A Celebration for Sister: Caroline's 1st Birthday

There is something so sweet about celebrating baby's first birthday.  We certainly had a wonderful (and memorable) time celebrating our Sweet Caroline.  {picture overload warning}

In planning the party, I had visions of a feminine, simple yet beautiful little party in a gorgeous setting.  Since I couldn't have it in my parents' backyard, I had my heart set on Duke Gardens--a gorgeous setting for our "pretty picnic party"--despite the number of challenges it presented. First of all, it was Duke graduation day, so there were bound to be lots of people around; second, there are no pavilions or tables; third, you have to haul all of your stuff from the parking lot into the gardens, which is a decent walk. However, our biggest concern for the day was the weather forecast:  scattered afternoon thunderstorms.  Each weather report varied a bit and all of them changed regularly through out the day.  We almost changed locations many times, but at the last moment decided that the forecast was looking favorable and the skies were clear; so we'd stick to our original plan.

We were happy to have lots of Schmutz family members in town for the party. We snagged parking despite the bustling crowds and staked a quiet corner of the gardens to set up our picnic. For the sake of clean clothes for pictures, we kicked things off with singing and blowing out the candle. For dinner, we each had individual picnic box lunches with sub sandwiches, and various salads in little mason jars. While eating, some ominous looking clouds started rolling in and we decided we had better get eating the cake. Our rather reserved but pleasant birthday girl was initially cautious about the cake, timidly trying out the frosting. However, once I sliced through the cake, she saw that it was actually "food" and started to dig in a bit more.  By the end she had made quite the mess and seemed to be enjoying it.

We had gotten through the essentials of the party (though certainly not the leisure time) when the first drops of rain began. Drops soon turned into a downpour. We sought refuge under some nearby trees, saving first the birthday girl (still in her little chair) and then the remaining birthday cake--priorities! We gathered a few other things but most of our picnic and all of her presents were left at the mercy of the pouring rain. At this point, the best option really was to just wait out the storm, which we hoped wouldn't last too long. Yahya stood over Caroline, shielding her from the rain with his suit coat. She wasn't too impressed with this shift in the party, but managed to still eat handfuls of cake between her tears. The tree covering only helped for a little bit and soon we were all soaked. Our guests maintained their good spirits while getting drenched. We laughed a lot, and all took forks to what remained of the cake.

The storm cleared after 10-15 minutes, leaving us with nearly exclusive use of the gardens, gorgeous skies, a perfect temperature and, unfortunately, a very wet picnic. Had we not had to deal with mess of completely soaked blankets and boxed lunches, I would have loved to spend an hour walking through the gardens. It was really so lovely once the rain stopped. We took a few minutes to open her birthday gifts before loading up the strollers with our dripping gear. We enjoyed a serene walk back to the cars and snagged a few group shots of our wet but cheerful group. The celebration may have been cut short, but it was certainly memorable.  So glad we could celebrate year one of our sweetest little girl.