Myra's First Birthday!

For Myra's birthday we had a few friends over--one we knew from Iowa City and then a family we've become friends with in the ward. They have a little boy a couple of months older than Myra.


Here are Alice and Myra holding hands, waiting for the party to start. Though they have their moments, they have really been doing better playing with each other.


Alice decided to stick a candle in the cake when I wasn't looking.


Here's the big cake that Alice got to stick a candle in and blow out. I'd planned on making butterflies and flowers on the cake that matched the sign below, but I kind of pooped out at the end.


This is the banner we used for Alice's 1st birthday as well.

I was just noticing we took a lot of 'before party' shots but weren't great at taking pictures during the party. One thing we don't have a picture of is a Romanian tradition that we did with Myra and also with Alice on her first birthday. We collected objects that represent careers or things people value and put them on a tray. We then sat them in front of Myra so we could see what she picked up first.

Here is a list of things that were on the tray:

Pearl Necklace
$20 Bill
Car Keys
Pen
Spool of Thread
Leaf
Stop Watch
Calculator
Serving Spoon
Binkie
Mascara
Thumb Drive

For about 30 seconds, Myra didn't know what to do--she just looked down at the objects and then up at us, wondering what in the world we were thinking. Then she picked up the spool of thread. She then touched the spoon, then pulled her hand away, then touched the car keys and pulled her hand away. Finally, she grabbed the stop watch. So, I guess she's going to be a seamstress that enjoys sports!


Though we'd practiced blowing all day, Myra didn't seem interested in blowing out her candle. I turned my head for one second to ask Alice if she wanted to blow out the candle and Myra immediately grabbed for the flame and put it out with her fingers. Everyone gasped, expecting there to be a delayed scream of pain, but nothing doing--she's one tough cookie! Didn't have any interest in eating the cake though. She didn't take a very good afternoon nap, so we skipped the presents and put her to bed.



To give you an idea of how the present opening went the next morning, this is the picture Bruce was taking of Myra with her new present, just as Alice jumps into the picture to snatch the toy away.


Here's Myra feeding her new baby Memaw gave her.