Ivory's Birthday

Ivory turned four years old yesterday.
It was the first birthday that she anticipated for days, weeks and even months.  Her new found awareness, excitement and joy about her birthday made it enjoyable for me to play along in this birthday game.
So late Sunday night, I was putting the finishing touches on her birthday outfit, her cake and making sure that I had my bag packed to go and bake cupcakes at her school in the morning.

The outfit:

The breakfast:

The cupcakes:

Chocolate Beet Cupcakes with cream cheese icing and marzipan flowers and leaves. 

Sylvan and Ivory, oh so eagerly, awaiting their cupcakes. 

The cake(s):

A toadstool fairy house for the children made of a chocolate sheet cake and iced with cream cheese icing and embellished with marzipan flowers and butterfly.  A Boston cream pie for the adults. 

and the party:

The party was a potluck, of course.
Birthdays are perfect oportunities for the adults as well as the children to come together, to share a meal and to build a community that will endure.  As one person after the other walks into the house holding their beautiful dishes, I am flooded with gratitude and affection for our friends and neighbors.  I wish I had thought to take a photograph of the brightly colored bowls filled with all kinds of chopped vegetables, soups, breads and cheeses.  Each person sharing with their plates a story of place, of history and themselves.
At least a dozen children and their respective grownups crowded our yard.  The sunshine held, the air stayed warm and the quilts spread in the grass were a perfect cover for our lack of chairs.  The fun lasted until tired children and delayed bed time routines finally forced parents to say goodbye.

After we unwrapped gifts, changed into pajamas and curled up into bed Ivory's only wish was that her friends could have all stayed...  indefinitely.
That sounds like it was a good birthday to me.