Birthday party!

We had Sam's bday party yesterday. It wasn't as bad as anticipated, for a couple of reasons: we instituted a "no siblings, please" policy, and then 5 of the 13 invitees couldn't attend in the end, so it was a very civilized 8 guests. Much of the time they just played with Sam's toys, but there was also a game of Twister:


Then sat on balloons to pop them (and get the stickers inside:



In addition to some snacks, we had RR crossing cupcakes (a train cake proving beyond my decorating skills):


And then some not-too-nutty gift opening (Sam is definitely in the age of the Fake Camera Smile! also that's frosting on his nose, not a humongous booger):


[We'd gone back and forth on the "opening gifts while kids are still there" question, but so many kids clearly wanted to see Sam open the gifts they had brought that we did it, but not in the organized-activity kind of way; it worked out pretty well in the end.]

So, all in all, it was a good time, nobody got hurt, the noise level stayed within acceptable levels, and Sam was very pleased. And he got some great gifts.

He'll shortly start posting his own pics to this blog, as well: Omi and Opa gave him a kiddie digital camera. So far his efforts have mostly been partial head shots (ears etc) with plenty of light fixtures etc, but I'm sure he'll get better with practice (and with outdoor photo-taking, where there's not as much of a delay for the flash).