Once, a long, long time ago (or about a month ago), we hosted a lovely little first birthday party for our first son. It was a spectacular fete, filled with balloons and presents and cupcakes and family and...the crowning achievement...a Cookie Monster cake.
Let me tell you about this Cookie Monster cake. Actually, I take that back, let me start by telling you about the thought process that went into this birthday party, and subsequently, the Cookie Monster Cake. It started when Finn was about 6 months old - roughly one half a year into his life. It occurred to me on a blustery January day that my sweet baby boy would be turning one year old in six months. After a good cry - because you know, six months goes really, really fast in baby time (much like counting in dog years.), I logged onto the world wide internet and began researching what would be the most fun, most amazing first birthday party theme. I tried to keep in mind that this was a party for a person who currently didn't know any words, was fascinated by blinking and would remember the party only from pictures later in life. I consulted Uriah (only because he is the dad and I thought it might be nice to include him). He wanted a robot theme - old-school, grey, boxy robots. He wanted to make a robot cake and have robot decorations and he wanted to send out invitations in the shape of, you guessed it, robots.
For awhile I was on board. I had visions of grey and orange balloons and I found some vintage robots online and some robot invitations on Etsy. All systems were a go for a Robot First Birthday. But somewhere between moving and having a semi-mobile baby and playing with him every single day, I realized that a robot-themed birthday party was probably a little too advanced for a one year old. Plus, I threw my back out and I lost my will to even move to go to the bathroom for about a month, so I didn't have time to order the invites online and Uriah's family was coming in a two weeks. If I wanted to get announcements in the mail, I needed to do it yesterday. And so, mid-game, I changed the theme to Sesame Street. Red, blue, green and yellow would be easy enough to handle, the dollar store had super cutie Sesame Street cups and plates, blue and white streamers were super on sale (leftovers from the Fourth of July) and I found the cutest picture of Sesame Street cakeballs online that I was totally going to make.
The cakeballs never happened. In fact, I still have the rolled cake in my freezer (I think I will use them for Thanksgiving or maybe for my own birthday.). Instead, in a small panic at realizing that I did not have the creative talent to pull off Big Bird cakeballs, I resorted to red, blue, green and yellow frosted cupcakes and one big Cookie Monster cupcake that I found a picture for online. I made the cake part and then Uriah frosted it in manner befitting the Monster.
I need to point out, in case it isn't overly obvious, that in this relationship, I am the idea person and Uriah is the executor. Except for the teeny, tiny little fact that I think that I can be the executor up to, and including, the last minute and then, when I realize that I cannot do it all, I have to delegate. It's hard for me to delegate. Really hard. But I'm glad I did, because Uriah made that cake look so much cuter than I ever could. The eyes were not edible because the only thing I could come up with were marshmellows and a black sharpie (there are no craft stores or cake decorating stores of any kind here. Surprise.). And Finn didn't actually eat the Cookie Monster cupcake - I think he was a little bit intimidated by it - but he polished off a green cupcake and even licked some of the frosting off of his arms.
All things considered, it was a memorable first birthday and a memorable first birthday party - well, memorable for us, at least. We'll just share the memories with him as he gets older.
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