Autumn's First Birthday and Robin's Thirty-Something-ist

Autumn's birthday is easily remembered because it is 10-11-12. Robin's birthday is October 14th. To celebrate both birthdays, Frank and I flew from Boston, MA to Oklahoma City, OK via a Southwest Airline flight that stopped off at Baltimore, MD. We got there in time to help with the preparations for Autumn's birthday party to be held on Saturday, October 12th.

We did not need to switch planes on our way to see Robin, Jeremy, and Autumn, but we did have one stopover.

Jeremy, Robin, and Autumn all came to pick us up at the airport. We stayed at their new home our first and last nights in Oklahoma. The other nights we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites so that Jeremy's mom, dad, brother, sister, brother-in-law, two nieces, nephew, another sister, and her boyfriend could all stay together at the new house. Yup, that's two from Robin's side and ten from Jeremy's side to be at the party - and that's before the daycare classmates and their parents were counted. After all, this was a special event. Autumn was turning one! Robin had planned a party with a theme of a "Monster Mash" and had even sewn her a monster print dress for the occasion.

Autumn is wearing the party dress her mom sewed for her
while showing how many years old she is.

All those extra hands were invaluable, pitching in to make the snacks and deploy the decorations Robin had planned for the party. There were Frankenstein snack cups, Monsters Inc. apple slices, witches' brew punch, and witch hat cookies. Adding a bit of the Halloween bent, were orange mini-pumpkins with tiny stems, spider deviled eggs with legs of olive slivers, and oreo cookies with orange frosting faces.

Frankenstein snack cups were created in the lab of a mad scientist from green waffle cones
with anatomically accurate frosting features affixed. 

Apple slices have more "a-peel" when presented with Mike Wazowski flair.
Mike was Sully's side kick from the Monster's Inc movie.

Jeremy's sister Felicia presents the "steaming cauldron" of witch's brew,
an apple juice punch magically enhanced with a bit of dry ice.

The witch hats were concocted of Hershey kisses, inverted fudge stripe cookies, and a
special spell of steadiness cast over the hands that applied the orange frosting hat bands.

These peeled clementines with celery stems were kid size pumpkins.

The decorations followed the monster theme. Each guest could have his picture taken inside of Boo's disguise when she was being hidden from the citizen's of Monstropolis. Notice I said each guest, and not each kid.

Here is Frank making sure the camera shots of the kids will work well.

A path of Sully balloons led the guests to the front door. Side walls of the dining area displayed hand-painted renditions of monsters, baby style. The far wall as you entered the dining room presented the food spread and the banners announcing Autumn's Monster Mash. 

Sully guided the guests path to the party.

Wookie widda bottle was one of the baby monster portraits on the walls.

The spread for Autumn's Monster Mash included a pennant banner and
two Draculas in tuxedos acting as sentinel cupcakes on either side of the cake.

Frank and Robin picked the cake up from the bakery while I stayed in the car with Autumn. The cake was to have a big reveal and no one was to see it until Autumn's daddy had. Jeremy was busy with other tasks and could not take the time to look at the cake. I tried to contain my curiosity and went off to do other preps. When I passed by the dining room later I saw the lid of the cake partway up. Thinking Jeremy had already seen it and that I had missed the big reveal, I raised the lid further and looked in. The cake was decorated with monsters and even Cookie Monster had a cookie in his mouth. It was so cute... except for one detail. The bakery had misspelled Autumn by omitting the final letter. "Didn't any one notice Autumn's name?" I asked Robin. Her first instinct was be shocked and to gasp at me, "You peeked before Jeremy?" Then she rushed over to the cake, peered in with dismay, and proceeded to rant against the bakery. Had time permitted she would have stormed back there to have them fix it. Luckily, Jeremy's brother had a very steady hand and there was leftover orange frosting from the witches hats, so Josh came to the rescue and added the "N". Crisis averted.

Josh's steady hand saved the day.

Happy Birthday A-u-t-u-M-N

What "Monster Mash" would be complete without a "Graveyard Smash"? Autumn was not tactilely timid. She initially explored the cake gingerly but then dove into tasting all that gooey, messy, chocolate stuff.

A gravestone smash cake.

Patty cake, Patty-cake...

Yum! And what photographic foresight! Black icing contrasts really well.

Cleanup was best achieved by going directly to the kitchen sink. Autumn thought this part of the smash cake ritual was fun, too.

Robin and I hosed icing off Autumn legs, arms, and face.
I loved the Monster's Inc. pink onesie Robin selected for her ritual cake smash.

What birthday is complete without presents! Frank and I sent a Kettler tricycle ahead as our gift, and Frank assembled it shortly after we got to Robin and Jeremy's home. It has a push handle and foot rest feature that let her enjoy the tricycle even before she learns to pedal. She loved it! That red bell accessory has a very merry sound that just makes you smile, even if the cute, little, blond, blue-eyed rider that's wearing a big grin isn't your granddaughter.

Grandma and Autumn are trying out her new tricycle
in the circular driveway in front of her house.