Happy Birthday Cleo!

Tomorrow is Lilli's buddy Cleo's 1st birthday! I knew I had some really old pics of Cleo on here, but I had no idea how many times her name had been mentioned until I did a search on it! It's really not surprising though - she's exactly one week older than Lilli and then two of them have been big buddies since Lilli first started daycare (that was early June, she'd been there about 2 weeks - she was in the swing and Ms Violet had Cleo). Here's Cleo trying to get into Lilli's carseat and then with her playing together in the morning. I have a ton more pictures of the two of them together because they've been such good playmates! Sadly, Cleo got into a daycare closer to their house at the beginning of the year so it's been a while since they've seen each other.

But today was a big reunion in honor of Cleo's 1st birthday, and one last practice for Lilli before celebrating at her own party next week! Her party was at Lebanon Rd Church of Christ in their Fellowship Hall. It was originally supposed to be at their home, but they got a lot more RSVPs than they expected so they ended up moving it. I think that turned out GREAT because there were a ton of older kids with a LOT of energy to burn. We actually have a ton of mutual friends with the Cofers - a lot of Freedies we graduated with attend there, so it was a birthday party and class reunion all in one.

There was a large open room on one side of the fellowship hall where the kids just RAN. Lilli thought she was every bit as big as all the 7 and 8 year olds and just "ran" along as well. (This little boy is the 5 yr old son of a girl I met my very first day at Freed!)

Here's the birthday girl. They let her "blow" the candle out on the big cake and then gave her a cupcake to smash.
Starting to attack her cupcake:


It took her a while but she finally got into a little. The pic above kind of sums up the day - Cleo never even got to play or socialize - AT ALL! Lilli only got to see her once while she was at the family table eating and I took her over to say Hi. The grandparents kept hold of her the whole time and she literally didn't even visit with her guests at all. Once she played with her cupcake the grandparents whisked her back home while her parents cleaned up, so Lilli didn't get to play with her old buddy at all. (But she had a big time with all the other kids, though!)
Lilli clapped away while everyone sang to Cleo. I hate that this pic is blurry. My camera is doing all kinds of weird things and the pictures have been awful. Brent's going to check my settings or we may have to send it back since it's still under warranty until May.
At first she wasn't sure about the cake.
I enthusiastically told her how great cake is!
And she was sold!
The party theme was Curious George & as you arrived you could pick between a mask, hat, or glasses. We went with the glasses.
She's really had a lot of fun with sunglasses lately. Thankfully things have improved a lot since last summer!
We enjoyed visiting with old friends and celebrating with Cleo and her family. Lilli did almost get knocked out by a 20 month old, though. There was a little backpack with wheels "abandoned" in the room, and she was having the best time playing with the handle and pulling it around. Well, the owner of the backpack eventually saw her toy being enjoyed by another and MARCHED over and started screaming NO!!!! over and over in Lilli's little face. Her mom ran over and asked her if she wanted to share and the No's just kept coming louder and louder while Lilli stared at her. Her little "friend" was carted off into the kitchen and came back with a new attitude about sharing. From that point on she was chasing Lilli around trying to "give the baby the backpack". It was pretty hilarious. This little girl was about 10 times the size of Lilli and could've decked her with one punch.

The party absolutely wore her out, and even though she got a nap afterwards I guess it just wasn't enough. She was pretty fussy tonight and not the most pleasurable of dinner companions. I really don't remember this cute moment happening, AT ALL. She was just pretty short tempered and mouthy. And she just did not want to eat!!! We came home, gave her a bath, and she was in bed a little over an hour early. Hopefully she will wake up tomorrow well rested!.