Jana's 1st Birthday Party!

Generally speaking - birthdays are a BIG deal here in Bolivia. Cake, clowns, prizes, candy, gift bags, themed decorations, lots of invitations, loud music - the works basically. They typically start about 2 hours late and last a long time. And I've decided after a bad bout with food poisoning after our last birthday party experience, they can be dangerous. All that to say, we usually don't buy into the birthday party craziness. But (all you parents out there will understand this) - what you do for one, you end up feeling like you need to do for all. And since we had a big party for Michaela's 1st, and one for Eliana's, well - there you go. To salve a guilty conscience, you plan a big party for Jana too. Well - to be honest, that's not the only reason! Since Grant Bull and Malakai Forbess were each born within 2 weeks of Jana, we (the mothers) decided that we would throw one big party for all of them. Logistically and financially simpler. And it is a great ministry opportunity too - you get to invite a lot of people who might not feel comfortable coming to chuch service yet - and they get to interact with our church members. And it is a great way to honor those people who have been important in the lives of our babies so far.

So plan we did. Winnie the Pooh won the theme. Simple but colorful decorations. We served salteñas (a Bolivian pastry served mid-morning), cake (we each made and iced 2 cakes - much cheaper than ordering them), sodas, chips. My wonderful husband planned the games - although to his detriment he chose 2 balloon popping games that made one of the birthday boys have a melt-down (sorry, Laura!) Gary put together a slide show of the kids first year - which made this mommy cry of course. And Jeff led a beautiful blessing over our 3 kiddos. All in all it went very well (although we were almost late to the celebration due to car trouble - why does it always have to happen on the worst days?!) But I am very glad it's over too. No more big birthdays until they start wanting to have them! Thanks, Laura and Katie, for all the work that made it wonderful.

And now - what I know you've all been waiting for.... An update on the birthday girl. Jana is speed crawling everywhere, eating everything (she wants nothing of that disgusting pureed baby food - no, thank you - give her the real deal), pulling up, finally beginning to use the walker, has 5 teeth, loves playing with her sisters and her daddy and being outside, says Bye/Hi (I can't really tell which one), waving, clapping, sleeping through the night, weaned to regular milk, very attached to her pacifier, climbing stairs, pulling hair. She had a shiner for the birthday party from falling down a couple stairs outside (on her daddy's watch, I might add), and a sprained arm today from wrestling with Daddy and her big sisters. She is a joy in every sense of the word. It's amazing how your love for your kids just keeps growing and growing. I am truly blessed. Happy Birthday, Jana! Enjoy the pictures.


The guests


The blessing for the 3 birthday babies


The games


The cake


Daddy and his little girl


The big sisters


Mama and her baby (I can't believe I now have no children under 1!)