Let The Others Eat Cake

     Last week's birthday bash for our first grandson was purposefully low-key. With his parents currently undergoing a house renovation that has seen them moving out of their house and decamping to not one, not two, but three different locations, they opted for a "just family" outdoor party in a neighborhood park. The Daughter kept things really simple, and it was a good call. She served mini cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection, mini ice cream sandwiches and little bottles of ice water. There were picnic tables, a few helium balloons for decoration, a frisbee, some nerf rockets, lots of shade trees, and a good old fashioned playground nearby.
    The weather was amazing. When the daughter sent out her Paperless Paperless Post invites, and I realized the party was going to be outside, I worked up a sweat just thinking about it. Four o'clock in the afternoon in August in Nashville can be absolutely brutal. Last year the heat index for the very same day was 106. Yikes. The boy may have a few "hot" birthday parties in his future, but this first one was not one of them. The temperature was only 84 degrees, the humidity was low, and I never even broke a sweat!
    The Birthday Boy was a champ! He loved the attention, loved his toys, and had a great time. But he did not like his cupcake much. It was pretty funny!

Uh oh. Something's up.

Everybody has gathered around me, and they are singing some silly song.

 Oh wow. Take a look at that thing. Is that candle for me?

 I'm thinking about it...

 Not so sure about that blue stuff...

 I think it's growing on me...

 Good one of the family, except that I forgot to look at the camera!

 Let's skip the cake part...I'm just gonna concentrate on the icing...

 GiGi comes over to help me along....

 Now it's time to open presents. Yippee!

I love Thomas the Train!

 My cousins and sister are only too happy to help me out with the presents

Aunt Kelly and my cousin Mia are a big help!

Sister is trying to explain the instructions to me. I'm not too interested.

Momma decides that I need to try on my new shoes...

What are shoes anyway? I like my bare feet just fine.

Momma, I'm telling you it's not gonna happen!
Take these things off NOW!

 This is my Pappy, my cousin and my sister. We are adding another cousin
in a week or two. There's already room in Pappy's lap for him!

 That's my Uncle Bear and my Aunt Betta

 That's my Momma with my great-granddaddy, Pa Poag

 Here's Uncky, Nannie, and my cousin (Little Two). 

 That's my Uncle Jacob and my Aunt Kelly

 This is my cousin Tatum, my grandmother Gigi, and Ken.

 This is another shot of Uncle Bear and my cousin (Little Two)

Tatum and I are chillin' out with Pa Poag, our great-grandfather

My party sure was a lot of fun. I want to do it again next year.

And can you guess why Nonna told me that this is her very favorite picture from that day???