Party Like a Rock Star!

Lukas' birthday party was yesterday and it was a huge success! The day was HOT, especially for June in Seattle, with temperatures reaching 92 degrees in the brilliant sunshine. Mrs. LIAYF and I mitigated the heat as best we could absent any air conditioning (hey, it's Seattle for crying out loud, where AC is needed maybe twice a year) with plenty of cold drinks, umbrellas for shade, and floor fans to circulate the hot air around.

An early disaster was narrowly averted, when we checked out the back yard early on to find the sidewalk next to all the kid toys swarming with biting ants. I felt a bit sorry for the little guys, but didn't hesitate to pull out the hose and wash them away, down the hill into our back alley. A guy has to protect his family and guests, no?

Luke, despite being over tired from a short nap (see heat note above) and teething pain (all four molars are now close to breaking), was on his best behavior. He played nicely with the 10 other kids who showed up (all boys - there is a dearth of little girls in our city, so there should be serious dating issues in about 15 years!), walked all over the house and yard to show off his newly "perfected" skill, and was his usual charming, cute, social self with all the other guests, familiar to him or not. We read many articles about making the 1st birthday party small to keep it from overwhelming the birthday boy, but we had close to 40 people pass through yesterday, and Luke was only fussy a couple of very short times despite the heat and teething and that was when he was hungry and needed changing.

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We asked that guests, in lieu of gifts, bring diapers to his party. Those, as mentioned in my last post, will be donated to Westside Baby, to help out other families in need. We want to teach Lukas early on, not to take what he has, be it fairly modest, for granted. There always will be people out there who are having a rough time, and we should do what we can to help them out. We collected a good sized stack of diapers and wipes to donate. Thanks so much to everyone who brought these thoughtful gifts. Many of those people still brought proper birthday gifts as well, which was unexpected but thoughtful and well received by Lukas, who opened them all and found several new toys that he bonded to right away.

Mom and Dad didn't go overboard on gifts for Luke, but we did pull out this shiny new Radio Flyer roadster as his official 1st birthday gift! We bought this at a local auction about 3 years ago, knowing that someday we would have a little one to give it to. Lukas loved the car, as well as all the gifts.

In the end, despite the heat, it was a very successful 1st birthday party. Good food, cold drinks, great company, plenty of sunshine, and lots of friends to play with. Every 1st birthday party should be as nice!