Super Samantha Jane's Happy Birthday!

We can hardly believe our little marshmallow pudding turned the big 1 this weekend.  

We almost did not unwrap her first present because she was having too much fun climbing on the box and using it to pull up.  She is a little walking fiend and just this week learned to pull herself all the way up and is a pretty good climber, although she has not taken any solo steps yet, her favorite thing to do is hold our fingers while we walk laps around the house.  Here she is with her new present.  

Oh those cheeeeeks!

Waiting for the party to begin...

Playing with the new serious bongos...see more on Charlie's blog.  The bongos were actually inspired after we saw Sammy rocking out last week while the adults were all playing Rock Band.  Which, incidentally, is not the same as Guitar Hero band or whatever.

Alas, the part you have all been waiting for:  the cake sequence.

Yeah, she swiped the adult fork and would not let it go.  At least she did not poke her eye out...which actually would not have surprised me.  What is not shown in these pictures is that we lined all the kids up around the table to start singing and then knocked over a champagne flute (the one prominently displayed in the party hat picture above).  Crystal shattered on the table, "Arms up kiddos!" and then the adults swooped in to take the shards of glass off the table, remove the table cloth, whisk the cake off to be inspected for shards of glass.  I returned to the table to see that my swiper had swiped the box of matches and was using them as a teether, chomping away with half a box in her mouth.  Helloooo, adults standing there, did none of you see this??  I then lit the candle and blew it out with the match and had to do it again, wondering aloud, where IS the fire extinguisher, just in case?   So yes, Sammy J using the big fork, just seemed right.  Happy Birthday Baby.  

PS - Minjo, thanks for all the great pics!