it came together in the end and we had a LOVELY time.  As lovely as it was to see extended family, enjoy a yummy lunch and watch my littles dive into their birthday presents......one thing was lacking:  pictures of Liza eating her cake, pictures of my children's precious pig outfits, pictures of the cousins playings, pictures of the kids opening their presents, and a family pictures for goodness sakes!   Good thing we are having a second birthday shindig for our playdate group on Wednesday.  I'm already prepping myself to participate in that party through the camera viewfinder and the needed pictures are in a neat and tidy list in my mind.  At least, one thing is neat and tidy around here.

Without further ado, the few pictures I did take......

The pig cake: 3 layers of the Sunday Baker's chocolate zucchini cake and pink icing dyed with beet juice;  no evil red 40 in this house.  While there might not be food dyes involved, there was plenty of leftover cake involved with this pig party.  Good thing our playdate friends won't mind eating half a pig cake on Wednesday.

The spread:  pork tenderloin with buns, bacon smothered green beans, pasta salad and fresh fruit.  Not pictured is the pork rinds which were a surprisingly popular dry crunchy with our guests.  I won't lie: I was a bit disappointed that not one person mentioned the pig theme's continuation into the lunch menu...

How sweet were my newborn babies? 

And yeah, I ran out of icing on those cupcakes.

A very excited Henry and a very sweet cousin.

The kid knows every word to the birthday song and was the loudest singer!

Although he did make sure I knew it wasn't his birthday "yet".

I suppose this will have to be our family photo.  That's Liza in the bottom corner.

Sad, right?

Like I said, lovely family party but sad sad sad on the photo ops.......