Celebrating his first birthday here in Africa was different and exciting for multiple reasons. First we spent the majority of the day with no electricity. I mean, it was really no big deal to not have power from 5 am until 4pm, other than the fact that we were having a birthday party for our little guy and dinner was supposed to start at 5pm! Luckily I had spent some time the day before prepping some of the food so I wasn't in too much of a bind not having access to my stove/cook top. The real worry for me was not getting a cake baked in time for the party.
Now a little aside here. There are many things that are hard about living so far from our families, one of them being, them missing out on celebrating here in person with us for special events like holidays and birthdays. Now we were able to Skype with 3/4 of his grandparents so they could wish him a happy birthday, which was great. That all being said, I was mentally dealing with not being with our families just fine, but I think I would have lost it if he wouldn't have had a cake to smash on his birthday, I needed something to feel "normal".
So back to the day of the party with no power. By 3:00 pm I was checking with the other 2 "m" families here to see if they had power that their homes...but nope, their's was off also! What was I going to do? Well luckily, one of the families has a gas stove and graciously offered to let us use it. She actually ended up just baking the cake and cupcakes for me, and I was so very thankful!.
Flash forward to 4pm when the power comes back on [insert happy dance] and then Joseph and I ran around like chickens with our heads cut off for the next hour to get all the final details finished up. Everything was completed though by 5pm and we had a fun little party with our friends here to celebrate Hudson's first year of life.
After dinner we stripped him down into his diaper and gave him his cake. What happened next was the best entertainment we could have ever asked for. Hudson LOVED his cake! I don't know if he has ever enjoyed anything more :) After letting him demolish a 1/5 of the cake, we carefully took it away from him and then proceeded directly to the bathtub. I think that was the most gross bath
I have ever given him, but when we were done, there was no more evidence of the cake.
We are so thankful to our friends and families near and far that took time out of their day to send Hudson birthday wishes and to celebrate with him. He has a big year ahead of him and we are excited to see how he grows and changes.
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| Hudson and some of his party guests |
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| Mmm, frosting! |
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| "Why yes, I do think I like this cake stuff!" |
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| The result of too much cake! |
